I am a multi-genre artist and consequently I have a few websites and few portfolio's. It was all too scattered so I decided to put all of my best work together in one folio, in separate categories. It took me a few days to update my entire portfolio on Smugmug. I went through all of my photos and picked those that I personally think represent what I do as an artist. New portfolio holds all types of photography: portraiture photography, architecture photography and cityscapes, street photography, photoshop manipulations and digital art, black and white photography, nature photography and landscapes, boudoir and body art photography, and Chinese and Japanese calligraphy art.

All photos are in their original size at 300dpi. Some of the files are as large as 160MB, so if you are viewing them in original size it may take some times to load them up. All of the images are quality edits which is exactly why I uploaded full size files. Enjoy!

Portrait photography service, Tokyo - website
http://www.portrait-photography-tokyo.com/
Photography workshops in Tokyo: http://www.ryuurui.com/photography-workshops.html
Hire a photographer in Tokyo: http://www.ryuurui.com/hire-a-photographer-in-tokyo.html
Photo blog: http://www.japan-in-photography.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ponteryuurui
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PonteRyuurui
Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+PonteRyuurui/posts
For more tutorials and how to videos check out my photoshop and photography tips and tricks YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEOVGZ2rpLhR7gSPvaexxxQ

I am studying Lantingji Xu by Wang Xizhi, and so here is a short phrase from this amazing classic in semi-cursive. If follows the original to an extend, with a few alterations in my own calligraphic style. If you want to read more about Xizhi, just do a search on my blog, I have quite a few articles about him and his legendary calligraphy masterpieces. I scanned my work and brought it inside photoshop and played a bit with colors and background. Enjoy!

My Youtube channel with free photoshop tutorials
Photography workshops in Tokyo - click for more details.
Hire a photographer in Tokyo
Buy original Chinese and Japanese calligraphy art
Check out my new portrait photography services in Tokyo website!

This is my first fully digital Chinese calligraphy art, based on a semi-cursive script form of the character for dragon (龍). I created it entirely inside photoshop from scratch using pen tool, textures and a bit of fun with selective toning, etc. I also added some dimension to the character, so it doesn't appear flat, and created an illusion of metallic material. The character itself follows traditional calligraphy rules to certain extend, naturally I added to it my personal calligraphic style, but I wanted to keep it in a modern feel, slightly leaning towards a logo design or some sort of an emblem. Hope you guys like it!

My Youtube channel with free photoshop tutorials
Photography workshops in Tokyo - click for more details.
Hire a photographer in Tokyo
Buy original Chinese and Japanese calligraphy art
Check out my new portrait photography website!

Working on photos and editing tons of shots may lead to tunnel vision and resulting in similar type of edits. Lots of people use presets, not even knowing what they do. That includes the professional photographers as well. Some people don't even possess the skill to edit their own work, which is pretty scary. It is like a cook who buys veggies on the market and calls for help to cook the meal. Learning and studying will develop your artistic vision, and it is most likely to change over the time. I learn new skills on a daily basis, and my photoshop techniques improve quite rapidly. I am often revisiting some of my favoring works and re-editing them applying what I have learned since I worked on them. Sometimes I give photos a new twist. All in all I love editing 1 photo in many different ways. It leads to amazing discoveries. In this case the reason for editing is complex. One, is that I love this shot. Two, is that I love this calligraphy classic, and three is that this very classic is one of the mandatory subjects for my Master Instructor exams in calligraphy this year. 

model: Asuka / Japanese calligraphy - my copy of a Chinese classic Shu Pu from the early Tang Dynasty (7th century) by Sun Guoting, who was an absolute genius of cursive script. 

情熱 (jōnetsu) means passion in English. It also stands for enthusiasm and zeal. This very calligraphy can be found in one of my books, and more precisely in my poetry book, the Soul Nova, together with two other works of mine. The book has three chapters and each of them is opened by one of my calligraphy art works, though they are all black on a white background. I gave this calligraphy a new look by adding some colours. Passion and zeal is always associated with energy, power, and spirit. Bright warm and strong colours fit perfectly, I also added movement and kinetic energy symbolising spinning mind and soul. 

Photo editing & Chinese and Japanese calligraphy tutorial videos
Buy fine art calligraphy prints at my store in my store on Fina Art Amercia.

I wrote this Chinese calligraphy some time ago, but I gave it a new look today in photoshop. Both characters are in ancient seal script, which is the oldest script in Chinese calligraphy, and also the most complex one. I gave those characters a slightly modern look, though I realise that it might be difficult to spot for anyone who is not familiar with seal script. Top character is 陽 and the bottom one is 陰, and their meaning is Yang (Sun), and Yin (shadow).

Photo editing & Chinese and Japanese calligraphy tutorial videos
Buy fine art calligraphy prints at my store in my store on Fina Art Amercia.

Here is another photo of Tokyo Tower at night, on a humid, rainy and hazy day. I added modern Japanese calligraphy in highly stylised seal script, which reads 夢中, i.e. within a dream. Anyone interested in viewing my Japanese calligraphy gallery, here is a link to my portfolio. My Japanese and Chinese calligraphy prints can be ordered via my fine art online store, here.

This photo is a blend of two exposures, one was a standard shot of the tip of Tokyo Tower, and the other one was defocused, so I could catch some of that wonderful bokeh (blurred lights). Merged together they look way more dreamy. Post processing was done in photoshop, with a bit of help from Silver Efex pro from Google Software, which is a fantastic black and white conversion plugin for photoshop.

Here is my new calligraphy art, 龍心, i.e. dragon heart (can also mean, dragon mind, or dragon spirit). As always, I wrote the calligraphy in a traditional manner with a brush, and then processed it in photoshop, which, as you probably noticed, I love doing. The Chinese characters are executed in semi-cursive script. To view my other calligraphy works, see my portfolio.

If you are interested in purchasing custom calligraphy art prints, please visit my store on Fine Art America, and if you wish to order something specific, a custom art, then please feel free to contact me directly.

Chinese and Japanese calligraphy look stunning on a sheet of white paper, and the game of spirituality of brush strokes and the negative space of the void white are the core of this art's magic. However, in China and Japan it is not a rare occasion that calligraphers use coloured paper. Since we are in a digital age, I am adding colours in photoshop. Never fear, the original calligraphy art is still written by me in a traditional fashion, with a hand-ground ink on a white calligraphy paper.

九龍 - 9 dragons - this phrase has a special meaning, and if you want to learn more, please visit Ink Treasures page, which I co-created with an ink painter, Mariusz Szmerdt.

Non-character calligraphy is practiced mostly in China and Japan, though it is a very rare style of Chinese calligraphy. It is of rather modern origin, and it slightly overlaps with the avant-garde calligraphy style. Its basic concept is to prove that the beauty of calligraphy does not have to be tied to the balance and shape of the Chinese characters, but it lives as raw energy in the dynamics of calligraphy brush strokes. Extended studies of Chinese classics, and countless hours spent on writing, allow a calligrapher to utilise his knowledge in such a type of art which is completely disconnected from the language itself, and it proves without a shadow of doubt, that Chinese calligraphy is written with a soul, not the hand.

Pictured calligraphy (fragment) has no semantic content. It is a record of a state of mind.