On January 21, at the Huang's Gourd Painting Art Studio in Jimo Ancient City, Jimo District, Qingdao City, Shandong Province, Huang Xu, a folk branding artist, was meticulously polishing his favorite "Huang's Branding Painting". He painted works on the gourd with the theme of "beautiful tiger" to welcome the arrival of the Spring Festival of the Year of the Tiger in the Lunar Calendar. Near the Spring Festival, Huang Xu also opened the "busy year" mode, with the gourd as the base, with the "iron pen" to burn various festive patterns, so that these small gourds are full of New Year's flavor.
Walking into the "Huang's Brand Painting" studio is full of dazzling gourds with different shapes. These exquisite gourd paintings are Huang Xu's proud works. Branding, also known as fire needle embroidery, is a burning hot soldering iron that irons are used to iron out burn marks on objects for painting. The soldering iron is the pen, and the gourd is the "paper". After the electric pen is energized, it generates heat, uses the principle of carbonization, does not apply any pigments, and bakes and outlines on wooden boards, rice paper, gourds, silk and even cowhide for landscapes, figures, flowers, birds, insects, fish, calligraphy, etc., forming a branding painting.
"The meaning of the gourd is good, the gourd harmonic 'Fulu', the gourd has many sons, and the gourd man dialect is harmonic 'wan', so in the folk, the gourd represents many sons and many blessings, and the fluffy follows. The gourd is a natural product, more than a natural meaning, and more and more people like to collect and enjoy the gourd. Huang Xu introduced. Huang Xu told reporters that every Spring Festival, he will brand some works with the theme of the zodiac to express his good wishes for the new year. This year, there are more than 20 kinds of paintings on the tiger of the Chinese zodiac, including "Tiger Tiger Shengwei", "Tiger Spirit Soaring", "Golden Tiger Sending Blessings", "Tiggo Welcoming Spring" and so on.
"Now the manuscript, in the technology and pattern have been innovative, like some of the slightly larger gourd brand painting Zhao Cai Jinbao, Fulu Shouxi and other patterns, made of craft gourds, and then there is a class of pay attention to the new form, in the pattern to pay attention to exquisite, branding painting needs to be more exquisite, this is the work level, like peony, lotus, cabbage and other symbolic patterns have been loved by people since ancient times, belongs to the manuscript that has been selling well. This year is the Year of the Tiger, and the tiger pattern is the one I have painted the most this year, and it is also the most popular pattern for everyone. Huang Xu called each of his works a manuscript, and every gourd was an artistic creation.
According to Huang Xu, traditional brand painting not only requires deep skills, but also years of practice. On the basis of traditional brand painting, he developed pictograms, sex and other techniques. In order to select suitable materials, he rented 5 plots of gourds from friends. "This is to prevent the land from 'heavy stubble' and avoid the gourd growing deformed and not fruity. The longer I worked, the more I felt that this thing had gone deep, and I couldn't finish it or learn it in my lifetime. ”
"The picture on the gourd is mainly hot, first take the pencil to draft, and then use the soldering iron to hook the line modeling, there are three degrees to master, one is the temperature, and the other is the speed, the speed of the pen running on the screen, also determines its color on the gourd, and there is also strength, the pressure is hard, the line picture is relatively dark, the virtual dots used are relatively light, and these three degrees match each other, which will produce different effects." Huang Xu spoke while demonstrating.
Huang Xu told reporters that in fact, work and life are practices. "You think, sitting there for more than ten hours a day, how much patience you have to have. Why is it that traditional brand painting is difficult to inherit, the heart is not weak, the heart is not focused, and it is not at all. "Brand painting pays attention to "intention to write first, the pen is formed", Huang Xu does not advocate copying, it has always been the mind of the painting, so the time and energy consumed are greater. "A lot of people only see this gadget as beautiful and delicate, but it's just such a small thing that has burned me for more than a month." Despite this, Huang Xu is still immersed in the beginning and end of the pen, and he hopes to always have enthusiasm and energy to continue to work and live. For him, painting gourds is also life.
Different from ordinary businessmen, Huang Xu's studio, in addition to displaying various branding works and attracting guests, meets people who are interested in branding painting, and he will also teach this old craft for free, so that more people can appreciate the charm of national traditional culture. (Zhang Tao)