Category: Culture/Art>> Calligraphy, Painting and Art
Problem description:
My son is learning painting. He has learned watercolor painting for one semester. Now the Chinese painting teacher wants He studies Chinese painting, but I don’t know what to do? Please give me expert guidance.
Analysis:
Characteristics of watercolor painting
Watercolor painting is a widely popular type of painting. As an independent painting form, its formation and development have gone through a certain period of time. Historically, the world's first watercolor painting was created by the German painter Dürer, but it became an independent painting type and flourished and developed in the UK, which has a history of three hundred years.
Watercolor painting, like other types of painting, has its own strengths and limitations due to the different tools and materials used, thus forming artistic characteristics that can
exist independently.
(1) Tool performance
To learn watercolor painting, you must first understand and be familiar with the tool performance of watercolor, and then you can better master and use it.
1. Watercolor pigments
Watercolor pigments have very fine particles and can be crystal clear when dissolved in water. Apply them layer by layer on white paper, like layers of transparent cellophane. Falling effect. The light color of watercolor cannot cover the background color, unlike oil paint and gouache paint which have strong covering power. Watercolor pigments such as ultramarine, ocher, and earthy red are mineral pigments. They are prone to precipitation when used alone or mixed with other colors. Clever use can produce novel effects.
2. Drawing paper
The paper used for watercolor painting is very particular. It has a great influence on the effect of a painting. The same technique has different effects on different drawing papers. of. The ideal watercolor painting paper has a white surface, a solid texture, and moderate water absorption. The paper surface will be relatively smooth after it is applied. The thickness of the paper grain should be selected according to the needs of the performance and personal habits. Don’t think that beginners can do watercolor exercises on any paper. If the paper is too thin, it will be uneven after coloring, and the water color will accumulate, which will affect the brushstrokes; if the paper absorbs water too quickly (such as filter paper), the water color will not easily penetrate and it will be difficult to achieve the purpose of expression; if it is too smooth, it will be difficult for the water color to penetrate. The water color of the paper is not easy to adhere to the paper surface, so it is not suitable for watercolor painting. You should be familiar with the properties of the drawing paper you use and be good at mastering it skillfully.
3. Brush
Watercolor brushes need to have certain elasticity and water-holding capacity. Oil brushes are too hard and cannot hold water, so they are not suitable for watercolor painting (but sometimes they can be used to pursue certain a special effect). Langhao watercolor pens, flat-head water chalks, traditional Chinese painting white cloud pens, landscape pens, etc. can all be used for watercolor painting. Prepare a large brush for painting large color blocks, and two or three medium and small brushes for specific shapes and details.
(2) Characteristics of watercolor
Due to the characteristics of the tools, materials and techniques, watercolor has formed its own artistic characteristics. Watercolor is as soft as light music or lyric poetry. , is relatively accurate.
In addition to the profound content and profound expression of feelings, a good watercolor painting gives people the feeling of being moist, smooth, crystal clear, relaxed and lively. This feeling is the characteristic of watercolor painting.
The characteristic of watercolor painting is that compared with other types of painting, the covering and thick coating of oil painting form a thick and heavy characteristic. Watercolor pigments are transparent, and thin coating is used to maintain its transparency, so the picture has a clear and transparent effect. feeling. Use water to mix colors and play the role of water. It is flexible and natural, moisturizing and smooth, dripping and refreshing, and has endless charm.
Characteristics of Chinese Painting
General Characteristics of Chinese Painting
To learn Chinese painting, you should first understand what the characteristics of Chinese painting are, so this book will start here.
It is not easy to answer the above questions concisely in a few sentences. Traditional Chinese painting has a long history and has adapted to China's cultural soil to take root and blossom. It has its own characteristics in terms of conception, composition, technique and stylized expression. These characteristics are what theorists of traditional Chinese painting are currently discussing and summarizing. problem. Here are a few points to try.
1. The first important thing is to have a clear idea of ??the idea - the conception of Chinese painting
In the creation of Chinese paintings, the idea comes first. Many painting theorists emphasize this point first, whether it is painting landscapes or figures. , or painting flowers and birds.
Zhang Yanyuan of the Tang Dynasty had a discussion about the "Six Methods" in "Records of Famous Paintings of the Past Dynasties": "An image must be similar in shape, and the shape must be complete with its bones."
The bones are similar in shape. All are based on carelessness and return to the use of pen. "He believes that only when the idea is completed can there be abnormality and strangeness in the painting.
Monk Huaguang, who was famous for painting plum blossoms in the Song Dynasty, was named Zhongren. It is passed down as Huaguang's book "Painting Plum Blossoms" "", there is a paragraph "The Complete Decision of Painting Plum Blossoms", which begins with "The Complete Decision of Painting Plum Blossoms, Business First". In the Qing Dynasty, Fang Xun, the author of "Mountain Quiet Residence Painting Theory", also emphasized the conception and painting. He said: "When painting, you must first establish the intention to determine the position. If you want to be strange, you will be strange, if you are high, you will be high, if you are far, you will be far, if you are deep, you will be deep, and if you are ancient, your painting will be mediocre and tacky." The painter's paintings are also tacky, because they lack the most precious "concept" of the painter, so the works are mediocre.
Leonardo da Vinci, a painter in the Italian Renaissance, also had a similar experience. He once said: " A painter should depict the two most important things, people and people's thoughts and intentions. "This is very consistent with what Gu Xiaozhi, a figure painter of the Jin Dynasty, put forward, "Ingenuity comes from fine thinking".
Where does "meaning" come from? First, the painter's rich understanding of real life The full accumulation of observation and creative experience; the other point is the painter's personal cultivation, so that before creating, a mature idea of ??what to paint and how to paint is formed in his mind.
Wen Yuke, a painter of the Song Dynasty. , others praised him for "having a clear mind", that is, before he started to draw bamboo, he already had the image of bamboo in his mind and writing, and then he was able to write "with a clear mind" and became our country. An idiom that praises people who are good at planning and arranging things.
Before Zhang Yanyuan proposed "idea", Xie He in the Nanchan era had the saying of "creativity" and "clear intention". The painting of creativity is not out of date. Set, the intention is precise, borrowing the scenery to create the environment, with less pen and more meaning. In this sense, as a painter, you must not only pay attention to practicing brushwork and tempering your personal expression skills in daily life, but more importantly, you must also seriously strengthen your practice of intention. It’s worth noting that many painting practitioners only focus on practicing their brushwork and ignore the practice of their ideas.
2. Use line modeling to express the spirit through form - the modeling rules of Chinese painting< /p>
Chinese painting is based on lines, which are used to outline outlines, textures, and volumes. The German poet Goethe said that art has the ability to express life with light, which shows that Western paintings use light as a modeling method. 1. However, Chinese painting is mainly based on lines, which leads to a clear distinction between Chinese and Western paintings in terms of modeling methods. This does not mean that Western paintings completely reject the use of lines, but that light can be used as the main language of painting. For painting. French Rodin once emphasized: "A prescribed line runs through the universe", which refers to the problem of how plastic art is divided from the universe, and it is not regarded as the main expression method of painting. Whether it is the broken lines of landscapes or the lines of clothes, Chinese paintings have accumulated a very rich line type and skillfully depict various images.
"Using shapes to describe the spirit" is the Jin Dynasty painter Gu Kaizhi. This famous saying establishes the aesthetic view that the spirit of Chinese art is higher than the form. It is very different from the modern European aesthetic view that is purely abstract, that is, painting people is not only about physical resemblance, but also higher than spiritual resemblance. , to draw people's spiritual outlook, do not stop at the simulation of appearance, and do not stick to the reality of nature. This theory has established a height for artists to strive for in art. Under the guidance of this theory, many vivid portrayals have appeared in the past dynasties. Excellent works have become an important guideline for painting.
3. Multi-point perspective: white versus black - the composition rules of Chinese painting
Chinese painting uses both focus perspective and scattered points. The perspective method not only strictly adheres to the real picture space and layout, but also breaks the real parallel space and layout according to the composition needs, so that when the object appears in the picture, it can be extended or shortened according to the artistic needs of the actual object on the picture. Change its image and change its position. A peony flower lower than the eye level can also be placed above the horizontal line to achieve the best perspective.
Chinese paintings pay special attention to the management of blank spaces, often borrowing the calculation method from calligraphy to treat white as black. That is to say, the parts without pictures should be scrutinized and processed as carefully as the parts with pictures.
4. Color according to the category and harmonize with each other - the color rules of Chinese painting
The colors of Chinese painting are not limited to the limitations of warm and cold tones of the light source, but pay more attention to the inherent color of the object itself. Rather than emphasizing the conditional color under special light. When you paint an item, you give it the basic color, achieving the harmony of color and object, color and line, color and ink, and color and color.
5. Scenes are intertwined with vitality and vividness - the artistic conception of Chinese painting
Chinese painting requires the combination of brush and ink, the combination of emotion and scenery, and the infinitely rich scenes in reality. The painter uses strong images Contagious. Relying on this feeling, the painter aroused the desire to depict these scenes, so the works reappeared as a copy of the scenes, making the scenes blend together.
As for the vivid charm, it is the artistic spiritual realm created by the painter. It is different from ordinary sketches. It should be full of vitality, fresh and lively, with a poetic charm, making the viewer fascinated. If it does not express such vivid and rich connotations, of course, it will not be able to give people these feelings, and it will not achieve the fascinating artistic conception of Chinese painting.
6. Poetry, calligraphy, painting, paper and pen - a unique form of Chinese painting
It can be said that only Chinese painting has the practice of inscription and sealing. Not only literati paintings can also display their poems and calligraphy. The three unique features of painting are that even ordinary paintings must always be inscribed and stamped, so that they can have a strong flavor of traditional art.
Inscriptions and verses can enhance or supplement the viewer’s appreciation and understanding of the work, and also enrich the changes in the composition. They set off and highlight each other, embellish and balance the various aspects of the composition. effect.
The performance of Chinese painting tools and materials also determines the characteristics of Chinese painting. Chinese painting uses silk and paper to paint, especially the emergence of raw rice paper, which gives full play to the interest of brushwork and ink color. The permeability of rice paper and the sharp taper of the brush make the brush tip infinitely variable, producing wonderful effects. At the same time, various imitation and depiction methods, painting methods and brushwork methods were formed.
From sketching to freehand brushwork
When you first learn Chinese painting, copying is used as a starting method, and you gradually progress to sketching objects from life. Turning to the freehand brushwork of objects, not only the freehand brushwork with thick brushwork is like this, but also the meticulous and meticulous freehand brushwork also has its freehand brushwork elements. Because when Chinese painting depicts objects, whether it is fine brushwork or freehand brushwork, its processing techniques are all freehand. It is not a simple copy, but to get the essence and forget the roughness, to be complex where it should be, and to be simple where it should be. Dang Jian has a high degree of refining and processing of objects. He does not focus on the realistic appearance of light, color and appearance, but focuses on the inner understanding.
According to Dong Qichang's records, many famous landscape painters used real landscapes as manuscripts for their creations, such as "Li Sixun wrote about overseas mountains, Ma Yuan and Xia Gui wrote about Qiantang Mountain, and Zhao Wuxing wrote about Yingxue Mountain. , Huang Zijiu wrote "Haiyu Mountain". When future generations look at these paintings, they feel that they are both sketching and freehand brushwork; they are learning from nature without being trapped by natural phenomena. Take Huang Zijiu's "Dwelling in Fuchun Mountains". The author drew the material from Fuchun Mountain, which is not the environmental geography map of Fuchun Mountain. What he represents is Huang Zijiu's idealized state.
This explains how ancient painters understood and expressed various objects in nature, turned real objects into artistic images, and gradually regularized and stylized them. At the same time, we can see their rich expressions techniques.
By comparing "Jiezi Biography of Traditional Chinese Painting" and other painting manuals, and then comparing the use of this program by painters of all ages, readers can feel the process of processing and summarizing the transformation from natural ecology to the artistic form in traditional Chinese painting. . From it, we can also understand the processing techniques from sketching to freehand brushwork, and master the modeling characteristics of Chinese painting from a technical perspective.
Prominent theme
Wang Keyu of the Ming Dynasty said in "Coral Outline": "The ancients all had deep meanings in painting, and they all had their own ideas when they put their thoughts into writing." "The owner" is also the theme. Prominent theme is an essential feature in artistic creation. Once a theme idea is formed, you can decide what theme to use to express it, then decide on the choice of materials, and even determine the title of the work, and what kind of expression method to use, all depend on what the theme expresses. Like Yan Liben's famous work of the Tang Dynasty, "Xiao Yi earns money at Orchid Pavilion" (biography), this story has many twists and turns, but Yan Liben chose Xiao Yi's "intentional, deceitful and deceptive" and "unintentional" eloquence. ", kindness and being deceived" two typical plots to highlight the theme of the painting. The theme is highlighted on the word "earn", and other details are abbreviated or summarized. This is completely consistent with the description of this fact in "Fa Shu Yao Lu".
In the creation of traditional Chinese paintings, I found good themes, and it doesn’t take just one person to highlight the theme. If you only seek vivid depiction of characters, rich changes in pictures, or straightforward narration, it cannot be considered as a prominent theme.
The author can only consider what should be highlighted based on the unique laws and expression techniques of traditional Chinese painting. He must be good at summarizing the subject matter according to the form of traditional Chinese painting, determining the theme, and using the characterization of characters and the organization of details to highlight the theme and make the viewer see from the picture. Ding can understand the painter's intention without explanation. Therefore, Guo Xi believes: "When painting, you must first give it a title, otherwise it will not be a painting without a title."
Once the theme is clear, the most appropriate title should be given to the work. In most cases, it should be inscribed on the picture. Above. The title should be concise and concise, with profound meaning. It can also directly reveal the theme or imply the meaning of the theme to achieve the finishing touch.
Accumulate materials
Literary work. Writers need to accumulate a lot of materials in life. Writers use words, and painters sometimes use words, but the main thing is to use brushes to sketch. When painters come into contact with natural scenery, flowers and characters, they often use sketches as records. , Collect the observed objects with a brush at any time. Like the painter Qi Baishi, he has a very detailed observation and understanding of the physiological structure of various niches. If he continues to do so, he will also exercise the ability of art workers to observe life and modeling.
Mr. Lu Xun once mentioned, "A writer must practice sketching outside or indoors every day in order to make progress." It is most beneficial to go outside and sketch."
The original materials recorded from life are like the ores mined, and also like the source of living water. They are infinitely vivid and rich, compared to The materials obtained from taking photos and copying pictorials are intimate and profound. In the practice of in-depth exploration of natural scenery and people, a large number of materials are accumulated, and new painting topics are conceived, which will lead to endless thoughts.
Genre is different from material. Material is unsmelted ore, while subject matter is the material that is most suitable for expressing a certain theme from a large number of materials. If the selection is not precise, the content to be expressed will lose its distinctiveness and typicality.
Use a popular metaphor to explain the genre, which is like tailoring clothes to different body shapes. For example. For the production of a large mural, it is not appropriate to use a small album format. Another example is the previously mentioned "Xiao Yi Zhao Orchid Pavilion", which is better to use the style of figure painting, and "Ten Thousand Miles of the Yangtze River" is of course a landscape painting. The long scroll form is better. And various poetic paintings that praise plum blossoms are more appropriate to use flowers to express their emotions.
Among the various forms and genres of figures, landscapes, and flowers, they are divided into meticulous, freehand, and freehand brushwork. The difference between heavy color and ink painting. After determining the theme of the painting, the author should start from the content, and then consider the style to be used, such as whether to use a large scene or a close-up.
Two basic skills
1. In the process of formation of Chinese painting, there are many traditional expression techniques. To master these methods, a frequently used method is; the works of predecessors and the drawings of teachers . Deputy Qi painter Wang Shigu has considerable attainments in copying the masters of the Song and Yuan Dynasties. After decades of copying and experience, he feels that he has a full grasp of the green mountains and green waters, which will be discussed in the chapter on copying. Discuss in detail.
2. The rich environment in life is the most vivid painting book for painters. Painters should constantly hone themselves in life. Traditional Chinese painters often emphasize taking nature as their teacher. Only by learning from this richness Only from the treasures of the world can we develop the treasures of art, get inspiration from nature, and collect a wide range of materials.
These two basic skills complement each other and are indispensable. Just copying the manuscripts of predecessors will take a long time. If you only rely on sketching, you will often lose the traditional brushwork.
After the painter has a good foundation of traditional Chinese painting copying, life is the most important thing. Shi Tao, a contemporary painter, said, "The brush is neither life nor life." It is impossible to shut up in a room and think hard. The disadvantage is that without the images collected by oneself, one has no idea about the character's personality and mental outlook, and the image will be conceptualized. . On the contrary, if you draw the most familiar characters in your life, as soon as you close your eyes, the person's spirit, voice, smile and appearance will come out automatically, and the picture will be much more vivid.
For example, although workers and farmers are both laborers, they have different personalities and temperaments. These require silent grinding in life to stand out. Painting landscapes, flowers and birds is also inseparable from on-site travel sketching and experience.
Of course, as an artist, in addition to the basics of writing and life, the cultivation of character and morality cannot be ignored. In the past, people often said that the book is like the person or the painting is like the person, which means that the character and cultivation of a painter are often naturally revealed in the writing.
In the Qing Dynasty, Wang Xing wrote in his book "Dongzhuang On Painting" that "those who learn painting should first establish their quality". In the Qing Dynasty, Shen Zongchun said in "Qi Zhou Xue Hua Bian": "The quality of the brush style is also like the character of the character" and "the mind paints the form and the human being is divided into evil and right". It is enough to show that calligraphy and painting critics, in addition to the artistic level of the painter, must also comprehensively analyze the painter's character and morality. Only painters with high artistic quality are worthy of people's learning and respect.