Brush is too important, just like blind date. If you feel good, you may have a lifelong marriage. If you feel bad, you may become a passerby.
Generally speaking, brush selection is based on a principle, that is, "sharp and round". What is Sharp? That is to say, when the brush strokes converge, the pen tip can remain sharp, not split and messy. Qi is to gently squeeze the nib flat, so that the hair of the nib can be kept even. Round, that is, around the belly of the pen, the pen holder is full and has no gap, which is a standard conical shape. Last but not least, you must be healthy, and the nib must be flexible. Otherwise, when you lift the pen after writing, you will find that the pen is either flat or the hair is messy, so you can't practice words, so you must be flexible, and the brush will return to its original state after writing.
As for what brand to buy, I recommend Shanlianhu pen. Because "Mao Ying's skill is the best in the world" and "the price of purple is as expensive as gold", it is known as "the crown on the pen". The birthplace of Hu Bi is Shanlian Town, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province. People there have passed on the pen-making technology for more than 2000 years, and the pens made are world-famous. Many people who practice calligraphy like to have their own lake pens.
There are generally two kinds, one is self-grinding, and the other is not used. What you want to grind generally refers to Hui ink, which is a treasure of China's ink-making skills and one of the famous "Four Treasures of the Study" at home and abroad. But I recommend that you don't have to grind it yourself, because it takes a lot of time.
Don't need time to grind. I recommend a Dege ink, which can be used directly without grinding. It has a history of 100 years. This was invented by a man named Xie, who is Chinese, because he deeply felt that studying ink was too time-consuming and delayed answering questions. At that time, he thought that it would save time and effort to directly make an ink for writing. After many hardships, he finally figured it out, and then opened a shop "Yidege", which is still prosperous. Chen Shuliang, a famous calligrapher, once praised Yidege for its pure and beautiful ink color, moderate glue, fluent writing and treasure in ink.
Usually, it is best to use paper with low price and good water absorption, such as tassel paper and meta-book paper.
If you create, you can use semi-cooked publicity and color publicity. These papers generally feel good when used, you can try them ~
A good copybook will directly affect our calligraphy practice, because some copybooks are poorly printed and have vague handwriting, which seems to have caused great interference to our calligraphy practice. I recommend buying copybooks published by Zhonghua Book Company, which are cheap and clearly printed. In addition, I suggest you practice ancient Chinese characters as much as possible. Personally, I feel that ancient people wrote better than modern people. Generally speaking, friends who like regular script can consider practicing Yan Zhenqing's Many Pagodas or Ou Yangxun's Ninety percent Palace.
The following is my personal copy of the Lanting Preface. Please forgive me if there are any bad places ~
Detail map ~