How to learn calligraphy well?

How to learn calligraphy well

Learn regular script:

Su Dongpo, a calligrapher in the Song Dynasty, said: "Truth is like standing, action is like walking, and grass is like walking." It means regular script, running script, cursive script. Models here refer to models and models. Regular script stippling is clear, symmetrical, square and well-behaved, which is suitable for beginners. Feng Fang, a calligraphy theorist in the Ming Dynasty, said: "To learn calligraphy, we must start with regular script ... regular script is a running script. The running script is established, but it is a cursive script. " For beginners, if they bypass regular script and learn running script or cursive script directly, because they ignore the basic stippling and structural training of regular script, they are prone to some disadvantages such as irregular stippling, inflexible brushwork, uneven density, unstable structure and inappropriate proportion. Therefore, Tang Sun Guoting said, "I really can't understand painting, and I will be fascinated by learning grass." In the Ming Dynasty, Wang Zhuyun also said: "Grass is still popular recently, so it's ridiculous to learn grass without learning it. If people want to leave without learning. "

As for which font beginners should start with, different people have different opinions, so it is unnecessary and impossible to stick to the same principle. As long as the method is proper and you work hard, you can succeed from any font, which can be said that all roads lead to the same goal. But the time and energy spent and the distance traveled are probably very different. On this issue, I still think it is more appropriate to start from the beginning.

Learn from Tang Kai's books, there are rules to follow, strokes can be written in squares, circles and straight lines, with appropriate length, appropriate weight and stable structure, thus laying a solid foundation.

The regular script written by Ou Yangxun, a calligrapher in the early Tang Dynasty, is clean with a pen and rigorous in structure, which has a great influence on later generations. The European book Huangfuyun Monument best represents the bold and unconstrained style of the European book, which is the clearest and most impressive among the published European books. The calligraphy of Jiuchenggong Liquan Ming is simple and heavy, vigorous and strong, and pursues rigor and steadiness. Liang praised the European writing. He said, "Write a thorough European book, which can be written on a tablet." Yang Shoujing in the Qing Dynasty said: "Ouyang Xin believed in the inscription of Li Quan, and Zhao Zigu advocated it as the ultimate rule of Kaifa. No one has any objection." Beginners can avoid the problem of loose structure by learning these two monuments.

Yan Zhenqing, a calligrapher in the middle Tang Dynasty, used Fang Bi in his "Duota Monument", which is full of three-dimensional sense and neat and rigorous structure, and is suitable for beginners. Yan Zhenqing's "Diligence Monument" is full of powerful brushstrokes, relaxed in structure and naive and interesting.

Liu Gongquan, a calligrapher in the late Tang Dynasty, wrote Xuanta Monument and Shence Army Monument with pen. The brushwork is clear and vigorous, just like clanking iron bones, and the heart is tight and the four sides are stretched. After learning, you can get fine and hard strokes and rigorous structure.

Zhao Mengfu's Danba Monument in Yuan Dynasty is dignified and beautiful, which can be regarded as a model of going too far.

Learn the running script:

Wang Xizhi was the first to learn running script, and his Preface to Saint Education and Preface to Lanting are its representatives. Yan Zhenqing's "Sacrificing a Nephew", "Sticking to a Mat" and the running scripts of Su, Huang, Mi, Cai and Zhao Mengfu can all be imitated.

Learn cursive script:

Wang Xizhi's Seventeen Posts, Sun Zi's Book Score and He Zi Jing are the best learning models of cursive script.

Research on seal script;

Seal script should start from Li Si's seal script, and then learn from Da Zhuan Mao, Da He Pan. The official script "Yi Ying Monument" and "Li Qi Monument" can be started.

Hold a pen

People point to their stomachs when they take things, and also use this part when they write. When writing, hold the pen tube with the abdomen of thumb, index finger and middle finger, hold the pen tube with the part where the nail of ring finger meets the flesh, and the little finger naturally sticks to the ring finger-this is the most common five-finger writing method.

The essentials of writing can be summarized by "pointing to reality, palm deficiency, wrist flat, palm vertical, body straight and foot safe", which means that using a pen is important and appropriate. If it is too tight, it will be stiff, easy to get tired and shake. If it is too loose, stippling may be weak. Palm deficiency means that there should be a gap between fingers and palms, and between thumb and forefinger, so you can't hold it in large quantities. The need for a firm palm is like holding a bird in your hand. If you hold it too tightly, the bird will be killed. It's too loose, and the bird will fly away again. In other words, be flexible and moderate. Wrist level means that the plane between the two joints on the wrist is roughly parallel to the desktop, and the wrist should be lower than the palm, so that the palm will stand up. Writing is about wrist strength. If you sit and write with your elbows on the book, if you don't keep your wrists flat and your palms upright, your stippling may be weak. The wrist is flat, which means that you should be close to flat when writing, but you don't have to be like this all the time when writing. Writing in the hand, writing in the wrist, writing is realistic, writing is alive. When lifting a pen, the left and right joints of the wrist are constantly moving up and down, otherwise, when writing, the arms will mechanically move in parallel.

Upright refers to sitting up straight when writing, with the chest standing naturally and one punch away from the desktop. When the right hand writes, the left hand presses on the paper to balance the strength. If you bend your head when writing, not only will your handwriting be bad, but your eyesight and spine will also be affected over time. At the end of Qing Dynasty, there was a calligrapher named Tang Tuo in Wujin County, Jiangsu Province. Tang Tuo studies very hard. He gets up before dawn every day and studies hard. After three years, his regular script has made great progress, but he has become hunched because of his sitting posture. This lesson is worth learning.

Foot safety means that when writing, your feet are slightly open, shoulder width apart, and you lie flat on the ground to keep your body stable.

Wrist transport

Writing is between fingers, fingers are connected to wrists, and wrists are connected to elbows. If you want to move the pen flexibly, you must point. The key to the cooperation between wrist and elbow lies in the movement of wrist. In calligraphy works presented to others, sometimes the title of the previous paragraph is "So-and-so is wrist", which means that the recipient is required to correct whether the wrist is flexible or powerful. Wrist movement is to manipulate the pen tip through the up-and-down fluctuation and back-and-forth fluctuation of the wrist, and write the required stippling. Because the distance between the wrist and the desktop is different, there are several different ways to write:

Wrist: that is, the wrist is attached to the desktop to write. Touching the wrist prevents the pen from moving because the wrist is in contact with the desktop. You can use it when writing small fonts, but it is not suitable when writing large fonts.

Wrist pillow: it is to write under the right wrist with the left hand pad. There is little difference between this method and the wrist grip method. The movement of the wrist is still greatly restricted, and once you get into the habit, you can't throw away the "crutch" of your left hand, and you feel powerless to write big characters. I once met an old gentleman who wrote all his life, and his left hand was still under his right wrist. He writes well in fine print and within an inch, but he lacks momentum when he writes about two inches.

Wrist lifting: that is, putting your elbow on the table and lifting your wrist, which is the most common wrist method for sitting and writing Chinese characters.

Wrist hanging: when writing, it is called wrist hanging if the wrist is not placed on the desktop. When writing Chinese characters, you must hang your wrist. Only by hanging your wrist can you reach the paper from your shoulder. And because your arm is not hindered by the desktop, you can pull the pen vertically and horizontally and lift it up and down at will, so it is the most free and flexible method.

Bring a pen.

Once you learn how to write, you can learn how to write further. To learn to write, we must first learn to stipple, which is like the building material of words. If the materials are not ready or the prepared materials do not meet the quality requirements, the exhibition hall will not be beautiful and three-dimensional. The same is true of studying books. If you can't write stippling, your handwriting won't look good. Learning how to transport a pen means learning how to drop ink on paper through a pen to form a satisfactory stippling.

The movement of the pen can be divided into vertical movement and horizontal movement. Vertical movement refers to the vertical movement of pen and paper. Lateral movement refers to the movement of the pen in the direction parallel to the paper.

Longitudinal movement mainly includes the following types:

Put pen to paper: the initial contact between pen and paper is called put pen to paper, also called starting pen. Writing is generally light, like a bird falling from the air on a branch. Putting pen to paper is the beginning of writing.

Pen pause: Press the pen to call pen pause. Don't overdo it. If it is too heavy, it will be too fat to draw.

Pen lifting: lifting the pen to the top is called pen lifting. Generally, when you finish writing, you should start writing. Hold up a pen like a bird about to fly high from the ground.

Lateral movement mainly includes the following types:

Row: Row from one end to the other is called row, and row is also called row and over-row.

Pen drop: after stopping writing, gently lift the pen to make the pen tip rotate, and the point slightly deviated is called pen drop. Most frustrated pens are used at stroke turning points. For example, when writing a cross, first pick up the pen, write the corners with the tip of the pen, and then stop writing. At this time, lift the pen slightly to make the second side appear, then turn the pen tip slightly to make the pen tip face the top of the stroke-this is called falling the pen, and finally continue to write, and then write with a horizontal stroke.

Folding pen: when writing some pictures, you want to go down first, then up, then left and then right, change direction flatly and lightly, and deliberately expose the edges and corners. This kind of pen is called folding pen. For example, to write horizontally, first put the pen on the upper left, and then fold it to the lower right to write a square edge. This is a folding pen.

Turn the pen: the pen tip rotation is called turn the pen, which means that the stippling is written without edges and corners. For example, when writing the second stroke of the word "Ma" or the fourth stroke of the word "Yuan", the pen tip should be rotated like drawing a circle with a compass in order to prevent the corner from being exposed.

Pen return: the direction of pen return after stopping is called pen return. The purpose of returning the pen is to "protect the tail and avoid' broken wood'".

Stroke: A stroke is called a stroke when it is reversed. Unlike reverse strokes, reverse strokes are reverse strokes. If you write a left vertical hook, when you write the length of the hook vertically, lift the pen to the left, and then, in turn, make the nib face the opposite direction of the hook to be picked out-this is the pen-and finally lift the pen to pick it out.

Vertical pen: when walking, the pen tip is raised, and if you go far and don't look back, it is called vertical pen. For example, when writing off, use a pen from heavy to light, and finally use a vertical pen.

In addition to vertical movement and horizontal movement, there is also a way to raise the pen between them. This kind of brushwork neither raises the pen nor stops, that is, it does not turn or move, and the pen stops on the paper, which is called vertical pen. The purpose of keeping a pen is to gain motivation, that is, to obtain a certain situation of stippling.

Center and winger

The tip of the pen tip is called the pen tip, also called the pen center, and the short hair outside is called the auxiliary hair. When writing in the center, the pen tip often points to draw. In this way, the bristles are laid flat on the paper, and the stippling looks rich, round and three-dimensional.

Side strokes are eccentric, that is, when writing, the strokes are not in the middle of stippling, but on the side of stippling, they are often on the top when writing horizontal paintings, and on the left when writing vertical paintings. It is easy to see the edges and corners at the beginning of the pen, but stippling often lacks three-dimensional sense, and because the pen is not in the direction of bristles, it is easy to have neat strokes on one side and irregular strokes on the other.

Center and winger are also two methods of writing with unity of opposites. It is monotonous to use only the center or winger. The center is energetic, the winger is beautiful, the center is the main one, and the winger is the auxiliary one, so as to make the best use of everything. So there is really no need to make a pen heart, and it is impossible to make a pen heart. If you always haggle over whether the pen is in the center when writing, especially when writing fast running script or cursive script, it will definitely affect the disorder of writing, the patchwork of composition and the vividness of charm. Look at Huai Su's "Autobiographical Post", which is said to be the pen center. Isn't he also a winger? Therefore, Feng Fang of the Ming Dynasty said: "The ancients used the same pen to write seal, minute, truth, line and cursive script, and they must give priority to the front (that is, the center), and occasionally use the side to win their glory. Under the sub-book, the front is eight and the side is two, and the seal is absolutely unstoppable. "