Question

Answer the following questions, in complete sentences, for each work of art:

What drawing technique is each the artworks below an example of?
How is the medium made that is used for each technique?
Picture 1: A black and white painting of bamboo branches and leaves with Chinese characters written in the bottom right hand corner. Picture 2: Two men wearing black suits and black top hats. They are facing the same direction and one of the men is leaning over the other's shoulder to speak in his ear. They are standing in a room with other people.

Answer 1

Picture 1: This is an example of Chinese ink wash painting (also called sumi-e or brush-and-ink painting). The medium — traditional black ink — is made from soot (from burning pine or oil) mixed with an animal glue binder, then formed into solid ink sticks; the artist grinds an ink stick on an inkstone with water to produce the liquid ink used with soft brushes on absorbent paper or silk.

Picture 2: This image is an example of lithography (a lithographic print). The medium for lithography is a grease-based drawing material (lithographic crayon or tusche, made from waxes/oils and pigment such as lampblack) and oil-based printing ink. The artist draws with the greasy material on a prepared limestone or metal plate; the stone/plate is chemically treated so the greasy image will accept oil-based ink while the non-image areas hold water and repel it, and paper is then pressed to transfer the inked image.