The methodological steps and criteria for the creation of works in the French Book Exhibition

Creation of works in the French book exhibition

Methodological steps and standards

(1) The methods and steps of the creation of works in the national exhibition

What is the "National Exhibition"?

The "National Exhibition" refers to a series of national book fairs sponsored by the Chinese Calligraphers Association, which are divided into three levels.

The first level is the (quadrennial) National Calligraphy Lanting Award Exhibition and the National Calligraphy Seal Engraving Exhibition sponsored by the China Book Association.

The second level is the 14 individual book fairs sponsored by the China Book Association, namely: the National Seal Book Exhibition, the National Lishu Book Exhibition, the National Calligraphy Exhibition, the National Cursive Book Exhibition, the National Seal Engraving Art Exhibition, the National Engraving Art Exhibition, the National Elderly Book Fair, the National Youth Book Exhibition, the National Women's Calligraphy Seal Engraving Exhibition, the National Newcomer New Works Exhibition, the National Yanglian Book Fair, the National Fan Book Exhibition, and the Western China Calligraphy Joint Exhibition. Individual exhibitions are usually held every 2-5 years. If you enter the single exhibition for two consecutive times, you can join the China Book Association.

The third level is all kinds of special book fairs and book competitions held by the China Book Association from time to time, such as national book fairs and book competitions held to commemorate the birthdays of some great people and historical celebrities, and exhibitions of outstanding student works of the Training Center of the China Book Association.

There is a significant difference between the creation of "national exhibition" works and the creation of ordinary creations, and the creation of "national exhibition" works is usually divided into the following three steps:

First, the preparation stage

1． Determine the content of the work.

It is best to make your own poems that carry forward the main theme and reflect the spirit of the times. If you are copying ancient and modern poems, you also pay attention to the taste of the selected content, and the clichés are generally not written. Select the content, can not be copied according to the book, to examine whether the content is correct, whether there are omissions, to avoid mistakes.

2． Select the style and chapter.

After the content is established, make a small sample on the manuscript paper, such as finding words that are inaccurate in the seal law, the subordinate law, the italic method, or the draft law, immediately consult the reference book, choose the most concise structure, the highest ancient, and the most easily recognizable model, and there must be no violations such as "sandwiching", not uniformly taking the method, not hiding the edge of the pen, and mixing traditional and simple characters. Participation in the "National Exhibition" generally requires the unified use of traditional characters into the book.

3. Material preparation.

Prepare paper, ink, pen, printing clay, town ruler, boiling water and other creative supplies, pay attention to paper, it is best to choose Anhui Jingxian authentic red star brand shengxuan (wadang xuan, color xuan, jin xuan, antique xuan, etc.), according to the needs of the rice paper can be cut and glued to 6 feet, 8 feet or larger. Ink is best developed with emblem ink or with special ink for calligraphy and painting, and the pen can be preferred in Huzhou, Zhejiang Province, or the brush of other manufacturers.

4． Look for feelings.

Don't force yourself to fight when you don't want to write, most of the works with vitality are born in the most emotional state.

2. Creative stage

1． Lay the paper flat on the felt and concentrate. Use boiling water to debug the ink to the best extent, it is best to use three ink plates to fill the thick ink, debugged ink, boiling water or water.

2． Concentrating on luck, the teeth clenched, the tongue pressed against the palate, holding the breath to the fullest. Write when the passion is ready. When starting the pen, we should pay attention to the Tibetan front, and the lines should be sharp, flat, slippery, thin, floating, and dry, and the method should be taken as ancient and elegant.

3． Swing with a three-finger single hook hanging wrist. Be intentional in the pen first, have a good mind, concentrate on the edge, and do it in one go. The next pen should be fierce, who to want, the line of writing should be slow, the pen should be fast, pay attention to the independence and freedom of the line, and do not collide with each other and overlap the book. It is necessary to deeply understand the principle of "seeing the birds out of the forest, and frightening the snakes into the grass". Strive to achieve "pen does not press the pen, ink does not flood ink", so that the lines remain independent, empty and simple. Create two or three or more times, and pause when the passion is low.

4． Packaging works. According to the needs of the content and form of the work, timely line, grid, glue, dye, old, bold use of new materials and modern binding methods, improve the display effect and visual impact of the work.

3. Inspection stage

1． Self-check and self-selected.

You can put a few written works on the spacious ground or hang them, carefully check whether the rules are reasonable, whether there are bad strokes, whether there are simple characters, whether the rhyme is coherent, and then look at whether the lines and structures are in line with the law, whether there are irregularities such as pen opening and irregularities, and then select the best work.

2． Please review the comments.

If you are not accurate, you can find a teacher and friend to choose, because the onlookers are clear, if the teachers and friends put forward that the work has obvious faults, and then wait for the opportunity to re-create until they are satisfied.

3． Prepare to contribute.

Use a pencil or ballpoint pen to write your name, gender, address, age, telephone number, and real ID number in italics in the lower right corner of the reverse of the work and attach your artistic resume. Then wrap it in a brown paper envelope, and the four sides of the envelope are best glued with tape to prevent damage on the way. To be posted a week in advance, you can vote for 1-2 fine products at a time, it is not advisable to vote more, it is best to use your real name to settle the money, do not use a pen name or pseudonym to repeat the submission, to talk about art ethics, to consciously maintain the discipline of the book world.

(2) Standards for works exhibited in the National Exhibition

The "National Exhibition" is a nationwide calligraphy activity, regardless of whether the National Exhibition can represent the highest level in the country, but from the technical level of a national calligraphy exhibition, it can still help us to participate in the same type of exhibition in the future. Due to the needs and influence of the exhibition, the level of works that can be selected must reach a certain common level, and we can glimpse some technical characteristics by observing the overall appearance of this level. As long as you summarize these characteristics, determine the creation standards, and strengthen the training of your own creation, you can achieve the goal as soon as possible. Next, we interpret it from four aspects: "taking the law", "writing style", "word method" and "chapter method". Those who want to participate in the national exhibition can test their works accordingly.

First, the method

Dong Qichang said that "if you do not study books from the ancients, you will fall into the path of evil.", whether you participate in the national exhibition or not, taking the law from the ancients is the first condition. In this national exhibition, cursive writing creation was influenced by the Lanting Award, and many authors took the law chapter grass, which is a phenomenon that has followed the trend in previous exhibitions. It is safer to follow the trend, at least not to go down the wild road. From this point of view, if we do not have our favorite objects, it is also a choice to follow the hot style of the previous session. It is gratifying that although most of the cursive writing is chapter grass, there are still some authors who take the classic calligraphers, such as Huaisu cursive, Huang Tingjian cursive, Sun Guoting cursive, etc., which shows that the familiar classic objects are not a dead end. Of course, the crowd of classic bookers such as the Fa is very large, and in order to stand out in the national exhibition, it must be well written (how to write well?). This will be mentioned below, but only the question of the method will be discussed here). The method of writing is still more prominent in the style of "two kings". The classics and popularities are mixed, there are rules and regulations to write classic books, and there are also exaggerated structural relationships to write modern books. There is a work taken from the classic Han Li, each word is the size of the original inscription, and the writing is very exquisite and impressive. The seal book is more regular, there are large seals and small seals, as well as seal books in the style of warring states, such as "Zhongshan Wangding" and so on. Most of the calligraphy methods are taken above the Wei and Jin dynasties, and there are also books that are biased towards the transitional nature of the history of books, which look like they are not kai, not kai, and are not subordinate, which is easy to attract attention (Figure 2, Figure 3). There is also a key word "breath" that is closely related to the method of taking, that is, the work should reflect the temperament of the object of the method, which involves all the contents of calligraphy: brushwork, orthography, chapters, etc., in layman's terms, it feels "very similar". No matter which family you take, you must be able to fully understand all the contents of this family, and the divine form must be both, so that people can know which one they are learning at a glance, and the essence is fully displayed (Figures 4, 5). On this basis, some of his own personality is slightly reflected in it, which can show the author's creative ability rather than becoming a slave to the ancients. Of course, it doesn't matter if you can't show your creative personality, just adjust the rules (see the chapter section).

2. Penmanship

The proficiency of the brushwork is the key to testing a work and a calligrapher's skill, the penmanship is not refined, and no matter how well other aspects are done, the most that can be done can only be the level of the exhibition. Wang Sangqian said, "Slim to the back, no death occurs", which shows how important it is to be fine in penmanship. A contradiction related to brushwork is "writing", that is to say, the brushwork must not only be refined, but also have smooth and easy writing, that is, it cannot be rigid, cannot be drawn, and must complete the technical requirements of precision in rapid writing. Otherwise, the work is easily rigid. Judging from the award-winning works, these two requirements are basically met.

The works in the exhibition (mainly cursive) are mostly flawed in one of them, most of which are good overall effects, but the brushwork is slightly rough, mainly reflected in the flat change at the beginning and end of the pen, and the middle of the line and the connection are more stiff and straight (Figure 6). This also sends us such a message, the penmanship is not refined to the point that the problem is not big, it is important to have relaxed writing, and the overall chapter effect must also be good, that is, there must be ink color changes, light and heavy arrangements, dense treatment, etc., which is the basic requirement of visual art. The writing is slightly worse or "naïve", which is not a big problem (Figure 7). But don't think that if you write it well, you will have no problem.

The refinement of the brushwork lies in the integrity and elasticity of the strokes and the change of line pattern. No matter what kind of book style is inseparable from these requirements. Integrity can reflect the author's ability to control the brush. We can experiment with ourselves, using a brush to write a triangle, diamond, trapezoid, or even more complex shape in turn, to see if we can complete these shapes continuously and accurately in rapid writing, and make the strokes complete and clean. In addition, the penmanship has requirements such as roundness, undulation, thickness and so on. In the study of calligraphy, Tang Kai, can train the technique of lifting; Lishu, which can train the subtle control of line swing and undulation; Small seals can train the stable control of the line. Each type of book is the key to our entire penmanship system, and the ancients often learned to mature these techniques. Today, we can separately extract the key techniques hidden in each book body for training, which is efficient. The problem of elasticity is the undulation of the strokes, we write straight and square strokes are easier, for example, writing three horizontals, not only to pay attention to each horizontal must have undulating swings, but also requires a certain tenacity in the middle of the line, condensed such as "folding strands". Line type changes are changes in the texture of various lines, such as delicate, rough, clumsy, dexterous, etc. Line type textures, in a work line type changes should be primary and secondary, complementing each other (Figure 8). Exquisite works also have linear changes within a word or even a stroke, which is intriguing.

3. Orthography

Orthography is structure, arguably the most subtle and difficult part of calligraphy. Dong Qichang said that "the knot of the calligrapher, the master's method", which shows the importance of the structure. The main task of the calligrapher is to study the change of structure, which is the main way for the calligrapher to feel the world and express the spiritual world, which is where the vitality of calligraphy lies. In calligraphy, the structure of Chinese characters has a consistent cultural system, which is what we often call the tradition. How the structure of a Chinese character can be written and how it cannot be written is related to this tradition. An excellent calligraphy work should reflect this tradition, and on this basis there is a personal creation, creating a new tradition, becoming a classic, a masterpiece. Tradition begins with the first masterpiece, and since then, people have continued to inherit and create new masterpieces, becoming new traditions. Today we are confronted with a history of masterpieces. In this history, the structure of the orthography has formed a certain range of changes with the continuous accumulation and role of social culture. That is to say, how a word can be written and how it cannot be written is constrained in calligraphy. In the national exhibition, all the works basically reflect this tradition, but none of them reflect better creativity.

The orthography structure is also closely related to the layout of the chapter, and mastering all the structures in the history of a word is only halfway through. The orthography structure should also be coordinated with the layout of the chapter, and the structure of each word must adapt to different location environments, change at any time, and constitute a new whole. Structure is divided into monogram structure, monole change structure and structural demeanor.

The single word structure is the basis of the change structure, and the change structure is the development of the single word structure. In the works of the National Exhibition, the single word structure is better, which can reflect the basic aesthetic requirements, but the careful consideration of its single word change structure is still not harmonious enough (Figure 9, Figure 10), and the award-winning works have fewer problems in these two aspects. The relationship between the single word structure is what we often call the various contradictory relations: dense, thick, straight, straight, back, black and white, long and short, fat and thin, size, etc. These contradictory relations are the aesthetic habits formed by our culture, which are reflected in the single word structure to varying degrees. An excellent work arbitrarily intercepts a single word to see, and its structure must be impeccable. Word variation structure. The structure of the single word change is affected by the chapter environment, and the scope of the change is smaller than the single word structure, so the calligrapher is required to have excellent handling of the structural relationship. The principle of its change is still the various contradictory relations mentioned above, but these contradictory relations occur between various words and groups of words, and the scope of application has expanded, making it more difficult to grasp. Sun Guoting's "Book Genealogy" says that "Han is not vain, there must be a reason under the bottom", "a point becomes a rule of one word, and a word is the quasi-final", and the next pen is the structure, that is, the disposal of various different structural relationships. The way the first word is written affects the structure of the second word, so that one link is one link. Zhao Miguang said more clearly: "With the numbers, we must exercise the words and characters to form a chapter." Styling dynamics.

On the basis of the above two structures, there is also a structure that is the dynamic of modeling, which is the performance of the calligrapher's modeling ability and tests the calligrapher's sensitivity to the modeling. The dynamics of modeling are what the ancients often said about "elephants", such as Zhang Huaihuan said, "The bookmaker, the law image also", giving people an abstract meaning. Yang Shen's "Ink Pond Trivia" also said that "there must be a living method in the line, and the characters require vividness", and the works without the vitality of modeling are actually copying the ancients. Among the award-winning works of the National Exhibition, there are not many works that can show the dynamic structure, and the single-word shape of the works in the exhibition has almost no modeling dynamics, and does not reflect the creativity of the modeling. This is a lack of artistic creation spirit

4. Rules and regulations

The chapter is the overall impression of the picture. No matter what kind of book, whether it is in the exhibition or the award-winning works, the common feature is that the effect of the rules is very good, that is, the integrity is very strong. There are changes in the lines and paragraphs, and the ancients have long discussed this. Zhiguo's "Ode to the Heart" says: "Qin Jing is a word, and the merit is self-sufficient." Looking at the line together, the magic is in the repetition of each other. "This is the basic requirement for calligraphy works, and it is also the minimum requirement for entering the exhibition." The chapter of a work should be reflected in the relationship between weight, density, size, curvature, and continuous judgment, and the proportion of various relationships is also different according to the different styles of the work and the style of the book. In addition, a work should also reflect: large and small characters, text and style words, a variety of book styles, paper color blocks, seal supplements, the overall visual effect of each work should be very rich, which is also the aesthetic requirements of modern cultural development for visual effects.

The specific requirements of the constitution are;

First, in each individual space, there must be a few words with thick strokes falling into it, which is a heavy rhythm;

Second, there must be several sets of words with fine strokes in each individual space, which is a light rhythm;

Third, there must be several sets of more than two consecutive words in each individual space, and most of the strokes are broken to form blanks, which is sparse;

Fourth, in each individual space, there must be several sets of two or more consecutive strokes, all connected to the lead to become a group, increasing fluency, which is dense;

Fifth, each individual page must have a set of flying white ink words to strengthen the ink color contrast. In the creation, we must always take the chapter as the overall plan and control the writing effect under the requirements of the chapter. To do these points, the rules of a work can basically pass, in addition to the basic rules and regulations, there are some other means to enrich the picture effect. Such as the combination of large characters and small characters, the difference in book style, one is to produce changes in the book body, enhance the contrast and enrich the picture in the size of the font; The second is to reflect the author's ability to control the two types of books and reflect the strength of creation. Many people think that the submission of the national exhibition should be done in the form and engaged in splicing, but in fact, it is not. The combination of paper and color blocks is not a necessary condition for entering the exhibition, it is only an auxiliary means. At this point, as long as the creation is done well, it does not matter whether there are various forms and color blocks. Some of the works in the exhibition are a whole piece of paper, a book body, a color and a content, without any stitching from beginning to end, and the writing is concise and bright, making the viewer look very relaxed. We can see the National Exhibition as a window representing a certain level of contemporary calligraphy, from which we can see the collective wisdom of many people, see how they are working hard, in what direction they are working, and we can find our own goals of effort from these directions. Of course, calligraphy is far more than a window of the national exhibition, and the collective wisdom is not as big as the calligraphy tradition accumulated over thousands of years, and the collective wisdom of the ancients can give us a greater vision and platform. We must not only stand on the shoulders of the national exhibition, but also stand on the shoulders of history, the shoulders of the world, and stand at the forefront of this art in order to create new classics and traditions. Although technical proficiency can help us master this art faster, no art can set any standards for artistic creation. When our technology is perfect,

I hope that more people will pay attention to expressing their artistic ideals with skillful technology, achieve true creation, and realize the freedom of art.