“The starting point is really the critical determinant of how an alphabet evolves.” Thomas Ingmire

“Zheng Banqiao was fond of painting bamboo, rocks and orchids. He painted orchids like writing characters, and wrote characters like painting orchids” Chen Tingyou

If we start from letters the result will be pretty much the same, but if we move to a much broader shape resource in nature such as flowers, leaves and branches, then the result would be a whole set of new possibilities. Our starting point will be nature. We'll exercise with the Japanese brush creating different types of strokes, finding all the possibilities this tool can give us. We will study the basic shape of simple flowers trying to represent them in a few strokes like in the sumi-e tradition.

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We will research into the Taoist principles of beauty (empathy or resonance, vital rhythm or “chi-yun”, reticence or suggestion, and the empty space or gestalt, western concept). We will create a blossoming alphabet with various solutions for the same character in order to broaden our graphic and design solutions. We´ll create an ikebana and play with quick time roughs in order to go from figurative to abstraction in minutes.

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The Japanese brush and the cola pen will be our tools, first working with sumi or walnut ink and then moving on to color rendering. The final form will be a concertina book in which natural reverberations will have priority over legibility.

The playful aspect of painting will open our minds and the joy in the execution will show through our strokes. Venture into this new world of calligraphy and sumi-e!