An Introduction to Chinese Painting: Lesson 1
Author: Cheong Thye-Ming, Contributing Editor
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The student must first get acquainted with brush, ink stick or ink, inkstone, paper and color.
Brush: The Chinese brush is itself an important part of the act of painting, both in its strength and in its flexibility. When brand-new it seems stiff and hard but after a brief soaking in water it becomes soft and flexible, coming to a fine point when drawn out of the water or ink. There are two kinds of brushes, one being softer than the other. The soft hair brushes are mainly made of white colored sheep-hairs which has been often wet and redried so that the curl is gone but the fibres are strong yet flexible, and the others are of deer or fox sable fibres, which have resilience. From the wide range of brushes to be found, choose perhaps three at first and later six or seven, from a fine one for line work to one large enough for leaves and branches. If the Chinese brushes are not available, watercolor sable brushes are suitable for practice work. The more resiliant the brush hair the better for Chinese painting. |
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Ink Stick:
Ink sticks are of three kinds. One is made of tung-oil soot, the second of resin soot while the third of lacquer soot. Those made of tung-oil soot are most appropriate. Black and rich in lustre, they can be graded into different shades in use. The resin soot ones are jet black, but they are not ideal for painting, because of their want of lustre, except for some special cases in delineating black fowls and beetles. Lacquer soot ink sticks are most lustrous, and suitable for depicting the pupil of the eye. Student may use Chinese ink instead of ink stick and inkstone, if both of the ink stick an inkstone are not available. |
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Paper:
There are many qualities, names, and sizes of rice paper. Nost of the best now available is made from rice plant fibre, sometimes combined with cotton; and some good papers are made from hemp. Chinese painting may be done either on paper or silk. Of paper the most commonly used is called "Xiuan" paper, the best of which is made of sandalwood bark. The other is called "Mian" paper. Both of the papers are of two different types, one is absorbent, on which the ink or color diffuses as the brush stroke is laid. The other is non-absorbent or water-proof paper. If the papers are not available, any absorbent paper you can find is suitable for practice work. It may be newsprint, or drawing quality - any unglazed paper at all which produces the effect you want and with which you like to work. |
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Color:
All Chinese painting colours are watercolors. They are commonly used for washes and tinting purposes after ink has first been applied in the painting. The commonly used colors are:
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