Calligraphy modeling is a special expression of Chinese characters in calligraphy, and it is also a manifestation of the calligrapher's artistic concept. The formal beauty of calligraphy is no longer a simple materialized presentation of horizontal, vertical, point, skimming and pinching, but an abstract expression that permeates the writer's emotions, is the catharsis and transmission of the artist's mood of joy and sorrow, and is also the refraction of the aesthetic image in the subconscious level of the writer.
The same is true of cursive writing, first and foremost, the artistic transformation, grafting, combination and design of the forms of Chinese characters. That is, to make the original appearance of Chinese characters artistic, to form the image form needed for creation. In fact, the new image form is the product of the "meaning" of the calligrapher, and is no longer a Chinese character in the sense of "Explaining Words and Interpretations". This is like the truth of life and the truth of art in literature and art, the truth of life is the archetype, equivalent to Chinese characters; the truth of art is the writer's understanding and perception of social life, which is equivalent to the new image form after the "intention" of the writer.
In short, the creative process and result of cursive writing are the materialized reproduction of the artist's artistic state of mind. Taking wild grass as an example, only by entering a very rational creative mentality can we achieve an extraordinary artistic realm. The Tang Dynasty Cai Xizong's "Treatise on the Book of Laws" mentions that zhang Xu's calligraphy "majestic weather is for the sake of heaven", describing his creative process as "after taking advantage of the happiness, Fang Wantonly put his pen, or applied to the wall, or stuck in the screen, then the group of elephants themselves, if there is a flying movement, the speakers think that Zhang Gong is also a small king's reappearance".
This assertion has had a multiplier effect on the creation of cursive writing. First of all, cursive writing should be "multiplying". Xing is the agitation of the heart that directly triggers the perceptual state of matter, the medium of desire that generates rich associations and innovative expressions, the excitement of unhappiness of the book, and the irrepressible creative impulse of the heart. If you don't do it, you don't make grass; if you don't do it hard, it's tantamount to smearing pepper and taking tears.
Therefore, by the pleasure of writing, the creation is half successful, this excitement is half crazy and half is calm, can be drunk, can be emotional, can be joyful, can be sad, extremely happy, quiet in it. The more fanatical the xing, the more concentrated the heart, and the more the pen is frantic, this is the best realm of creation.
Second, we must use our nature to control the pen and ink. Cai Xizong said that "it is for the sake of heaven", the perfect combination of the calligrapher's subjective aesthetic consciousness and talent, and nature, embodies pen and ink with temperament, and conveys embrace with pen and ink. The spontaneous and natural stroke of god is the common pursuit of the writer's unremitting efforts. Therefore, whether it is "multiplication" or "heavenly indulgence", it is the highest state of calligraphy aesthetics, and it needs to be based on solid character training.
In the accumulated cursive creation practice, the author summarizes and explores the following modeling rules to gain a deeper understanding of the spatial characteristics of cursive.
/01/
The law of big and small
The relationship between words and words in the work is intricate and complex, and uncertainties can be seen everywhere. Big, to what extent, small, small to what extent; how small the words with more strokes are small, how big the words with few strokes are; where to use large characters in the whole work, where to use small characters, etc., all need to be adapted to changes and flexible handling.
Grasping the law of size and handling the relationship between size and size in order to achieve an artistic effect that is always appropriate for large and small works plays an extremely important role in the artistic beauty of the whole work. The more unique thing in cursive is the use of continuous writing, which can make three words and five words form a group and change the group into words, thus extending the big concept and enriching the big content.
/02/
The law of long and short
"Length", in addition to the length of the font, also includes the exaggeration or reduction of the length of the line inside the word, so that the inherent uniformity is broken and changes. Calligraphy modeling must break the traditional modeling law, only by breaking the balance, there is taste, only to create contradictions and solve contradictions, in order to achieve the true meaning of art.
If foreigners and Chinese learn calligraphy at the same time, foreigners' perception of calligraphy modeling is better than Chinese, because Chinese have inertia in Chinese character modeling, and habitual modeling thinking will imprison their grasp of calligraphy modeling, while for foreigners, everything is from scratch, and all Chinese character modeling is only the combination and division of lines, all are creation and innovation.
/03/
The regularity of looseness and tightness
As the old saying goes: "Loose can run horses, tight and airtight", in the whole work, loose and dense changes are very important. The sparseness of cursive writing has been a new topic since the Ming Dynasty. The ancients reduced the strokes of cursive, the Ming Dynasty exaggerated the format of cursive, and the traditional experience of black and white division was strongly challenged. Especially since the reform and opening up, the increase in the area of the format of the works has exceeded the historical peak. In this case, on the one hand, it is necessary to solve the drawbacks of infinite entanglement left by the Ming and Qing dynasties, on the other hand, it is also necessary to seek new modeling methods, so that the slackers are crazy and the secrets are strangely dense, which is a better way to deal with it.
/04/
The law of width and narrowness
The width and narrowness between the words are reflected in the unevenness between the lines, the previous word is wide, the next word is narrow, but it is by no means the average alternation of width and narrowness, width and narrowness, but the rhythm of the inequality of width, width and width, narrowness and width, which is similar to the gong, gong, and gong in the song and dance. In this regard, in the appreciation of the first line of the work is particularly obvious, the width and narrowness of the blank space on the right side of the first line is not uniform, and there must be a certain irregular change in width and narrowness, which is the effect pursued by the law of width and narrowness.
/05/
The law of positive and oblique
This is the relationship between words and words, groups and groups. When writing, it is necessary to change obliquely, swing and posture, and the mentality must be let go. This law was not obvious in the Wei and Jin dynasties, but it was very obvious in the Ming Dynasty. Ming Dynasty calligraphy is known for its romance, for example, Zhu Yunming's "Before and After Chibi Fu" swings greatly from side to side,
Among them, the vertical of the "moon" has never been straightened, but this does not make people feel unstable, because art is a whole, as long as the central axis does not change, left and right look forward, echoing back and forth, it will be properly coordinated. In this regard, calligraphy relies on the perception of sister art, such as the rich dance posture of the actors in the dance, sometimes forward and sometimes backward, and its expressiveness is extremely strong, which is art and has shocking power.
/06/
The law of dryness and wetness
This is the film and piece, word and word between the ink modeling law, the creation must have a "group" consciousness, such as three words, two words, a word or even half a word arranged into a group, due to the results of each group of ink color modeling and the emergence of flake form in the work. This combination is more common in Wang Duo's calligraphy, and the difficulty of the entire calligraphy can be reduced through grouping, and a new creative atmosphere can also appear through grouping. When words and words, groups and groups, and pieces and pieces form a rich change, it will make the viewer have unlimited reverie.
/07/
The law of breaking and connecting
On the one hand, the strict requirements of the brushwork can be completed in the broken connection, such as the starting pen from the upper pen to the horizontal painting, and the process of using the tibetan front or the back edge is completed due to the continuous stroke. On the other hand, through the break and connection of lines, or the breaks and connections between words, wonderful line shapes, word shapes, line shapes or article shapes are completed.
/08/
The law of squares and circles
The square shape of the square circle has a square and circle of the word, or a square circle of the glyph, and there is also a certain local square circle contrast change. The basis of calligraphy is philosophy, which is the unity of opposites, the use of squares and circles, to achieve a better artistic realm, of course, you can also pursue the effect of the square in the whole text, or the effect of the circle, which is not absolute, here is mainly used to highlight a method or way to enter the beauty of calligraphy modeling.
/09/
The law of thickness and thinness
The thickness of the line or word is closely related to the vividness of the work, and the law of thickness is followed well, which can make the work form waves and undulations, and make the whole picture ups and downs.
/10/
The law of thick and light
Shade and dryness belong to the same ink color modeling law, but there is a difference in degree. The direction of the contrast between thick and light contradictions is very important, thicker than the dry prescription manifest realm; in addition, the concentration is also very exquisite, and it is impossible to let the ink become a pig.
/11/
The law of partial side head shifting
The first position of the side is to change the inherent position when necessary and give full play to the role of the shape change. For example, the word "pine" is a left-right structure, and it can be written as a top-down structure when creating, which is very commonly used in creation.
The upper and lower structures become left and right structures, the left and right structures become upper and lower structures, the upper and lower structures become left plus the lower structure, and so on, which are many examples in the classic works of the ancients. The last law is the law of grouping and slicing, which has been discussed separately above and will not be repeated here.
In short, the law of calligraphy modeling is understood from the macro level, that is, breaking the modeling law of ordinary Chinese characters, which is different from the usual visual stereotype and pursuing the unique artistic perception and personalized artistic expression of the calligrapher, which goes beyond the modeling principle of traditional realism. Generally speaking, realism is a natural intuitive method, emphasizing intuitive reality in modeling and attaching importance to people's real feelings.
There is such an artistic view that Chinese character writing attaches importance to the structure of the interstitial frame, and the position of the little stroke has fixed people's vision, so once the structure changes, it will cause changes in the authenticity of Chinese character writing. The author thinks that this is a one-sided view, and the structure of the oracle bone and seal book has undergone amazing changes compared with the current common Chinese characters, but it has not changed the authenticity of the Chinese character writing. Due to the deformation of the font structure, the change in visual authenticity did not bring about a change in the authenticity of the interstitial structure and the partial head, so it is certain that the modeling law aimed at conveying the calligraphic art style follows the principle of artistic aesthetics, and is not the same as the construction law of Chinese characters.