The starting stroke of the character "zhou" in the Yan style is the same as the character "十" in the Liu style, but the ending stroke is different. The end of the stroke is in the shape of "dropping dew" (shaped like falling dewdrops), so it is called vertical dew (see Figure 1). The previous steps of its writing method are the same as those of hanging needle vertically, but the method of closing the pen is different (see Figure 2): ① Lift the pen and turn it in a circle; ② Return to the front and close the pen.
No matter whether the stroke is square or round, the method of ending the stroke is the same. What must be specially reminded is that there is a direction problem when the pen is closed in the vertical painting of hanging dew. Many books only point out that "pick up the pen and return to the stroke from right to left and then close the brush". In fact, there should be another way to close the brush, that is, "pick up the pen and return to the stroke from left to right to close the brush" (see picture two). Don't underestimate the direction of the vertical strokes, as this involves the posture of the vertical strokes and the coherence of the strokes. For example, the two vertical paintings of the willow-style "hundred" character (see Figure 2) have different stroke directions. The left vertical stroke is drawn from left to right, while the right vertical stroke is drawn from right to left. Why does it have to be closed like this? Can't it be the other way around? No, because according to the stroke order of the word "hundred", if it ends left and vertical, the pen should be closed and written upwards to the right to write horizontal, folded and vertical strokes. Therefore, the pen must be closed from left to right. If you only know that the strokes of vertical paintings should be drawn from right to left, then the posture will inevitably appear awkward. Because there is no longer any echo problem on the left side of the first vertical painting, that way of writing is unreasonable. The vertical strokes on the right are different when closing the strokes. After the vertical strokes are completed, the two short horizontal strokes in the middle must be written immediately. It makes sense to close the strokes from right to left. Therefore, we can draw a rule: the ending direction of a vertical stroke must be related to the starting direction of the next stroke. If the starting stroke of the next stroke of a vertical painting is on the left side of the vertical painting, then the closing stroke of the vertical painting should be from right to left; if the starting stroke of the next stroke of a vertical painting is on the right side of the vertical painting, then the closing stroke of the vertical painting should be Collect from left to right. Only in this way can the strokes echo each other.