Since last year I've been learning unpitsu. Using a single brush and sumi ink( often used for Japanese calligraphy) , we have to describe objects by controlling brush pressure and sumi ink's gray scale. We have to draw everything, even texture. It's extremely challenging for me. Unpitsu looks very simple but it's far more complex than it looks. Since I love challenging slightly difficult things, I'm willing to practice it almost every single day. Last year, I focused a lot on drawing orchids, and now I’m concentrating on bamboos.

At first, my bamboo paintings didn't look like bamboos. The bamboo leaves looked horrible, which looked zombies' hands, lol.

I definitely still need more practice, but my bamboo is getting closer to my image. The leaves no longer look like a zombie's hand.

The picture above shows my round brush and a small dish. I control the gray scale in the dish with water.

The last second picture shows my painting tools, and they're exact same as my Japanese calligraphy tools. I add water to the suzuri (ink stone), and grind the ink stick on the surface to create sumi ink. I absolutely love this process because while grinding the stick, I can feel I'm getting calm. I then use my round brush to take a little of the sumi ink from the suzuri and transfer it to the small dish. I add a little bit more water in it and make the right consistency, and I use it for unpitsu.

I usually practice umpitsu and Japanese calligraphy at the same time, but I switch to a different round brush specifically for calligraphy.

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