Zhu Da is centered on painting, and also has high attainments in calligraphy, poetry postscript and seal cutting. In painting, he is famous for his freehand brushwork in ink and wash, and he is good at splashing ink, especially flower-and-bird painting, which is beautiful in the world. In his creation, he is natural, concise, magnificent and novel, creating a broad and vertical style. In the introduction of Zhu Da in the past 300 years, all the freehand brushwork schools have been influenced by him to some extent. In the Qing Dynasty, Zhang Geng commented that his paintings had reached the realm of "being clumsy in the countryside and neglecting painting". He advocates "economy" in painting. Sometimes he only draws a bird or a stone on a big piece of paper and only draws a few strokes, and his expression is perfect. His calligraphy style is vigorous and fluent. Seal cutting is simple and unique.
In the process of forming his own style, Zhu Da inherited the fine traditions of the previous generation and found his own way. His flower-and-bird paintings lived in Xu Xi for five dynasties, and Zhu Lanmo, a literati painter in Song Dynasty, was also influenced by the techniques of Lin Liang, Lv Ji and Lu Zhi in Ming Dynasty, especially advocating the extensive painting style of the Qingteng Bai Yang. His landscape paintings reached as far away as the Southern Dynasties, and he studied under Dong, Ju, Mi Fei, Ni, Huang and Dong Qichang.
In calligraphy, he studied Shi Guwen intensively, and since the Han, Wei, Jin and Tang Dynasties, he deliberately wrote down various calligraphy posts, especially Wang Xizhi. Calligraphy was a beginner in Dong Qichang, and later in Huanggu, but in his later years, he changed the law to get rid of redundancy without relying on the ancients. He used painting to deform calligraphy, and then used the pen seal in the center to make it move, not to mention the method of cursive script, but also to use the rules, such as the dead vine circling the rock and the old tree blooming, which was full of lofty and profound atmosphere, higher than the secular. Badashanren's paintings and calligraphy all have a cold and unattainable aristocratic scholar style, telling the pain of his solitary minister's national subjugation. His early masterpieces include Ode to Wine Virtue by Liu Ling, a running script, and his mature masterpieces include Four Arrogant Axes by Cheng Yi and Poems with Paintings by Huang Zhuyuan.
Generally speaking, Zhu Da's painting art is characterized by expressing feelings with form and taking spirit with form; The pen and ink are simple and light, and the pen is bold and unrestrained; Brief introduction of Zhu Da with sparse layout and ethereal artistic conception: full of vitality and momentum. His form and skills are the best expression of his true feelings. The brushwork is unrestrained, does not constitute a law, vigorous and beautiful, leisurely, and the composition is incomplete but complete. His "one flower, one bird" lies not in quantity and size, but in the position and momentum in the layout. And whether it is used in a timely, surprising and ingenious way. This is his "win-win" method. If the layout of the painting is flawed, sometimes books and clouds are used to fill its meaning. Zhu Da can write poems and his calligraphy is exquisite, so even if he doesn't draw much, with his poems, the artistic conception is enough. His paintings make people feel small and numerous, which is an artistic ingenuity.