Thick ink is mainly used because the contrast between thick ink and paper is great, and in the eyes of calligraphers, thick ink is the most spiritual, especially when creating traditional calligraphy. Such as seal script, official script, and regular script, it seems that only thick ink can express its strength and spirit. Judging from calligraphy works, it is true that the vast majority of works are written with thick ink.
Different calligraphy styles use different shades of ink. For example, when writing regular script, you generally use darker ink, while when writing cursive script, you generally use lighter ink.
When writing calligraphy, there are also the following ink methods to master:
Dry ink:
It means that the water in the stipple painting is less, but it is blacker than burnt ink. It needs to be wet, especially in cursive writing, which can cause white spots to appear from time to time, which enhances the ink level of calligraphy and is full of expressiveness. For example, Mi Fu's "Hongxian Poems" and "Shu Su Tie" of the Song Dynasty, and Huang Tingjian's cursive writing all have very good dry ink. According to legend, Cai Yong of the Eastern Han Dynasty was good at using white calligraphy. If so, it seems that he also used the dry ink method.
Wet ink:
Compared with dry ink, generally there is more water in pointillism calligraphy. Using wet ink calligraphy, pointillism can have a thick, moist and plump "muscular calligraphy" effect, but This method is difficult to master, especially on raw rice paper. If you use it incorrectly, the ink will disappear and the pen will become thick and bloated, so use it with caution.
Kemo:
It belongs to the same ink sequence as dry ink and burnt ink, but in terms of expression level and aesthetic effect, thirsty ink is between dry ink and burnt ink. Sometimes you see flying white lines. When used well, they also have a little eye-catching effect. They are often used in cursive script, seal script and Wei Kai script.