Chinese Brush Painting Instructions
Chinese brush painting is characterized by its single brushstroke technique. Chinese brush painting draws its inspiration from nature, often the landscape and typically associated with well-known Chinese plants and wildlife like bamboo and koi. This special type of painting comes from a spiritual inspiration within the artist, where the brushstroke not only refers to the landscape, but also to the energy and spirit of the landscape and the artist. This single-stroke technique requires great patience and practice.
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Things You'll Need
- Image of a Chinese brush painting
- Rice paper
- Flat surface
- Cup of water
- Bamboo brush
- Black ink
Instructions
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1
Prepare an image of a Chinese brush painting to reference. Some good subject matter includes paintings of bamboo stalks, orchids, plum trees, fish, pandas or birds.
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2
Lay or clip your rice paper onto a flat surface.
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3
Dip the bamboo brush hairs in clean water, saturating the hairs from tip to base. Lightly dip only the tip of the brush in black ink, so that the bottom half of the brush is blackened with ink and the top is clean with water.
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4
Look at your image source and determine the separate brush strokes used by the artists, such as a blade of grass, pedal of a flower or the body of a fish.
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5
Hold the brush in your hand similar to the way you hold a pencil, but much more relaxed, with the brush handle more horizontal than vertical. Hold the handle near the middle.
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Place the brush to the paper, and imitate one brush stroke from the reference image. Drag the brush slowly, moving your arm instead of you wrist, and create one long stroke, never lifting the brush until the stroke is complete.
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Change the positioning of the brush as you move across the paper without lifting the brush. Turn the brush horizontal, putting more hair against the paper to form the fat sections of a blade of grass, then slightly raise the brush vertical to the paper to create the thin wisps within the blade of grass.
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Dip the brush in water and repeat the process. Use single brush strokes and only do one at a time, drawing one pedal or one piece of grass, until you have completed the image.
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Tips & Warnings
Substitute rice paper with hot press watercolor paper if you do not have rice paper. The watercolor paper will not produce the same effect, but it will work as a substitute.
Replace a bamboo brush with a medium- to large-sized round sable brush for a similar effect as a bamboo brush.
Use watercolors and colored inks to add variety and dimension to your painting.
References
- Photo Credit bamboo image by fotografiche.eu from Fotolia.com
