A fundamental design and life lesson from the Zen arts is to never use more when less will do....The ancient art of Japanese brush painting called Sumi-e provides a powerful lesson concerning the use of color, communication, and restraints. Sumi-e was brought to Japan from China and is an art deeply rooted in Zen, embodying many of the tenets of the Zen aesthetic including simplicity and the idea of maximum effect with minimum means....
...Either way the lesson is clear: few colors carefully selected and positioned can be more effective than many colors indiscriminately placed.
The objective of Sumi-e is not to recreate the subject to look perfectly like the original, but to capture its essence — that is, to express its essence. This is achieved not with more but with less....
Garr Reynolds, "Sumi-e, color, and the art of less," Presentation Zen, 6 Oct 2009,
www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2009/10/a-fundamental-design-and-life-lesson-from-the-zen-arts-is-to-never-use-more-when-less-will-do-this-goes-for-the-use-of-color.html
