We block every composition as flat light-dark shapes first — if the silhouette doesn't read, no amount of texture rescues it.
The black field carries equal weight to the white shape; reverse the page and the balance must still hold its tension.
Strip the grays and a weak edge has nowhere to soften — the brush either commits to black or releases to white.
Surfaces stay flat; character lives entirely in the dry-brush boundary where sumi ink meets bare washi.