In fact, we know that it is almost impossible for a hard pen to write the effect of a brush, but we can write some effects similar to those of a brush stroke through some small movements and fine control, which will make our hard pen words more precise and durable.
one of the most important actions is "lifting and pressing", which allows the strokes of hard pen to change in thickness, but the degree of change is far less than that of brush pen, but the effect can still be obvious.
First, let's take a look at the principle that lifting and pressing can change the thickness of strokes.
Let's take a gel pen as an example. The longest one is the horizontal line, which represents the paper surface. The circle in the upper left corner represents the nib (the nib of a gel pen is a small ball, but the nib of a pen is different, and the brushwork is slightly different, so we will talk about it when we have the opportunity).
We know that we can write strokes because of the contact between the pen tip and the paper. The deeper the contact between the pen tip and the paper, the thicker the strokes it writes, that is, the rough strokes it writes when it is pressed down. On the contrary, it is a fine stroke.
in the above picture, when the pen tip moves to the position (1), it just touches the paper surface. If it can keep moving horizontally at this time, the written strokes must be thinner. When the pen tip falls to the position (2), the pen tip moves horizontally at this time, and the written strokes are thick. When our pen tip is lifted to the position (3), the pen tip becomes thinner again.
When we want to write strokes with different thicknesses with a brush, we change the shape of the tip of the brush by lifting and pressing, thus increasing the contact area with the paper; When we want to write strokes with different thicknesses with a hard pen, we also change the shape of the paper by lifting and pressing, thus increasing the contact area with the paper.
Therefore, there is a detail that needs attention, that is, you need to put something under your paper, such as books and cushions, which are a little elastic and flat. If you put a piece of paper directly on a hard desktop, it is impossible to write down the thickness changes.
In addition, there are many kinds of gel pens, ranging from .28 to 1.. Of course, the thicker the pen tip, the greater the change in thickness. All the strokes and words I demonstrated are from .5 gel pens, which are also the most commonly used gel pens in our daily writing.
Another thing to note is that the thickness of strokes is also related to the stroke speed. Because when the stroke speed is very fast, the pen tip can't keep up with the ink, so the strokes will appear thinner. Therefore, to write rough strokes, the speed can be slowed down and the fine strokes can be put up faster. But it is mainly based on lifting and pressing.
2. After knowing the principle, we try to do some exercises. (The pictures below are all done by .5 gel pen)
1) Let's write the thickest stroke first, and then let the pen tip touch the paper as slightly as possible to draw the thinnest stroke.
practice point: regardless of the stability, shape and quality of strokes, just feel that your pen tip can really write two strokes with different thicknesses-and you can write them yourself.
2) Write two parallel horizontal lines, one thick and one thin.
Practice points:
First, the strokes should be as steady and straight as possible, which is also an exercise for our pen control ability.
second, the strokes don't need to be too long, because we don't need to write too long strokes either. The box in the picture above is just the square of our ordinary exercise paper of about 1.6㎝. So just write it in the square in the exercise paper, which is similar to the length of the long and horizontal lines of our usual practice.
Third, you don't need to work hard for rough strokes, just make sure that the strokes are thick enough, and the hand holding the pen is still relaxed; Because the fine brushwork is in a state of being at arm's length from the paper, it is difficult to be particularly stable, and it is enough to be flat, straight and thin as a whole.
3) Write two vertical lines in the same way, one thick and one thin.
4) Write a horizontal line from coarse to fine, and a horizontal line from fine to coarse.
By lifting and pressing, gradually change the thickness of strokes, while keeping the lines as smooth as possible.
5) In the same way, write a vertical line from coarse to fine and a vertical line from fine to coarse.
according to today's explanation, write a word "one". (All the previous exercises can be completed well)
1. The strokes are slightly inclined.
2, from coarse to fine, and then from fine to coarse, does not require much change, but to be able to clearly feel this change, you can clearly feel that the word "one" is thick at both ends and thin in the middle.
3, the lines are soft.
Through some subtle movements of lifting and pressing, whether it's horizontal, vertical, skimming, pressing, or hooking, folding, lifting and pointing, you can write more textured strokes. You might as well give it a try.