Christina Ostenstad

For the past few months, I have been exploring the art of Chinese watercolour painting and Sumi-e painting (Japanese form)

I purchased a nice set of chinese brushes, which cost me a whole $3 and invested in some cheap rice paper and black ink.

First few attempts were completely a disaster.. and using ink kind of scared me in the beginning, and I had a lot of spills, oops, and oh oh.. moments. At one point, my puppy in the house, had grabbed the test paintings off my desk and shredded them.. which I thought, oh well, she will take care of those…. keep trying

My next purchase was actual Yasutomo watercolours. They are a little different then the conventional watercolours that i use. The colors are fully water soluble, but become water-resistant when dry. They can be reworked like any watercolor, but it may take a little longer to dry because of the composition of the paints.

They produce much more opaque and matte finish than typical watercolors. Creamy-smooth, finely ground, and non-toxic.