What to Learn First in Sumi-e Before Creating Complex Compositions

To start practicing Sumi-e, we don’t need to try to create a complete work from day one. Before working on complex compositions, it’s best to learn—in this order—how to prepare the materials, hold and move the brush, control the ratio of ink to water, make basic strokes, observe simple shapes, and combine a few elements on the paper.

The recommended order of learning in Sumi-e is:

1. Familiarize yourself with the materials and set up your workspace.
2. Learn the proper posture and how to hold the brush.
3. Control pressure, speed, and direction.
4. Understand the relationship between ink, water, and paper.
5. Practice lines, dots, curves, and gradients.
6. Paint simple motifs in sections.
7. Relate various elements without filling the paper.
8. Introduce empty space, rhythm, and balance.
9. Create progressively more complex compositions.

This progression allows you to build a solid foundation. Once you understand how the brush responds and can anticipate the ink’s behavior, you can focus on the composition without having to solve all the technical problems at once.

Why It’s Best Not to Start with Complex Compositions

When we first discover Sumi-e, it’s common to feel the urge to paint a landscape, a whole flower, a bird on a branch, or a scene with multiple elements right away. However, a complex composition involves making many decisions at once:

• The position of each shape.
• The direction of the brushstrokes.
• The amount of ink and water.
• The intensity of the blacks and grays.
• The distance between the elements.
• The space that will remain unpainted.
• The overall rhythm of the work.
• The right moment to stop.

If we haven’t yet mastered the brush or don’t know how the paper will react, it’s difficult to attend to all these aspects. Frustration usually arises not because we lack artistic ability, but because we’re trying to resolve too many issues at once.

Learning becomes clearer when we break down the process. First, we practice a single stroke. Then we turn it into a leaf, a petal, a branch, or a rock. Later, we combine several shapes and begin to work on the overall balance of the composition.

In our online Sumi-e classes, we follow this exact progression: we first practice each element separately, and once the movements are more established, we bring them together within a composition.

1. Understanding the Basic Materials of Sumi-e

The first step is not to paint a picture, but to understand what we’ll be working with. In Sumi-e, the result depends on the relationship between the brush, the ink, the water, and the paper.

The basic materials are:

• Brushes of different sizes.
• Liquid black ink or solid ink.
• A container for water.
• A palette or stone for mixing ink.
• Absorbent paper suitable for the technique.
• A piece of felt to protect the surface.
• Small containers for mixing different shades.
• A cloth to control the brush’s moisture.

You don’t need to buy a lot of materials before you start. It’s better to use a simple set and learn how each element behaves. A new brush alone won’t make up for a lack of practice, just as high-quality paper won’t compensate for excessive water.

The guide to essential tools for Japanese painting explains the function of each material and what we really need to get started.

Learning How the Paper Responds

Not all papers absorb ink in the same way. Some retain the stroke for longer, while others cause the ink to spread quickly.

Before painting designs, we can do some small tests:

• A line drawn with a fairly dry brush.
• A line drawn with more water.
• A dot of concentrated ink.
• A smudge of very diluted ink.
• Two overlapping strokes.
• One quick stroke and one slower stroke.

These tests show us how much time we have to move the brush and how the edge of the ink changes. In the article on how to choose the right paper for Japanese painting, you can explore the influence of the support in greater depth.

2. Preparing Your Posture and Learning How to Hold the Brush

Before working on recognizable shapes, we need to find a posture that allows us to move the brush freely.

In Sumi-e, we don’t use the brush exactly the same way as a pencil. The grip should be firm, but not stiff. The fingers hold the handle, while the wrist, arm, and posture all contribute to the movement.

It’s important to pay attention to several aspects:

• Keep your shoulders relaxed.
• Avoid gripping the brush too tightly.
• Leave space between your hand and the paper.
• Hold the brush in a relatively vertical position.
• Use your arm for long strokes.
• Coordinate your movement with your breathing.

When we hold the brush too tightly, the strokes tend to be short, uncertain, and stiff. The sense of control comes not from gripping harder, but from understanding the movement we want to make.

In “Sumi-e for Beginners: How to Train Your Hand and Stroke,” you’ll find a more detailed explanation of posture, breathing, and the role of the arm in the stroke.

3. Learning to Control Brush Pressure

Pressure determines the thickness, intensity, and shape of the stroke.

When you apply pressure only with the tip, you get a fine line. When you increase the pressure, more of the bristles come into contact with the paper, and the stroke widens. By reducing the pressure again, you can make the line finer.

Before drawing branches, leaves, or petals, it’s a good idea to practice:

• Thin lines.
• Thick lines.
• Strokes that start thin and end thick.
• Strokes that start thick and end thin.
• Lines that change thickness several times.
• Dots made with different pressures.

The goal isn’t for all the lines to be identical. We’re trying to understand which movement produces each result.

This practice builds a sort of vocabulary. Later on, a line drawn with varying pressure can become a stem, a branch, an elongated leaf, or the outline of a mountain.

Sumi-e exercises for gaining control of the brush help you work on these variations before applying them to a composition.

4. Understanding Speed and Direction

Two strokes made with the same amount of ink can look completely different if you change the speed.

A slow movement deposits more ink and usually produces a more intense or spread-out mark. A fast movement can result in a lighter, irregular, or fragmented stroke.

We must also learn to change direction without interrupting the flow of the stroke. We can practice:

• Vertical lines.
• Horizontal lines.
• Ascending and descending diagonals.
• Open curves.
• Closed curves.
• Circular movements.
• Changes in direction made in a single stroke.

These exercises should not become mindless repetitions. After each set, observe what happened. Analyze where you lost speed, where you applied too much pressure, and how the paper reacted.

A brief routine like the one suggested in brush exercises for beginners—10 minutes a day—allows us to develop this sensitivity without having to complete an entire piece in each session.

5. Controlling the Ink-to-Water Ratio

One of the most important lessons in Sumi-e is discovering that black ink does not produce just one shade of black.

Depending on the amount of water, we can achieve:

• Deep, concentrated black.
• Dark tones.
• Medium grays.
• Very light grays.
• Almost transparent washes.
• Defined edges or soft blurs.
• Dry, fragmented textures.

Before creating compositions, we must learn to prepare different intensities and recognize how much moisture the brush contains.

Five-Tone Exercise

We can prepare five small containers:

1. Concentrated black ink.
2. Dark ink with a small amount of water.
3. Medium gray.
4. Light gray.
5. A very diluted wash.

Then we make the same stroke with each mixture. This allows us to observe how the visual weight changes without altering the shape.

This exercise will be essential when we begin to create depth. In a composition, the most intense black can be reserved for the focal point, while lighter tones help suggest distance, fog, or secondary elements.

Loading Multiple Shades onto a Single Brush

With more practice, we can load a more diluted ink onto the body of the brush and a darker ink onto the tip. When making a stroke, both shades appear simultaneously.

This technique allows you to create leaves, petals, and shapes with internal variations. However, it’s best to practice it on its own first before using it in a piece.

In “The Use of Ink and Brush in Japanese Painting,” we explain how these two fundamental elements interact.

6. Practice basic strokes before painting subjects

A complex composition is made up of relatively simple gestures that relate to one another. Therefore, before painting a complete object, we must build a repertoire of basic strokes.

The most useful exercises are:

Lines

They help us control direction, stability, speed, and pressure. They form the basis of stems, branches, trunks, bamboo stalks, grasses, and outlines.

Dots

These are not merely decorative marks. Depending on the angle and pressure, they can become small leaves, petals, textures, fruits, knots, or animal details.

Curves

These allow us to create organic movements. They appear in petals, branches, animal bodies, waves, mountains, and plant elements.

Side Strokes

By resting the side of the brush on the paper, we can create broad shapes with a single movement. This technique is used for leaves, petals, rocks, or water surfaces.

Dry Brush

When we reduce the moisture, the bristles leave small breaks in the stroke. This texture can be used to depict bark, rocks, weathered branches, grasses, or rough surfaces.

Gradients

Gradients help transition from a dark area to a light one in a single stroke. They are essential for creating depth and variety without adding too many strokes.

7. Learning to Observe Before Depicting

Sumi-e is not merely about copying the outer outline of a subject. Before painting, we must observe its structure, direction, and energy.

We can ask ourselves:

• What is the main shape?
• In which direction does it grow or move?
• Which part bears the weight?
• Which elements can be omitted?
• Which gesture best expresses its character?
• Where does the tension shift?
• Which parts are dark, and which can be implied?

This process of simplification is essential. A complex composition isn’t improved by including more details. It’s improved when every stroke serves a purpose.

Observing a branch, for example, does not mean memorizing every irregularity. It means recognizing where it originates, how it changes direction, which branches are primary, and which areas can be eliminated without losing its identity.

8. Start with simple motifs and break them down into parts

Once we’ve mastered the basic strokes, we can begin painting recognizable motifs. It’s best to break them down into individual elements.

Bamboo as a starting exercise

Bamboo allows us to practice:

• Vertical lines.
• Changes in pressure.
• Segments and nodes.
• Diagonal branches.
• Leaves drawn with quick strokes.
• Rhythm and repetition.
• Space between elements.

Instead of drawing an entire plant right away, start by practicing the stems. Then add the nodes, branches, and leaves.

The step-by-step guide to drawing bamboo in Sumi-e shows how to build the motif progressively.

Flowers for Developing Sensitivity and Variation

Flowers allow you to practice petals, leaves, stems, directions, and different ink loads.

We can start with:

• A single petal.
• Groups of two or three petals.
• A small flower.
• A simple stem.
• A branch with a few flowers.
• A flower accompanied by two or three leaves.

In How to Paint Flowers in Sumi-e, you’ll find exercises to develop these forms without trying to depict every detail.

Branches, Leaves, and Small Natural Forms

We can also practice isolated leaves, small branches, rocks, grasses, or mountain silhouettes. The important thing is that the subject can be broken down into just a few brushstrokes.

When we learn through an in-person Sumi-e course, we can directly observe the posture, the angle of the brush, and the amount of ink used in each demonstration.

9. Repeat a motif without mechanically copying it

Repetition is necessary, but we’re not trying to produce ten completely identical sheets.

We can repeat a motif by modifying a single variable:

• The size.
• The angle.
• The pressure.
• The speed.
• The amount of water.
• The intensity of the ink.
• The distance from another element.

This way, we learn which decisions change its appearance.

For example, we can paint the same sheet five times:

1. With dark ink and a quick stroke.
2. With diluted ink and a slow movement.
3. With more pressure at the start.
4. With more pressure in the center.
5. With a drier, lighter finish.

The exercise isn’t about choosing a perfect sheet, but about expanding our ability to respond to different needs within a composition.

10. Learning to Pause and Observe the Result

In Sumi-e, we can’t always correct a stroke by covering it up or erasing it. Each mark preserves the history of the movement that created it.

That’s why we must get into the habit of observing without intervening immediately.

After each practice session, we can analyze:

• Whether the stroke began where we intended.
• Whether the pressure changed intentionally.
• Whether there was too much water.
• Whether the movement lost its continuity.
• Whether the shape really needs another stroke.
• Whether we’re trying to correct out of insecurity.

Learning to pause is just as important as learning to paint. When we add elements without a clear reason, we can lose the negative space, direction, or balance we had already achieved.

The article on how to practice Sumi-e at home without getting frustrated can help you organize a more mindful and consistent practice.

11. Incorporating Negative Space from the Very First Exercises

Even though we aren’t yet creating complex compositions, we should start paying attention to negative space right from the beginning.

When we practice drawing a leaf, we can also observe:

• How much space surrounds it.
• Which direction it seems to be pointing.
• How far it is from the next leaf.
• Whether two shapes are too close together.
• Whether the paper seems to “breathe.”

We don’t have to wait until we’re painting a landscape to work with empty space. We can do so with three dots, two leaves, or a small branch.

A simple exercise involves creating three versions of the same motif:

• One version centered.
• Another shifted to one side.
• Another entering from a corner.

Then we compare how the sense of movement and balance changes.

Once these decisions feel more natural, we can delve deeper into Sumi-e composition and the balance between negative space, ink, and movement.

12. Create small relationships before creating a complete composition

Before bringing together many elements, we can work on relationships involving two or three forms.

Some useful exercises are:

• A branch and three leaves.
• A flower and a stem.
• Two rocks of different intensity.
• A dark mountain and a lighter one.
• A vertical stem and a diagonal leaf.
• A dense group next to an empty space.

These small groups teach us to decide:

• Which element is the main one.
• Which shape should be darker.
• Which direction the eye follows.
• How much space each element needs.
• When the image is complete.

A complex composition works best when the small relationships are well resolved.

13. Moving from Isolated Elements to a Simple Composition

We can consider ourselves ready for a simple composition when we are able to repeat several strokes with a similar intent, control at least three levels of ink intensity, and place two or three elements without automatically filling the paper.

Your first composition doesn’t need to be a large work. It can consist of:

• A bamboo stalk with a branch.
• A flower with several leaves.
• A plum branch with a few buds.
• Two mountains separated by a patch of fog.
• A simple bird perched on a branch.
• A rock surrounded by grasses.

Before you begin, it’s a good idea to decide:

1. Where the main element will be placed.
2. Which direction it will face.
3. Which part will have the darkest ink.
4. Which area will remain empty.
5. In what order you’ll make the strokes.

This planning doesn’t eliminate spontaneity. On the contrary, it allows for freer movement because we don’t have to improvise the entire structure while painting.

What to Learn During the First Weeks of Sumi-e

There is no single pace that works for everyone, but we can follow a general progression.

First Stage: Materials and Strokes

During the first sessions, we work on:

• Setting up the workspace.
• Posture and grip.
• Vertical and horizontal lines.
• Variations in pressure.
• Dots and curves.
• Different amounts of water.
• Ink tones.

Second stage: isolated shapes

Next, we introduce:

• Leaves.
• Petals.
• Stems.
• Branches.
• Small rocks.
• Textures with a dry brush.
• Gradients within a shape.

Stage Three: Simple, Complete Motifs

Once your strokes become more deliberate, we practice:

• Bamboo.
• Flowers.
• Plum trees.
• Orchids.
• Small landscapes.
• Simplified animals.

Stage Four: Composition

Finally, we work on:

• Focal point.
• Rhythm.
• Asymmetrical balance.
• Ink intensities.
• Depth.
• Empty space.
• Relationships between various motifs.

Online Japanese ink painting classes allow you to follow this progression continuously, practice each week, and receive feedback before technical errors become ingrained.

How to Tell If You’re Ready for More Complex Compositions

We don’t need to have completely mastered every stroke to move forward. We can start introducing more elaborate compositions when we notice several of these signs:

• We hold the brush without gripping it too tightly.
• We can adjust the thickness by varying the pressure.
• We can tell when the brush has too much water.
• We can achieve various shades of ink.
• We can make long strokes without constantly stopping.
• We can repeat a motif with variations.
• We understand what elements make up a flower, a branch, or a bamboo stalk.
• We intentionally leave empty spaces.
• We don’t try to correct every stroke immediately.
• We can decide which element will take center stage.

Being prepared doesn’t mean that every painting will turn out as we expect. It means we already have the tools to observe what happened and decide what we need to practice.

Mistakes When Starting to Learn Sumi-e

Wanting to create a finished piece in every session

Not every practice session has to result in a painting to keep. A sheet filled with lines, dots, or gradients can be much more useful than a composition created with uncertainty.

Buying Too Many Supplies

Hoarding brushes, paper, and ink can distract us from our practice. At first, we need only a few supplies and time to get to know them.

Always Using Very Dark Ink

Working solely with concentrated black limits depth. Grays and washes are an essential part of painting.

Always Practicing the Same Motif

Repetition helps, but we also need to combine exercises in pressure, speed, ink, and observation.

Comparing your first strokes to a finished work

A composition created by an experienced artist is the result of years of practice. We should compare our current work to our previous exercises, not to a piece created at an earlier stage of our learning.

Moving forward without receiving feedback

Some habits can become ingrained without us realizing it: gripping the brush too tightly, using too much water, or stopping the stroke midway.

A teacher’s guidance helps identify these details. In addition to regular classes, Kaoru Hirose teaches Sumi-e masterclasses and courses at universities and art schools, tailored to students, artists, and educational institutions.

Which Learning Format to Choose

The best way to learn depends on your availability, location, and the type of guidance you need.

Online Classes for Ongoing Practice

Online classes are ideal for those who want to learn from home and maintain a weekly practice. They allow you to watch demonstrations, work through the elements step by step, and receive feedback on your progress.

In-Person Courses to Observe the Technique Firsthand

In-person courses allow you to see up close the brush position, speed, pressure, and ink preparation. They are a particularly useful option for a first introduction to the art or for delving deeper into a specific motif.

Training for Universities and Art Schools

Masterclasses can integrate the traditional Sumi-e technique with disciplines such as design, illustration, animation, or contemporary art.

Intensive Workshops in Other Cities

When a group, association, or cultural center wishes to organize a specific activity, it’s also possible to request a Sumi-e workshop in your city.

Learn Sumi-e Step by Step with Kaoru Hirose

Learning about the materials, brushwork, pressure, and ink first doesn’t slow down the artistic process. It gives us the tools we need to paint with greater freedom.

When we understand how the brush behaves, we can focus on the intent behind each stroke. When we understand the ink, we can create depth. When we know how to simplify a subject, we can decide which elements the composition truly needs.

You don’t have to wait until you’ve mastered everything to start creating. You can alternate technical exercises with small paintings, as long as the difficulty increases gradually.

In Kaoru Hirose’s online Sumi-e courses, you’ll learn everything from basic strokes to creating complete works, with live demonstrations, step-by-step practice, and guidance tailored to your level.

Frequently Asked Questions About What to Learn First in Sumi-e

What should I learn first in Sumi-e?

The first step is to familiarize yourself with the materials, learn how to hold the brush, and practice lines, dots, curves, and variations in pressure. After that, we can work on different ink intensities and apply those strokes to simple motifs.

Can I start Sumi-e without knowing how to draw?

Yes. No prior drawing experience is necessary. Sumi-e is based on observing, simplifying, and expressing forms through gesture, pressure, and ink.

What basic strokes should I practice?

It’s a good idea to practice vertical, horizontal, and diagonal lines; curves; dots; sideways strokes; changes in line width; gradients; and textures using a dry brush.

When can I start creating compositions?

We can begin with simple compositions once we can control various ink intensities, make strokes with some continuity, and are able to connect two or three elements without filling the entire page.

What Sumi-e subject is best for beginners?

Bamboo, leaves, simple flowers, and small branches are good starting motifs because they allow you to practice lines, pressure, direction, rhythm, and different ink loads.

How long should I practice before painting a complete piece?

There’s no set timeframe. You can start creating small pieces from the very beginning, but it’s best to alternate them with technical exercises. Consistency and the quality of your practice are more important than the number of weeks.

Is it better to learn sumi-e online or in person?

Both approaches can be useful. Online classes make it easier to practice consistently from home, while in-person courses allow you to directly observe the artist’s movements, posture, and preparation of materials.