How to Learn Chinese Painting

Chinese Fan painting by Naomi Judd

The art of Chinese brush painting has been around for more than 2,000 years. The tradition started in the Han Dynasty in 200 BCE when the Chinese used stiff-hair brushes and recorded their life events with a pine soot and water mixture on rice paper, bamboo or silk. Brush strokes in Chinese painting are not always completely accurate but are suggestive, working to evoke a certain character of the subject. Chinese paintings typically depict natural landscapes or natural objects. This is how to learn Chinese brush painting.

Things You'll Need

• Chinese paint brushes Ink stone and ink stick Paper Chinese watercolors Palette

Instructions

1. Study paintings by Chinese artists before and during the course of your painting experience. Study the way they capture scenery, the way they make you feel and the particular brush strokes that make up the whole.

2. 

   Learn to mix the ink stick and stone and how to incorporate color on your palette. Mix your black ink block with the ink stick by pouring a half teaspoon of clean water into the round depression in the ink block. Lightly grind the ink stick to create a smooth black liquid. Press small pea size dabs of your Chinese watercolors onto your palette and mix these with the black ink as necessary to make darker hues. Mix with more water for lighter colors.

3. 

   Practice the brush strokes with a stiff-hair brush. Practice traditional line strokes, dot and long dot strokes, curve strokes, side strokes, blended strokes and press-and-lift strokes. All strokes should be simple and fluid. These are useful in any Chinese painting you will compose.

4. Focus on the essence of the subject you are painting. How does the subject make you feel? Try to transfer that into your work. Each brush stroke should evoke character and stir a sense of spirit in your painting.

5. 

   Arrange the objects on the page in a manner that uses space effectively. When you look at it, you should not get the impression that something is out of balance. First sketching in pencil what you will paint can help you to know where things should be placed.