How to learn Yan calligraphy

Several problems that should be handled correctly in the process of learning regular script in Yan style. The first is "strong" and "the sword goes sideways". "Xiongqiang" is a typical feature of Yan-style characters, and calligraphers of all ages were impressed by it. Scholars tend to make the mistake of pursuing the strong too much, and write bold and explicit strokes, giving people a sense of arrogance. Cai Yong said in the book "Calligraphy on Nine Potential": "When you write hard, your skin is beautiful." The lines of calligraphy are like beautiful women. The beauty of beautiful women lies in the skin outside, and the tendons, bones, flesh, essence, qi and spirit inside. Only those who are internally perfect can be beautiful. If you only emphasize the bones and ignore other things, the "skin" will be ugly, and the strokes you write will feel dry or nervous. Therefore, attention should be paid to the exercise of pen power and the roundness of lines when writing. The second is "symmetry" and "change". Yan-style characters are open and symmetrical, giving people a sense of majesty. But when we study Emperor Yan, we must pay attention to the changing side of Emperor Yan's characters. Too much emphasis on symmetry, lack of change, although dignified, but lifeless, so that viewers like to look at exquisite artistic words, taste like chewing wax, such words are very different from strict style words. Such as "big", "fu" and "Tian", when writing, the horizontal painting and the left painting move slightly, and the right painting is heavy and powerful, which breaks the absolute symmetry and is full of changes. The third is "positive image" and "posture". Emperor Yan's characters are horizontal and vertical, square and square, with dense spacing, which has a clumsy taste and gives people a positive image. However, this does not mean that Yan Di's characters have no body and vivid side. By revealing the serious experience of the founder, we can see its lovely side. Therefore, when we study the characters of Emperor Yan, we should not only pay attention to the founder, but also pay attention to the posture of each character, and appreciate the coherent momentum and flying brushwork of Emperor Yan. The fourth is "Jin Shu" and "Mo Zhu". Yan's body posture and brushwork are vigorous, winning with "muscle", which is called "muscle book" in history. One of the problems that beginners are prone to make is that the strokes focus on thick edges, and the pen is heavy and weak. Mrs. Wei said in "Pen Map": "Those who are good at writing are skinny, those who are not good at writing are fleshy, those who are skinny and fleshy are called tendons, and those who are fleshy are called ink pigs." The book "Gold" gives people a feeling of strength and tenacity. Therefore, we must pay attention to "bones and muscles" when learning Yan-ti characters, and don't overemphasize being stout and becoming an ink pig. The fifth is "wide bo" and "loose". The characters in Yan style are tight outside and loose inside, and the characters are sparse. Some radicals are independent and correct, giving people a thin feeling. But "broad-minded" does not mean "sloppy" and "independent" does not mean not taking care of each other. Beginners often emphasize broadness, and when writing, they will deliberately widen the distance between the parts and make the text loose, which is a problem that we should pay special attention to. The sixth is "statutes" and "nature". There are strict rules for Yan-ti characters, and each painting has a certain degree of beginning and ending, which is very particular. However, while emphasizing "statutes", we should also pay attention to the "chic and natural" side of Yan characters. Some beginners pay attention to statutes, and their writing is very stiff. On the whole, they regard it as a kind of clenched fist, which is extremely unnatural. In fact, as long as we observe carefully, we can see that the writing of Yan-ti characters is also very unique, giving people a feeling of naturalness.