Beginner's Guide To Chinese Painting

Calligraphy and painting were two of the most prized art forms in antediluvian China. Calligraphy was considered to be the most eminent and most complete form of painting. The history of painting in China dates back to the 2nd century BCE. In the earliest era, painting and writing were made out on silk, until paper was later invented during the 1st century CE.

Chinese art, and in particular, Chinese painting is greatly treasured around the globe. Chinese painting can be retraced to as far back as six thousand years ago in the Neolithic Age when the Chinese have started using brushes in their paintings. Chinese art dates back even earlier than that.

According to subject matter, there are two foremost classes of Chinese painting: landscapes, character paintings and flower-and-bird paintings. In traditional Chinese painting, Chinese landscape painting embodies a major category, portraying nature, particularly mountains and bodies of water. Landscapes have traditionally been the favorite of the Chinese because they manifest the poetry characteristic in nature. Consequently, many esteemed paintings are landscapes.

The most popularly known form of Chinese art is Water-ink painting, where water-ink is the medium. Some of the basic things required for the Chinese painting include: paper, brush, ink or ink stick, ink stone, and color.

Brush: The Chinese brush is a necessary element for Chinese painting. The brush should be strong and flexible. Two types of brushes are used. The more delicate brush is created from white sheep hair. This brush should be wet first, and then dried to prevent curling. The second one is made from fox or deer sable fibers, which are very resilient, and tend to paint better. The way the brush is used depends on the different attributes of brush strokes one wants to obtain, such as weight, lightness, gracefulness, ruggedness, firmness, and fullness. Various forms of shades are applied to impart space, texture, or depth.

Ink Stick: There are three varieties of Ink Stick: resin soot, lacquer soot, and tung-oil soot. Of the three, tung-oil soot is the most commonly used. Otherwise, Chinese ink is best if ink stick or ink stone are ineffectual.

Paper: The most commonly used paper is Xuan paper, which is made of sandalwood bark. This is highly absorbent, so the color or ink disperses the moment the brush stroke is put down. The second most well-known is Mian paper.

Color: The earliest Chinese paintings employed Mo, a type of natural ink, to bring about monochrome depictions of nature or day-to-day life. Made of pine soot, mo is diluted with water to obtain unique shades for conveying appropriate layers or color in a painting.

Chinese painting is called shui-mo-hua. Shui-mo is the mix of shui (water) and mo. There are two styles of Chinese painting. They are gong-bi or detailed style, and xie-yi or freehand style. The second is the most common, not only since the objects are depicted with just a few strokes, but also because shapes and sprites are drawn by simple curves and natural ink. Many ancient poets and students used xie-yi paintings to give tongue to their religious anguish.