Really excited to have finished my first Persian miniature which ... isn't exactly very Persian ! 😂
I do have a Timurid pair that is at the colour-blocking stage, but because they have a gold background, I wanted to practice rendering and outlining on something a little less precious first.
I'd love feedback, particularly on rendering and outlining (is it too dark?)
… “Hmm… just a bit more rouge”
2023
Watercolour and ink on tea-stained paper
Image: 12 x 16.5 cm
I was flicking through the British library Asia and Africa twitter page (a great repository of random images), and noticed how the posture of the Japanese figures was very similar to Persian miniature figures. As there had been lots of talk in class about the melding of Western and Persian forms, I thought it would be interesting to see how these Japanese figures would respond to being painted with Persian miniature techniques given their exaggerated S posture. Amazingly, I managed to find some parallel images to the traditional timurid/early safavid figures I'm doing, of which this is half.
The inspiration image is from :
- Beauty with a Mirror by Okumura Masanobu, mid 1740s, woodblock print, Honolulu Museum of Art
Thanks for posting Rosalind! It's hard to say about 'too dark' actually but here goes: for a miniature in the classical style, yes it could be a little dark. For a portrait, it maybe is only slightly too dark and they would have used more line nuance (cf. Reza Abbasi). However, I think you're trying to do something else entirely, doing a new thing which is mixing it with the Japanese print. In this case, it's just right, because printmaking has to be dark, doesn't it, for the lines to show up clearly. So in that sense you're in line with that aesthetic.
If you ask me, though, I'd like to see more pots and things on the shelves, as I'm nosy and like to poke around miniature shops like that ;-)
Look forward to seeing your other work!