How do I draw? How to draw well? It's something that a lot of people care about. Some people come to see me to paint, and they write with their hearts, so that they write how to draw flowers, how to draw birds, and so on, and regard them as a fixed law. Does this make a good painting? The technique is not static, how to draw? To be solved; How to draw well? Be more deliberately inquiring. Use this opportunity to share a little experience. ——Wang Xuetao
First, the exercise of basic skills should be solid
Flower and bird painting is to depict flowers, birds and birds to express the vitality of the natural world, reflect the thriving vitality, so as to give people a healthy artistic infection. The object it depicts is nature, so cultivating the vitality of the natural world and training the sensitivity of observation is the main thing. Many predecessors have also done the same. Legend has it that a painter, in order to experience the form of grass worms, often lay in the grass to observe, so that the dew wet his clothes, which shows the seriousness of observation. When I was a child living in the countryside, I had a strong preference for every scene in the natural world, and the habits of observation and sketching that I developed as a child have always had a great influence on me. It is necessary to seriously understand the structure, characteristics, habits and laws of life of objects and images, so that when painting, we can achieve the corresponding heart and hand. In particular, it should be mentioned that some people have a certain misunderstanding of the so-called "freehand paintings of flowers and birds", thinking that "freehand" people do not have to seek their shape, but only try to practice pen and ink, which is to confuse the observation, refinement, and generalization of reality with the living habits and structural characteristics of the object that do not have to be studied, and the result is that the vivid, diverse, and varied nature is either painted uniformly, or it is not a donkey or a horse. Some paintings come from the hands of people who do not pay attention to observation, which can be seen at a glance, which is not good at painting. The source of flower and bird painting is vivid nature, not the brush and ink of others, and refining and summarizing should also come from the observation of nature, so the observation of nature is the basic skill of training the mind and the eye.
If you do not pay attention to the sketching of objects and cannot grasp the characteristics of the object's body, you lose the ability to reproduce art. Sketching is not a specimen of insects and birds, not only to be able to accurately portray the image, but also to emphasize the ability to summarize and capture the dynamics of the object's moments, I always ask for my own sketches. The agility of the hand and eye is the problem to be solved by sketching, and the vividness of the picture is inseparable from the exercise of sketching.
Second, silent writing is more important than sketching
What I am talking about silent writing is actually silent writing, seeing with the eyes and remembering with the brain. No matter how fast the sketch is, it is often limited to one thing at a time, and after careful observation, the image printed in the brain is more complete and vivid, and it is naturally issued at the end of the pen when it is applied. My teacher Wang Mengbai is a modern painter who pays great attention to sketching, and the main method is silent writing. He liked to watch videos about animals, and once when we watched a movie together, he saw monkeys forming into a bunch and drinking water, and he was very excited, and kept squeezing my hand to make me pay attention. His monkeys are well drawn, catch the spirit, and have a living atmosphere. Today's art development is far from being comparable to any past era, and many young painters have been trained in modeling ability, color, sketching and other aspects; If the technique of sketching is combined with silent writing and silent memorization, the mastery of the characteristics of the object and the living environment will be further deepened. The ability to silently write has been improved, and it is also helpful to capture the instantaneous dynamics of objects when sketching. The benefits of silent writing are great and harder.
Copying is important, and as early as the Six Dynasties, the Sheikh was valued for listing it as one of the "Six Laws". However, the copying of freehand paintings has been ignored by many young friends. They are not completely indifferent to painting, but they pay attention to the problem of painting methods, but they do not seriously study the spiritual temperament of the works. Copying is mainly to understand the theory of the painting, both to be faithful to the original work, but also to change its shortcomings. Lin Liang's "Double Geese", washed with a pen, the chapter is full and complete, and it is inappropriate to add a point or subtract a stroke. When I copied it, I naturally asked to experience the artist's intentions in an effort to be faithful to the original painting method. The opposite example, such as Wang Yiqing's "Double Eagle", is also very well drawn, but the heads of the two eagles are separated to the sides and the picture is scattered, when I am about to paint, the pen is facing each other, but the head of an eagle is twisted, so that the change seems to make the picture more concentrated. The problems to be solved must be clear, and the harvest will be more.
Third, pen and ink skills should be natural
Pen and ink are in the service of the object of expression and should be formed naturally. The Ming Dynasty people talked about pen and ink, and used more centers, but its effect, as Huang Binhong said, was relatively bald, and the pen was short, which seemed too dry. When painting, any brush edge can be universal, as long as the better performance of the object can be, over time, their own pen and ink style will naturally form; Remember to pursue brush and ink in the initial stage of painting, and relax the vivid representation of natural objects. The order of difficulty in mastering pen and ink is pen, ink, and water. In fact, the water-drenched painting method is easier to express, and the dry pen really needs skill. Pen and ink expression has a great influence on the artistic conception of painting. Xu Wei's paintings have a good side, but they are not very superb. He is good at painting with glue blended ink, such as "River Crab Diagram", and Ren Bonian also uses this method. The method of using glue is easier than mastering water, the effect is more moist, and the disadvantage is that the ink color is monotonous. Compared with Wang Mengbai's "Pomegranate" and Xu Wei's "Pomegranate", the former is both form and god, and there is no sculpting qi at all, reaching the state of divine immersion, which shows the importance of pen and ink performance.
Fourth, explore the characteristics of the use of color in Chinese painting
People who don't know much often think that Chinese brush and ink are preferable, while the color is not exquisite, in fact, it is not the case. The colors of Chinese painting are traditional and distinctive. The faience art of thousands of years ago can still give people a sense of beauty, not only because of the perfect combination of patterns and instrument shapes, but also because the black and red color of the smooth lines drawn is coordinated with the surface color of the pottery after firing, forming a unity of color, pattern and shape. Subsequently, from the lacquerware of the Warring States, the Qin and Han Dynasties, and the murals of the Han Dynasty, it can be seen that the national characteristics of color in art creation have been formed. Sheikh's summary of "color with class" shows that the color problem has been raised to a theoretical problem more than a thousand years ago and has been valued.
Not emphasizing the visual feelings in a specific time and environment, and adopting highly generalized artistic processing methods to express them, is the characteristic of the use of color in Chinese painting. The method of expression, one is the combination of ink and color, or ink instead of color; First, the inherent color of the expression object is the mainstay. Ink painting is a concise summary of color expression, the so-called ink is divided into five colors, used well, many times can play an artistic effect that cannot be achieved by using color. Many black and white photos are very expressive, which can dwarf color photos with accurate colors. Nor did anyone think that Chaplin's films were deficient because they were silent. Here, black and white and silence become the means of artistic appeal. Using ink to summarize the colors of nature is a major feature of color expression in Chinese painting. Similarly, the combination of ink and color can often be enriched and better expressed for specific emotions. Color to help ink, ink color, has always been valued.
Qi Baishi painted cabbage in thick ink, next to two small crimson peppers with black tips, and the color feeling was very distinct. He painted a black-and-white wax table with a red candle that had the same effect. The artistic appeal produced by red and black colors is familiar to ancient people, such as Chinese lacquerware and Greek bottle painting. It has a sharp contrast, yet solemn and full. I have some feelings myself. Peony is a favorite flower variety, and the Tang Dynasty people appreciated peony became a major fashion in Chang'an and Luoyang. Historically, many literati and painters have written poems and painted on this theme. However, the feudal literati depicted it as a symbol of wealth, and today's people have completely different hobbies and feelings about it. I once tried to paint the branches and leaves in ink color, setting off the red flower head, breaking through the format that the red flower must be supported by green leaves, and removing the feminine and rich atmosphere. Although the color used is reduced, the overall effect is prominent and solemn; When used well, the color feeling is not necessarily monotonous, and at the same time, it can exert the effect of pen and ink on the branches and leaves.
The color expression of Chinese painting is completely different from that of Western painting, although everyone understands that Chinese painting mainly expresses the inherent color of the object, the problem is how to skillfully use the inherent color of natural objects to enrich the picture. The color laws summarized in Western paintings are helpful in understanding this. A ladybug fell on the white jade hairpin, which was too light and elegant, and the contrast also added to the crystallineness of the flower. Praying mantises born with two colors, ochre yellow on a painting may be more harmonious; In the other, painted in stone green, it may stand out in contrast. The clever use of color can add a sense of music and rhythm to the picture. I have painted a "iris", what flying insects on it, quite a lot of brains, mainly from the color considerations, the addition of wax bugs to feel more satisfied. The whole painting is the so-called cooler warm tone, which is more bright and elegant, and at the same time does not use contrast excessively, resulting in a uniform and pleasing effect. The overall hue is formed by grass-green and bruised flowers painted on a gold base, and the flower heads contrast with the red wings of the flying insects. At the same time, the three shades of blue, purple, gray red, yellow and green 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 that mainly express inherent colors.
Fifth, the creation of an artistic mood that introduces people's feelings
In general, the Chinese painting tradition is freehand, just like the art of Peking Opera. Not limited to the mechanical reproduction of the object, but also to grasp the spiritual temperament of the object, focusing on creating an artistic conception to infect the viewer. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the grass worms in Guangdong juqiao and julian had sketching kung fu, but they lacked the inner spirit, which was like a specimen, and it lost its touching artistic conception.
Chinese painting talks about painting theory, painting feelings, and painting fun. The content of a painting is good, but it always has to be interesting to impress people's hearts. It is necessary to draw in a way that is not noticed by people in nature, or a kind of humor that may occur, so as to give people an unexpected feeling and room for reminiscence. The competition for food by chicks is a natural phenomenon of biology, and Qi Baishi's "He Calls Each Other Every Day" pours out human emotions and endlessly reminiscent of artistic conceptions. Isn't a weaver lady who bites through a grass cage and crawls outside it sometimes more than hiding in a melon vine?
Exaggerated techniques are most used in flower and bird paintings. Birds generally have very little eye rotation due to the wide perspective of the eyes and the flexibility of the posture. But the bird of the Bada Shanren can speak with its eyes, which is in the era in which he lived, or it can be said that he was speaking on his own behalf. Many of the birds I have painted, the eye sockets are often larger than the real, the eyeballs also rotate with the line of sight, in a different mood from the former, it embodies vitality, and has an anthropomorphic taste emotionally. Some people attach great importance to exaggeration, but they do it too much, it looks uncomfortable, which is because they do not understand that exaggeration is to be created according to the artistic conception, and it is still conveyed by means of form, and exaggeration is not equivalent to comics.
Deliberately expressing the vitality of the natural world and grasping the moments in life to express the momentum is an important factor in the creation of artistic conception. Although the birds have a variety of forms, the moment they want to fly and fall, it may remind people of a kind of pleasure of smelling or foraging for food. Moving in stillness is another way to implicitly express momentum. The chicks in the grass are very dynamic, but on the neck of the ethereal pen and on the curved back curve of the powerful and elastic back, it is not difficult to imagine the dynamics that may be heralded on its flexible body. In short, the touching mood is for the author to pour out his feelings to explore.
Sixth, the layout of the rules and regulations is attributed to the intention
The layout structure determines the basic form of the entire work. The ancients emphasized that the intention was to write first, the intention was the general outline, and its basic idea was what to use to impress people's hearts. Even in the face of a small piece of paper, you must stand and draw to see the overall situation. Due to the paper and creative characteristics of Chinese painting tools, it is not possible to require a sketch made of all kinds of deliberation. When it comes to business composition, it has its own uniqueness. When I first saw someone design a composition using the cut-and-paste method, I was really surprised. Flower and bird painting requires an abdominal draft before painting, but it can only determine the general appearance, and the important thing is that it can adapt to changes after the pen is dropped. Shi Tao talks about "one painting", in terms of painting method, this initial "one painting" determines the style, and the brush and brush follow each other in order to penetrate one breath, which may be called "starting from one". This kind of painting is smooth and the structure is complete. We must not ignore the actual situation after the pen and adhere to the original compositional ideas, so that the picture is chaotic, which is one of the important characteristics of "Chinese painting" different from Western painting.
Chinese painting pays attention to lines, and the arrangement of lines in composition is mainly based on the arrangement of lines, which can roughly have three types: main, auxiliary and broken lines. The main line is the dominant form of the definite type, the auxiliary line strengthens the momentum of the main line, and the broken line breaks the monotonous layout on the one hand, and at the same time highlights the main line again in a contrasting way. Although the grass worm is small, it is not an embellishment in flower and bird paintings, and a cicada with a short body can sometimes be regarded as a necessary ink color; The mantis with agile nature is often treated as a curved line in the composition, even the long tentacles, whether it is low or yang, must be properly arranged, and it is not difficult for careful people to carefully ponder, as for dense, scattered, dynamic, virtual, etc., it only plays a role in enriching the main effect. Jinnong's plum blossoms have power, but they are too scattered and fail in chapters. The law should be summarized, but it should not be made by law. Just deliberately in the center of the painting, the ancients called it the node of qi, the pen and brush must consider this center, the chapter is naturally strange.
Wang Xuetao
In the spring of 1980, it was recorded in the capital
