The first thing to face when studying Chinese painting is the problem of brush and ink in painting, which is the basic means of expressing objects and images in Chinese painting, and it is also the most characteristic form of artistic language of Chinese painting. As an artistic language, the brush and ink of Chinese painting are rigorous and rich in connotation. It can be said that without pen and ink, it cannot be counted as Chinese painting.
The word pen and ink is the abbreviation of the pen and ink used in Chinese painting. Make the pen on the front side, go along and backward, drag, press, complete the change of the pen line such as weight, square circle, rapid, and sudden setback. Through the broken, coke, accumulation, su and other ink methods to complete the thick, light, dry, wet, thick, thin and other ink color changes that is applied ink. The ancients said: "There is no thickness in a stroke, dry and wet is a dead pen, there is no thickness between several pens, and dry and wet is dead ink."
one
On the use of pens
Because of the expressive techniques of Chinese painting, the main form of expression is line. Only by making lines like writing can we have rich connotations and emotions. Generally speaking, "no hanging, no shrinking, no going, no receiving" is a method of writing, which is intended not to make the lines flat, and to seek rhythm changes in the straight. From ancient times to the present, the use of lines to express objects has always been in the same vein. Pan Tianshou said: "Hooks, of course, are lines, and dot dyeing needs to see the pen path, which is just a disguise of the line." Xu Wei's capital flowers are purely calligraphic brushstrokes into the painting, using the means of writing to place on the painting, with clear ups and downs, and used in the middle and flanks at the same time, as if between intentional and unintentional, law and inability, close and open. The Bada Shanren mainly uses ink to clear the side, uses the pen concisely, and completes it in one go, and the realm is particularly high. Wu Changshuo entered the painting with the intention of seal writing, and won with a thick center-forward round pen. Heavy 'writing' avoids 'smearing' for the supreme method of using pens in ancient and modern times.
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties period, the Sheikh's "Six Laws" of painting first promoted the "bone method with pen". "Bone" embodies strength, hardness. The works of pan Tianshou, a master of modern Chinese painting, are famous at home and abroad for their steel and iron bones of lines. However, some people strive to force the pen on the paper, and use fast sweeping and sharp brushing to obtain the strength of the pen, in fact, there is still no strength in the bones of the pen line. The pen should be fast, and it should be retained; slow, and it should not be stuck. You have to taste the exercise carefully to get it. The brushwork in painting often has the distinction of center and flank, regardless of the center, the line of the pen it shows must have a backbone. This is the standard of the "Six Laws" for using a pen.
The so-called center pen is the vertical pen edge, the main point is to wrap the pen edge into the millimeter, when writing the pen, you must taste a sense of resistance, maintain a state of readiness, use the pen to rotate and provoke, the pen hides the edge, the intention is not broken, the gas is not extinguished. From the trajectory of the pen line, it is required to be evenly forced, and the ability to penetrate the back of the paper is uniform, so that the pen line has the awkward taste of "folding strands" and "house leak marks". But if you blindly focus on the pen to be thick, strong and can not change, the viewer will also be bored. This requires the use of the pen when using the flanking, that is, the "square pen". The square pen has a thickness, and this thickness can be seen in the lifting and turning. However, if you blindly go down and even brush the root of the pen on the paper, this is not a square pen, it is no different from a scorn piece, and there is no interest. The center takes its thickness, the flanker takes its strength, and the pen is clever.
two
On the use of ink
The ink used in Chinese paintings is slightly broken, jiao, ji, su and other ink methods. Pen and ink are the most taboo board turbidity, the board is born from no change in thickness and wetness; turbidity is caused by improper treatment of thickness and light dryness. To avoid these drawbacks, it is important to be good at using the ink breaking method. Ink must be broken with water, so the purity of water should be paid attention to when painting. Too much moisture, easy to infiltrate, too little pen to make the turn ineffective, the handwriting is scattered, are difficult to complete. Using a pen containing clean water to dip the ink in the color is the thickness of the pen on the tip of the pen"; if you use a pen dipped in color or ink to absorb different amounts of water, it is "to lightly break the thickness."
It is easy to become dead ink if the coke ink is not used well; it is best not to be too large, there are changes in the use of the pen, and the lines should have rhythm and twists and turns. Because there is no change in the thickness of the burnt ink, it can only rely on the shape of the line to obtain beauty. The brush strokes that overlap each other should change in weight and not overlap. Ink accumulation, from shallow to deep, layer by layer of dyeing, can not be too much dyeing at one time, dry accumulation and wet accumulation can be. Dry accumulation is to wait for the previous ink color to dry, and then dye a second time. Wet accumulation is when it is half dry. Su ink is dull, gray, has impurities, and is rarely used.
Chinese painting has high requirements for ink, heavy ink does not die, light ink is not thin. Gu Ningyuan of the Ming Dynasty said in "Painting Introduction on Dryness": "If the ink is too dry, it has no rhyme, but it must seek rhyme, and it is envious." Mo Tairun has no texture. Where the magic of the six laws is, it should be sought successively by yun mo."
three
On pen and ink
Chinese painting pays attention to both the use of pen and ink, and it is difficult to separate "pen" and "ink"; as far as the role of ink is concerned, it is only a supplement to "pen". However, the "pen" can only be combined with the ink, and the "ink" can only be attached to the pen to exert its effect. Shen Zongqian of the Qing Dynasty said: "The handsome of the ink of the writer, the charge of the ink pen, and the pen is not ink and there is no harmony, and the ink is not attached." As far as the relationship between pen and ink is concerned, it is not indiscriminate and treated equally; it should be said that it is still based on "pen" and "ink" as the subordinate. Ming Dynasty Gu Ningyuan's "Painting Quotation" said: "First rationalize the bones and bones, and accumulate gradually apply the fat; the wrist is deep, and the intention is relaxed, there is ink and pen." ”
At the end of the last century, the debate over whether pen and ink equals zero was gradually fixed by the conclusion that "emotionless pen and ink detached from objects equals zero". How to inherit traditional brush and ink and carry forward innovative traditional brush and ink has become the subject of today's painters. Qing Dynasty painter monk Shi Tao said: "Pen and ink should be contemporary." It is meaningless to talk about pen and ink without objects, but Chinese painting is not a reproduction of natural objects, it is the process of inking natural objects through the writing form of pen and ink; by dotting and symbolizing natural scenes, and at the same time rearranging these dots and lines according to the shape, making them dense, thick, long, short, and thick and more beautiful and rhythmic. Therefore, the process of pen and inkification of Chinese painting is the process of finding a more typical and regular form of pen and ink language. In the Qing Dynasty, Yun Nantian had a painting that said: "It must be known that a thousand trees and thousands of trees, no stroke is a tree; a thousand mountains and a thousand mountains, no stroke is a mountain; a thousand strokes, no stroke is a pen." There is no place just nothing, nowhere is just to be, so it is easy. ”
All forms are in the service of content. Form becomes water without source, wood without root without content. In the "Six Laws" of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Sheikh of the Southern and Northern Dynasties listed "vivid charm" as the first of the six laws. Qi refers to the breath of life, that is, the breath of life that is constantly moving; rhyme refers to the rhyme of emotions, that is, the rhythm of life in a variety of forms. Vivid qi rhyme is a high artistic requirement and appreciation standard for Chinese painting, and it is also the goal of our unremitting efforts. The expression of the artistic conception all depends on the pen and ink that make up the picture, and there are few ordinary and low-level artistic conceptions and unique and superb pen and ink; there are also very few mediocre pen and ink that can express superb artistic conceptions. The pen shows its vitality with a sluggish, abrupt, turning, and positive posture; the ink shows its charm with the change of wetness, thickness, infiltration, and accumulation. Qi rhyme is born from pen and ink, and pen and ink exist because of qi rhyme.
The steps of painting begin with a stroke of ink, as Shi Tao said: "It starts with a painting." This "one painting" is like the notes in music, and it is only appropriate if the composer combines these notes to become a melodious theme song that resonates with the listener. The same is true of brush and ink on painting.