1. Paper for writing brush characters
Calligraphy works are generally written on Xuan paper, because Xuan paper is best at expressing the dryness and wetness of ink color. However, the raw material of rice paper is Dalbergia bark, and the manufacturing process is complicated. The ancients said that "it is not easy to slice paper, but it is seventy-two", so rice paper is expensive. Beginners generally use cheap paper such as meta-book paper and fringed paper.
At present, the paper industry is very developed, but smooth and white paper such as coated paper and Taoist paper is not suitable for practicing calligraphy, because the paper is too smooth, and the writing paper is easy to float, so it is impossible to practice pen power. In the machine-made paper, the old newspaper is rough, and its ink absorption performance is ok, so beginners can completely recycle it.
However, writing ink in newspapers is not easy to come out, and it doesn't matter how long the pen stays on the paper, so it's very uncomfortable to write rice paper again. Therefore, with a certain foundation, we should often practice calligraphy on Yuan Shu paper. When the pen stays on Yuan Shu paper for a while, the ink will spill out, so it will be difficult to write well. The performance of Xuan paper is more sensitive, more penetrating and more difficult than Yuan book paper. Therefore, if conditions permit, we should practice with meta-book paper, and it will be much easier to practice Xuan paper when we have fully mastered the performance of meta-book paper at a certain time.
2. Types and properties of Xuan paper
Xuan paper is named after the production of painting and calligraphy paper in Xuancheng, Anhui Province, and has become synonymous with painting and calligraphy paper in China. Besides Anhui, there are Jiajiang Xuan in Sichuan, Fuyang Xuan in Zhejiang and Pixuan in Wenzhou. Xuan paper is made of sandalwood bark retting and straw retting according to different proportions. Rice paper with leather accounting for 4% is called Mianlian, leather accounting for 6% is called Clear Leather, and leather used for special cleaning is more, accounting for 8%. The more leather, the better the paper quality, the greater the tension and the more ink it can hold. Mianlian is thin, and it is not easy to show wet ink and dry pen, so it is more suitable for writing regular script and small cursive script, which is easier for beginners to master. The thick and clean paper can reflect the change of ink color, and the dry and wet shades can be vividly displayed, and the ink can be filled, so it is possible to write big characters and cursive scripts of seal, official and big lines. Of course, thick paper is more difficult to write than cotton, but it is expressive and loved by painters and painters. These Xuan papers that can make ink seep out are collectively called Shengxuan.
Another kind of Xuan paper is called cooked Xuan. Ink and wash can't be melted on Xuan paper, so it is suitable for writing small letters or drawing meticulous paintings. Calligraphers can't express the change of wet ink because of familiar propaganda, so they generally don't use familiar propaganda to create calligraphy.
before using rice paper, you should know the performance of the rice paper. If the paper is good and thick, the ink should be mixed with clear water before use; If the paper is good and thick, the ink should be mixed with clear water before use; If the paper is thin, the ink can be used with little or no water. You can also dip some ink in the corner of the used rice paper with a brush to see the speed and size range of the ink. If the ink is soaked quickly and in a large range, it means that the paper is thin, the ink is thicker and the writing speed is faster. If the speed of ink spotting is slow and the range is small, it means that the paper is thick, the ink can be thinned appropriately, and the writing speed is slowed down. Some rice paper is poor in paper quality, and the ink will be gray, so it should be written in thick ink, otherwise, the words will lack spirit.
In addition, the specifications of rice paper are divided into three feet, four feet, five feet, six feet, eight feet, and one foot and two ... Pay attention to the quality of rice paper when purchasing. Good rice paper has a white and even surface, without impurities, black spots and damage. It feels soft when touched by hand. When exposed to the sunlight, you can see clouds like cotton wool. The more "clouds", the better the paper quality. You can also lick the corner of the paper with your tongue to test the degree of yellowing. If it doesn't absorb water at all, the water still floats on the paper, which means it is cooked propaganda. If the water is sucked down and slightly spread, it means it is raw propaganda.