If we don't attach importance to sketching and can't grasp the morphological characteristics of the object, we will lose the ability of artistic reproduction. Sketch is not to draw specimens of insects and birds, it is not only to accurately depict images, but also to emphasize the ability to summarize and capture the instantaneous dynamics of objects. I always ask for my own sketch like this. The agility of hand and eye is the problem to be solved in sketch, and the vividness of the picture can not be separated from the practice of sketch.
Dictation is more important than sketch. When I say dictation, I actually mean reciting. See with your eyes and remember with your brain. No matter how fast the sketch is, it is often limited to one thing, but after careful observation, the image printed in the mind is more complete and vivid, and it will naturally be sent to the pen when used. My teacher, Wang, pays great attention to sketching among modern painters. His main method is dictation. He likes watching movies about animals. Once, when he watched a movie together, he was very excited to see monkeys drinking water in a string. He kept squeezing my hand, let me pay attention. His monkey is well drawn. He can hold his breath and has a breath of life. Today's artistic development is far beyond any previous era. Many young painters have been trained in modeling ability, color and sketch. If the skills of sketching are combined with dictation and recitation, the mastery of the characteristics and living environment of the object will be further deepened. The ability of dictation has been improved, and it is also helpful to capture the instantaneous dynamics of objects when sketching. Dictation has great benefits and is more difficult.
Copying is very important. As early as the Six Dynasties, Sheikh was listed as one of the "six laws" and attracted attention. But the copying of freehand brushwork has been ignored by many young friends. They studied painting, but paid more attention to painting, without seriously studying the spiritual temperament of their works. Copying is mainly to understand the theory of painting, which can be faithful to the original and change its shortcomings. Lin Liang's "Double Goose" is full and complete in composition, which makes people feel that it is inappropriate to add one point and subtract one point. When I copy, I naturally want to be loyal to the original painting as much as possible to understand the painter's intention. Negative examples, such as Wang Yiqing's "Two Eagles", are also well drawn, but the heads of the two eagles are divided to both sides, and the picture is scattered. When I draw, the pen and the pen are facing each other, but the head of an eagle is turned around. This change seems to make the picture more focused. The problems to be solved in copying must be clear, and the gains will be more.
Pen and ink skills should be natural, and pen and ink should naturally serve the objects and forms of expression. People in the Ming dynasty talked more about the use of pen and ink and the center, but the effect, as Huang said, was bald and short, which seemed too dry. When painting, any brush strokes can be universal, as long as the object is well represented, and over time, your own pen and ink style will naturally form; Remember to blindly pursue pen and ink in the early stage of painting. Relax the vivid expression of natural things. The order of difficulty in mastering pen and ink is pen, ink and water. In fact, dripping paintings are easier to show, and dry places really need skills. The expression of pen and ink has great influence on the artistic conception of painting. Xu Wei's paintings have a good side, but they are not very exquisite. Make good use of glue ink to draw pictures, such as crab pictures, which Ren Bonian also uses. Using glue is easier than mastering water, and the effect is moist. The disadvantage is that the ink color is monotonous. Comparing Wang's pomegranate with Xu Wei's pomegranate, the former has both form and spirit, no sense of carving, and achieves a superb situation, which shows the importance of pen and ink expression.
People who don't know much about the characteristics of color application in Chinese painting often think that Chinese painting is desirable and color is not particular, but it is not. The color of Chinese painting is traditional and distinctive. Painted pottery art thousands of years ago can give people a beautiful feeling, not only because of the perfect combination of patterns and shapes, but also because the black and red colors of smooth lines are in harmony with the surface colors of fired pottery, forming the unity of colors, patterns and shapes. Later, from the lacquerware of the Warring States, Qin and Han Dynasties and the murals of the Han Dynasty, we can see that the national characteristics of color in artistic creation have been formed. Sheikh's summary of "there are classes of colors" shows that the color problem has risen to a theoretical issue thousands of years ago and received attention.
He didn't emphasize the visual feeling in a specific time and environment, but expressed it with a highly generalized artistic treatment method, which is the characteristic of China's painting color application. The performance methods are as follows: 1. Combining ink with hue, or replacing color with ink; First, the inherent color of an object is dominant. Ink painting is a concise summary of color expression. The so-called ink is divided into five colors, and in many cases, it can achieve artistic effects that cannot be achieved by color. Many black-and-white photos are very expressive, which can dwarf color photos with accurate colors. No one thinks Chaplin's films are a pity because they are silent. Here, black and white and silence become the means of artistic appeal. Summarizing the colors of nature with ink and wash is a major feature of color expression in Chinese painting. Similarly, the combination of ink and color can often get rich expressive force and better express specific emotions. People have always attached importance to helping ink with color and developing color with ink.
Qi Baishi painted Chinese cabbage with thick ink, and tied for two deep red peppers with black stems. This color feels bright. The black and white candlestick he painted with red candles has the same effect. Ancient people were familiar with the artistic appeal of red and black, such as lacquerware in China and bottle painting in Greece. In stark contrast, but solemn and full. I have some feelings myself. Peony is a favorite flower variety, and it has become a fashion to enjoy peony in Chang 'an and Luoyang in Tang Dynasty. Scholars and painters always write poems and draw pictures on this theme. However, feudal literati described it as a symbol of wealth, and people today have completely different hobbies and feelings about it. I tried to draw branches and leaves with ink to set off the red flower head, breaking through the format that safflower must be supported by green leaves, except for the gentle and rich charm. Although the color is reduced, the overall effect is outstanding and solemn; If used well, the color sense may not be monotonous, but it can also play a pen and ink effect on the branches and leaves. The color expression of Chinese painting is completely different from that of western painting. Although we all know that Chinese painting mainly expresses the inherent color of objects, the problem lies in how to skillfully use the inherent color of natural objects to enrich the picture. The color rules summarized in western painting are helpful to understand this point. A ladybug landed on the white Hosta, which enlivened an overly elegant tone. In contrast, it also increases the crystallization of flowers. Mantis is born with two colors, and ochre yellow in a painting may be more harmonious; In another stone green painting, it may stand out more in contrast. The clever use of color can add a sense of music and rhythm to the picture. I drew a picture of "Iris". It takes a lot of brains to fill it with flying insects, mainly considering the color. I am very satisfied with the addition of moths. The whole painting is the so-called cold warm tone, bright and elegant, and at the same time, too much contrast is used, resulting in a unified and pleasing effect. The overall tone is composed of grass green and blue flowers painted on a muddy gold background, and the flower head contrasts with the red wings of flying insects. At the same time, cyan, gray-red, yellow-green three colors can be coordinated into one, and the color feeling is richer. With the help of foreign color experience, it is worth studying to enrich the traditional techniques of expressing inherent color.
Generally speaking, China's painting tradition pays attention to freehand brushwork, just like Beijing Opera. It is not limited to the mechanical representation of objects, but also to grasp the spiritual temperament of objects, aiming at creating artistic conception and infecting viewers. The grasshoppers who lived in Julian, Guangdong Province in the late Qing Dynasty, although they had sketching skills, lacked inner spirit, just like specimens, and lost their touching artistic conception.
Chinese painting pays attention to painting principle, painting feeling and painting interest. The content of a painting is good, but it must be interesting to impress people. We should not only draw people's feelings, but also be good at reflecting an unnoticed or possible machine interest in nature, thus giving people an unexpected feeling and imagination space. It is a natural phenomenon that chickens compete for food. Waiting for that Day by Qi Baishi is full of human emotions and endless artistic conception. Isn't it sometimes more interesting for a weaver girl to crawl outside after biting through a grass cage than to hide in a melon vine?
Exaggeration is most used in flower-and-bird painting. Birds generally have little eye movement because of their wide visual angle and flexible posture. But Badashanren's bird can speak with its eyes, which can be said to be speaking for itself in his time. Many birds I have painted often have bigger eyes than reality, and their eyeballs move with the line of sight. In a different artistic conception from the former, they embody vitality and are personified emotionally. Some people attach great importance to exaggeration, but they go too far and look uncomfortable. This is because they don't understand that exaggeration is based on artistic conception and is still vivid with the help of form. Exaggeration is different from comics.
Deliberately expressing the vitality of nature and grasping the moments in life to express the momentum are important factors in artistic conception creation. Although there are many kinds of birds, the moment they want to fly and fall may remind people of an interest in finding a mate or foraging. Moving silently is another way to express dynamic potential implicitly. Chickens living in the grass do not move much, but there is strength in the ethereal neck and a strong and elastic back curve. It is not difficult for people to imagine the movement that may be predicted in its flexible body. In a word, touching artistic conception is for the author to explore with emotion.
The composition layout belongs to the conceptual layout structure, which determines the basic form of the whole work. The ancients emphasized that intention is the first, intention is the general program, and its basic idea is what to impress people with. Only when you are full of ideas can you have a consistent pulse. Even in the face of a small piece of paper, you have to stand and draw to see the overall situation. Due to the characteristics of Chinese painting tools, paper and creation, it is impossible to require a carefully scrutinized sketch. When managing composition, it has its own uniqueness. The first time I saw someone designing a composition by cutting and pasting, it really surprised me. What about artistic conception? Flower-and-bird painting requires a draft before painting, but only the rough appearance can be determined. It is important to improvise after writing. Shi Tao talks about "one painting". In terms of painting methods, this initial "one painting" determines the style and characteristics, and pens can be connected into one, which may be called "from the beginning". This kind of painting has a smooth pulse and a complete structure. After writing, we should stick to the original composition idea no matter what the actual situation is, so that the picture is messy, which is one of the important characteristics different from western painting.
China's paintings pay attention to lines, and the arrangement of lines is the main composition, which can be roughly divided into three types: main line, auxiliary line and broken line. The main line is the dominant pattern, and the auxiliary line strengthens the momentum of the main line. On the one hand, the dotted line breaks the monotonous layout and highlights the main line again by contrast. Although the grass bug is small, it is not an ornament in flower-and-bird painting. Cicada with short posture is sometimes regarded as a necessary ink color. The agile mantis is often regarded as a zigzag line in composition. Even long tentacles, whether low or high, should be arranged properly, and it is not difficult for careful people to understand them carefully. As for density, gathering and scattering, movement, reality, etc., it only plays a role in enriching the theme. Jin Nong's plum blossoms are skillful. But too careless, it is a failure in composition. Pay attention to summing up the rules, but don't make them for the sake of the rules. Just deliberately focus on the center of the painting, which the ancients called the node of qi. When using a pen, we should consider this center, and the composition is naturally extraordinary.