"Mystery Tower" is neat and handsome in style, neat in brushwork, round and heavy.
On the other hand, Shence Army Monument combines rigidity with softness, stops the flesh and blood, and travels in the richness of Yan Fa with vigorous pen, which is appraised by later generations as "the neat and gentle wind spirit is the first wonderful trace in my life".
1, "Fang Bi" and "round pen".
"Fang Bi" means that the beginning and end of strokes are angular and square. For example, the horizontal lines of the words "Ten", "Healthy", "Too" and "Right" below are Fang Bi. In these characters, vertical painting and long strokes were combined by Fiona Fang, and there was a second turning point to fold the pen, which was more angular than usual, making the strokes of the characters look vigorous with the pen.
The words written by a round pen have a round nib and no traces of folding. The way to write with a pen is: after you start, wrap up the pen, don't spread the front of the pen, write everywhere, and put it away for a meal. The words written in this way are particularly rich and round. For example, the strokes in the words "knowledge", "Tao", "zhe" and "meaning".
Long horizontal is the main pen, which is generally used in the upper cover, middle waist or lower support of characters. For example, the long horizontal paintings in the words "book", "happiness", "truth" and "industry". They generally stretch to the left to take advantage of the situation, the middle section is slightly thinner, the ends are slightly lower and the middle arch is as high as a boat. In this way, the font is prevented from being slender and vivid. The same is true of the long horizontal in the words "day", "strange", "hill" and "different".
If the short cross on the left is to avoid it, the right end of the cross is a little sharp, which is called a "right-pointed cross", such as the grass head in the word "horizontal" and "swinging", the bamboo head in the word "symbol" and the three horizontal lines on the upper left of the word "Pei".
If several paintings are carried out at the same time, they should be changed flexibly according to the situation. For example, the four horizontal lines of the word "big" have different shapes. The length of the upper two horizontal lines is obvious, but the length of the lower two horizontal lines is different. Another example is the word "Shou". The upper two horizontal strokes are similar in length, but the strokes are different. The lower horizontal hook is open, and the long horizontal pen in the word is to the right, and the lines are different. Another example is that there are countless horizontal paintings in the words "Zhu" and "Yi", with different lengths, thicknesses and shapes.
There is also a special short cross, short and thick, with the same thickness on the left and right, slightly drooping in the middle and slightly upturned at both ends, which is often used for the first stroke of some words. Such as "positive", "vector", "husband" and "Ryukyu".
Liu Ti's horizontal painting pen also has the same characteristics: neat pen, obviously frustrated with pen. When you start writing, you should put the pen gently in front of you, then cross down and move quickly to the right. Don't slow down, get it right away.
2. Vertical hook belt bracket
The vertical hook with brackets is an obvious feature of Liu Ti's personality. In practical application, this hook can be divided into three categories: first, when carrying the pen to the vertical lower end, it bends slightly to the left, then returns slightly to the front, and quickly kicks the hook to the left, such as the hook in the words Hu, Yu, Cheng and Mo; Second, transport the pen to the end of the vertical painting, lift the pen slightly upward to make the end of the vertical painting slightly thinner, and then quickly flatten it to the left, such as the tick in the words "East", "Things", "Lai" and "Multiply"; The third method is to reach the end of the vertical painting before using the pen. When the pen reaches the end of the vertical painting, the tip of the pen is slightly raised to make the hooks look similar, such as the hooks in the words "street", "ruin", "record" and "Yu". In addition, there are many changes in the hook painting, such as the oblique hook of the word "Dao", the horizontal hook of the word "Sentence", the horizontal hook of the word "Mi" and the horizontal hook of the word "Nai", which are similar to the above hook method, but their positions are slightly different.
3. Brush strokes of vertical painting
Vertical painting is always thicker than horizontal painting, and both ends are hung with needles according to different needs, such as "dry" and "ten" The two columns are juxtaposed, showing the trend of facing each other or facing back. Generally, fully enclosed fonts, such as "Gu", "Guo", "Yuan" and "Tuan" are all opposite, and the right vertical is thicker than the left vertical; The words "door", "smell", "open" and "solution" are surrounded by opposite directions.
4. Types and characteristics of skimming.
Liu style words are long and flexible, such as "Left", "Big", "Zhang" and "Miao". Short and straight, with elbows according to the needs of different structural fonts, such as "You" and "Right"; There are flat, such as "item" and "money"; There is a short triangle, such as the word "sign" and "Buddha" in the painting; In addition, there is straightness, such as the word "for"; Go back to the front, such as "Sheng" and "Wei"; Orchid leaves, such as "degree" and "dust". All the changes are different.
5. Powerful painting
Liu Zi has thick strokes, long feet and thin tail. His types are relatively straight, such as "Jin", "She", "Zhi" and "Zu". Short words such as "Zhang" and "Hao"; Side press, such as "D" and "Yes"; Lateral pressure, such as the pressure of "Tao" and "creation"; Anti-si, such as "every" and "abdomen"
When the left and right intersect, the left is lighter than the right, such as the left and right in the words "Zhang", "Teaching", "Grant" and "Nothing".
6, plump and rigid hook, hook
The curved part of the vertical hook should be smooth all the way when writing, such as the vertical hook in the word "ritual" and "sin"; The vertical hook of the characters "Feng" and "Fan" is roughly equivalent to one third of the circumference, which makes the characters look perfect. The hook is strong and slightly curved, such as the hook in the words "or", "sheng", "I" and "zai".
7. Various viewpoints
On the whole, the points of willow characters are long and round, but there are also rich changes. Morphologically, it can be divided into: quadrilateral points, such as the upper point of "six"; Triangular points, such as the lower left point of the word "Yi"; Elbow point, such as the vertex of the word "shou"; Eccentric points and short vertical points, such as the third and fourth strokes of the word "dang" In essence, these points are extended on the basis of points or square points, or changed by skimming, picking, or changing directions by using horizontal and vertical methods. When writing, we should not only do what we can, but also look at each other to connect the momentum.
However, among these points, quadrilateral points are the most representative and widely used, and are often used in the positions of independent points, upper points and four points, such as points in the words "main" and "square". His writing method: first write a longer side with a brush stroke. Note that among the three shorter sides, one side should be basically parallel to the long side, and the four sides should be full without depression. Some upward and downward points also evolved from it, but there is an upward or downward point, such as two points in the words "desire" and "must". The use of quadrilateral points can enhance the strong and heavy feeling of words. Because it is irregular, it should be used flexibly because of different glyphs.
In addition, the fire bottom points in Liu Ti are different, the left two points are to the right, and the right two points are to the left, which are symmetrically arranged left and right; The middle two points are slightly slender and often replaced by short vertical points; The left and right points are slightly thicker, mostly quadrilateral points, and their slopes are more obvious than those in the middle. This arrangement makes the four points have changes and vitality. Such as "nothing", "photo", "fish" and "burn"
There are many elbow vertical points at the top of the hijab, and the left vertical point is often replaced by a short vertical point. For the words "six", "square" and "main", the vertices are mostly quadrilateral points inclined to the left. Two parallel points are different according to their glyphs, and some adopt two-point backward type, such as the next two points of the words "for" and "different"; Others use the opposite types, such as "grain" and "flat"; Others adopt the forward type, such as the upper two points of the word "benefit". The arrangement of the three water outlets should have their own postures, and their tips should be roughly aligned with the tail of the first point, so as to echo up and down, such as the three water outlets in the words "clear", "deep" and "deep".
First, the structure that best reflects the characteristics of fonts.
1, the word "mouth" is inverted trapezoid.
All characters with four corners, such as mouth, sun, white and field, are written as an inverted trapezoid, that is, the lower ends of the left and right vertical parts are inclined inward. If there is no cross in the "mouth", it is generally to extend the left vertical foot out of the mouth; If there is a scratch in the mouth, the right vertical foot bends slightly to the left and extends out of the mouth. The upper left corner of the word "buckle" is mostly broken, leaving a gap. This kind of treatment makes the characters as a whole appear compact and informal, sparse but not scattered.
Step 2: Wide hijab
Each baogai or similar top cover is written in a larger size, so that the strokes below can be covered to maintain stability.
3. Unique word "wood"
The word "wood" in Liu style, whether it is a single word or a radical, is generally placed on vertical paintings.
Step 4 follow natural glyphs
As for the general structural characteristics of Liu-style figures, we should pay attention to the focus of the figures, and the horizontal, vertical, left and right-handed figures should be longer and extend in all directions. The size of words varies from word to word, and the width is wide, such as "er", "Shang", "Yu" and "You". Narrow is narrow, such as "eyes", "self", "moon" and "back"; Big is big, such as "dew", "pet", "play" and "return"; Small is small, such as "already", "scholar", "mouth" and "ten thousand", all of which conform to nature.
For words with dense strokes or sparse strokes, do not overemphasize the collection of small characters and then expand them into large characters, but slightly reduce or expand them under the same conditions. In terms of processing, for words with dense strokes, the pen should be thinner, and the thickness and density of strokes should be uniform; For words with simple strokes, the strokes should be fat and plump, and the small ones should be big, neither too big nor too small. Generally, it is one or two times smaller than other words.
In addition, we should be good at using the visual illusion to solve the problem that the whole word size is not harmonious because of the different shapes and areas of words, so as to write regular script that conforms to people's aesthetic habits and the characteristics of willow characters.
For example, the word "Liu Gongquan" in the post is quite different in size and width, but it is very harmonious when put together. This kind of coordination is based on the physiological phenomena and aesthetic habits of human eyes, in fact, it is to achieve visual balance and imbalance, which we should understand and master.
In the process of writing, the strokes of characters should not be too thin, because Liu's regular script is not only vigorous and powerful, but also full of elegance, which must be paid attention to.
Second, several problems that should be paid attention to when studying Liu Tikai's books.
(1) Pay attention to the comprehensive use of fingers, wrists, elbows and forearms, and correctly understand the significance of using wrists.
How to write is a key problem in the case of correct writing (solid finger, palm deficiency and vertical wrist). People often say that the pen depends on the finger and the pen depends on the wrist. This statement is incomplete and should refer to the comprehensive use of wrist, elbow and forearm. Because the fingers hold the pen and move under the drive of the wrist and arm, it is impossible to simply use a certain part to transport the pen. In addition, fingers, wrists and arms have different functions, so we should use a certain part flexibly according to the different sizes of words and different parts of the same stroke. The so-called writing with the wrist mainly refers to writing words such as Chinese and big letters. At this time, the elbow of the right arm is placed on the table, and the wrist is raised, mainly by the wrist, and the movement of the wrist drives the movement of the fingers. Writing strokes in small letters and capitals, such as starting and closing pens, require slight movements, relying on fingers. When writing 10 cm or more (the following examples are all based on hanging elbows to write regular script 10 cm or so), the use of wrist will drop to a secondary position. At this time, it is necessary to hang the elbow, take the elbow as the axis, rotate the forearm to drive the wrist, and refer to the action of carrying the pen, but the pen is still started and closed by the wrist and fingers. Moreover, some strokes must be completed by the joint action of fingers, wrists, arms and elbows.
So, what are the characteristics of the correct pen movement? That is, when writing, the pen keeps falling to one side or the other, or up and down, and the direction of the pen is opposite to that of the pen, which makes the words written by the pen feel astringent. If the pen holder is always upright, it is actually the elbow joint and shoulder joint that move. Therefore, we should pay attention to the comprehensive use of fingers, wrists, elbows and forearms to play their different functions. Here are two examples to illustrate.
For example, the writing method of the word length of Liu style is as follows: when starting a pen, use the fingering method to swing the nib slightly to the right in the air, and then twist the trend slightly to the left to enter the paper; (1), (2), cut down gently pause; ③ Turn the nib slightly to the middle and turn the nib to the left with the wrist as the center; ④ Turn the forearm to the right with the elbow as the axis, thus driving the wrist to move to the right; 5. When collecting the pen, gently pick up the pen tip with your fingers, so light that you can see here, and your fingers, wrists, elbows and forearms are all used. Another thing to be reminded is that the process of turning the forearm to drive the wrist to the right always has an upward trend, which is in line with the trend of horizontal painting and is very beneficial to overcome the problem of sagging on the right side.
For another example, Liu hung a pen and fingered it. ① The pen tip slightly swings to the lower right, then the pen tip goes up to the left, ② the pen tip turns to the upper right, ③ the pen tip goes down immediately, ④ the pen tip slightly retreats to the middle, and then the pen tip turns to press the pen, ⑤ the elbow joint can bend to the right with the wrist joint as the axis, ⑤ the pen tip turns slightly to the left when closed, ⑦ the pen tip goes down, and ⑧ the pen tip goes up. Finger and wrist movements are used here. In the process of pen transportation, because only the wrist moves downward as the center, the fulcrum is short, the hand swings slightly from left to right, and the pen tip runs vertically. This method of using a pen is helpful to overcome the problem that the vertical drawing is not straight or inclined to the right.
(2) Pay attention to the integrity of the writing process.
There are three basic processes in writing each stroke: starting, writing and receiving. Each process has different requirements and brushwork.
For example, when you start writing in the long and horizontal direction, you should pay attention to turning the pen lightly, turning the front end with your wrist, and adjusting the nib to the central writing state. These movements should be light, continuous and completed at one time. Turning the pen to cut and turning the front with the wrist are the main points of horizontal painting. In order to change the thickness of strokes, horizontal strokes should be used alternately while maintaining the center. Keeping the center and changing the pressure are the main points of writing. During the horizontal stroke, it should be noted that it is best to turn back to the left at the place where the pen is picked up, then lightly stroke to the right, then run the pen tip to the lower right corner of the stroke to lift the pen to the left, and gently rotate the pen to receive it. The pen tip runs to the lower right corner of the stroke, gently lifting the pen and turning the front is the focus of pen collection. Of these three processes, collecting pens is the most important, so don't be anticlimactic. It is common for people to write, start and stroke, but they scribble with a pen, either with a meal or with a pen in their hands, but the nib is not in place, and the pen-receiving part is round or pointed, which is incomplete. It is necessary to emphasize pen collection and cultivate a good style of work, especially for young students.
In fact, the three strokes of basic strokes are the comprehensive application of pen skills such as stopping, lifting, pressing, making, turning, light, heavy, fast and slow, which are the basic skills of learning calligraphy. Be sure to master it skillfully and apply it to every stroke.
(3) Pay attention to the influence of "optical illusion" on learning books and deepen the understanding of Liu Tikai's writing principles.
People's eyes have strong recognition ability when observing things, but because of the different shapes and positions of objects, they often have some illusions. The same is true of writing. Beginners need to know how these illusions affect the structure of regular script and what methods to take to eliminate these influences. Only in this way can we have a correct understanding of the writing principle of regular script summarized by predecessors, take corresponding measures to eliminate the influence of optical illusion and master the structure of characters faster and better. Here are a few examples to briefly explain.
First, a horizontal painting with the same thickness is horizontal, but under the observation of human eyes, it often feels that the right side is slightly lower. When we are writing regular script, if the horizontal drawing is very flat, we will feel that the right shoulder of the stroke is drooping and uncomfortable, so the horizontal drawing of regular script tends to be low left and high right to eliminate the influence of optical illusion.
Second, the "visual center" is often higher than the "geometric center". If people observe a rectangle hanging on the front, the place that the eyes think is the center is just higher than the geometric center where the two diagonal lines intersect. This phenomenon often affects the center of gravity of words. Therefore, when dealing with characters with long upper and lower structures, Liu Ti adopted the method of "tightening up and loosening down". The upper stroke is arranged compactly, which makes the center of gravity move up, while the lower stroke is slightly longer and looser. Just like a person's figure, the legs are longer than the length and look pleasing to the eye.
Third, when horizontal painting and vertical painting with the same thickness are put together, they will feel that horizontal painting is thicker than vertical painting. That is, people's eyes are arranged horizontally, and what they look at horizontally is more real with small error, while what they look at vertically is often scattered with large error. If you don't understand this, you can't understand why Liu's horizontal painting is thinner than vertical painting, and sometimes there is still a big gap.
Fourth, we try two square grids of the same size. One grid is evenly filled with horizontal paintings, and the other grid is evenly filled with vertical paintings. By comparison, you will find that the horizontal painting is good up and down, and the vertical painting is wide left and right. Therefore, when Liu Ti arranges words with more horizontal strokes, he pays great attention to compressing the overall length of words, carefully writes horizontal strokes, and tries to reduce the length of vertical strokes as much as possible to narrow the distance between horizontal strokes. When writing a word with many vertical pictures, try to shorten the length of horizontal strokes to compress the distance between vertical pictures and reduce the overall width of the word. If you can do these two things, you may be able to master them faster when you write down the words of the lower structure, the upper, middle and lower structure or the left and right structure and the left and right structure.
Fifth, "if you look at a long vertical shaft with the same thickness, you will feel that the middle is thick and the two ends are thin." This is because the long shape is not as concentrated as the short shape, the eyes are concentrated in the middle part, and the vision at both ends is scattered, resulting in the feeling of thin at both ends. Therefore, the length, vertical and horizontal of Liu style characters are mostly thin in the middle and thick at both ends (except for hanging needles).
Sixth, if the strokes of Chinese characters are equal in thickness, words with more strokes will appear black and words with fewer strokes will appear white. This phenomenon is actually the result of black-and-white contrast and virtual-real contrast. If we don't pay attention to this point, there will be a black and white situation in regular script works, which will make the styles of the works inconsistent. Therefore, Liu Ti attaches great importance to this point, and its black and white layout is subtle and unpleasant. Adjust the stroke thickness according to the number of strokes and the shape of words. For words with many strokes, make their strokes thinner, evenly spaced and coordinated with each other, so as to be tight but not crowded; For characters with few strokes and long shapes, the strokes should be full and the white cloth should be uniform, so as to be sparse but not scattered; For words with few strokes and short shapes, don't write too big, the strokes should be heavier and bolder, so that the words appear wide and full, and the small ones are big. Black-and-white contrast and black-and-white complementarity are a very important principle in Liu Ti's ci creation. You must pay attention to careful observation when studying, otherwise it will be a tiny difference, a thousand miles away.
Seventh, the geometry of words has a great influence on words. Although Chinese characters are square, they are not all square. From the overall structure of Chinese characters, there are several geometric figures such as rectangle, trapezoid, triangle, hexagon, circle and diamond. If you write these words in squares of the same size, you will find that the square is the largest and the diamond is the smallest. Do not adjust, do not arrange together, big big, small messy, not unified. Therefore, when writing, we should be flexible, reduce the font to see the big characters, enlarge the font to see the small characters, and use the small characters for bold strokes, so as to coordinate the use of words in the whole work.
What I mentioned above is the influence of various optical illusions on regular script, and there are two ways to overcome it: one is to paste more, how to deal with posts, pay attention to the shape and direction of strokes in words, the coordination of strokes, the change of thickness and so on. And then write temporarily, so that you know fairly well and have the intention to write first. Second, we should pay attention to the fact that the size and thickness of adjacent characters conform to human visual laws and minimize the influence of optical illusion.
(4) Pay attention to the application of horizontal painting, which tends to be low left and high right.
It is a basic writing method summarized by people in order to overcome the visual errors of regular script. In Liu's regular script, this writing method is widely used in almost all horizontal paintings and the structural arrangement of many characters.
For example, the prefix "Ren" and words that intersect left and right, the left tip is lower than the left foot, such as "She", "Qin", "Yan", "Xin", "Water" and "Degree".
For example, the left and right points at the bottom of the word "small", the three points at the bottom of the word "heart" and the four points at the bottom of the word "fire" are all arranged in the lower left and upper right. Such as virtue, worship, photos.
For example, the opposite point and the opposite point, the left point is lower than the right point, such as Tu, Hu, Wu and Yi.
For example, the symmetrical short horizontal lines are also low on the left and high on the right, such as Xue, Cha, Gua and Sad.
For example, the upper two points and the lower left and right points next to the word "fire" are still lower left and higher right, such as the words "smoke, light, sorrow and autumn".
If the prefix "mountain" is short and vertical, the same is true, such as "year old" and "positive".
For the same word, the left and right fonts are equally symmetrical, and the arrangement is also low on the left and high on the right. Such as broken, happy, wise, complete, Brahma and other words.
From these examples, it is not difficult to see that the trend of horizontal painting is a very important principle in Liu Tikai's book, which has universal guiding significance. This is because horizontal painting tends to be low on the left and high on the right to adapt to the objective law of human eyes observing things. If we arrange the structure of words in this way, the stability of words will be strong; If we violate this law and arrange it reluctantly, it will destroy the stability and overall coordination of the text.
(5) Pay attention to the application of perspective method in structure.
In works of art, objects of the same size, with different near and far positions, show a change in size on the screen, which is larger near the visual observation point, and smaller on the contrary. In Liu Tizi, the structural arrangement of many characters is based on this perspective. Mainly manifested in the left and right structural characters with multiple vertical paintings and right vertical hooks. Its right vertical hook is often longer than the left vertical hook, and the horizontal stroke is lower on the left and higher on the right, forming a perspective effect similar to a row of bars in works of art. Such as: Sichuan, East, Ze, Ming, Chongqing, Chongqing and so on.
There are also full-enclosed structures and left and right upper-enclosed structures, and the left vertical is shorter than the right vertical, such as: country, circle, garden, etc.
In addition, although many characters don't have vertical hooks, the left side is short and the right side is long because of its short shape, which is similar to the perspective effect on the whole. Such as: Tibetan, pond, stone, incense, Yi, Shu and so on.
Of course, there are also some words whose right-hand glyphs are not suitable for long, whose left-hand glyphs are long and their right-hand glyphs are short. Generally speaking, they are just the opposite of the above perspective. Such as: benevolence, humility, kindness, lightness, song and so on.