Text/Gao Qian
Looking through the splendid flower and bird paintings of the Song Dynasty, people feel as if they have tasted a rich and mellow wine, and there is a rich taste between the teeth. And when the flower and bird paintings selected by Qian of the Yuan Dynasty come into view, you will suddenly be dazzled. The picture is both graceful and relaxed, both beautiful and elegant, like breathing in the fresh air at the top of the mountain. In particular, although the theme of the "Eight Flowers Picture Scroll" is simple, it depicts eight kinds of flowers in a flat and straightforward way, but the composition, the shape of the folded branches, and the color of the picture are different from those of the predecessors.
From the left of the scroll, there are paintings of daffodils, roses, gardenias, apricot blossoms, osmanthus flowers, peach blossoms, pear blossoms, and begonias, which are customary forms of folding branches, however, Qian Xuan's folding branch shape obviously breaks through the shackles of nature and gives the heart understanding, emotion and sensitivity to these plants. The lines of the work are loose and complement the colors, and the whole picture even makes people feel decorative and designed. In particular, the personal atmosphere conveyed by the color of the picture is even more impressive, no wonder Zhao Mengfu also wrote in the inscription that "Fu Se is charming, and it is impossible to get it."
ash
First of all, ash in ancient literature mostly refers to a substance, similar to "dust". Cao Zhi's "Snake rides the fog and eventually becomes earth ash", which is ashes. There is also Li Shangyin's "wax torch into ashes and tears began to dry", which is disillusionment. In "Dream of the Red Chamber", "the frozen face is blood, and the sour heart is also ashes without hatred" It seems that the ashes here have a hint of misery, a kind of bleakness, and are always not festive. All thoughts were gray, "Since Yu was forty years old, he would not have caused any response... Since then, the name has been gray". But when the ancients spoke of silver, it was much sacred. For example, the silver plate, referring to the moon, "look at the Qiong tree cage silver que up close, and think of Yaochi with jade pass" in the distance. This is a verse from the Song Dynasty Xu Xuan describing the palace that is shrouded in snow. Silver is valuable and precious, so the mood rises, but silver is also a kind of ash, a kind of gray with light. Perhaps in the concept of the ancients, the origin of silver and gray is different, silver is also called platinum, and we are not a thing of platinum today. Silver is also synonymous with ice and snow, symbolizing purity, which is different from the emotions and values represented by gray. "Face like a silver basin" and "face like dirt" is not a state of mind at all. "Dream of the Red Chamber" seventy-fifth time: "In the middle of the night, the breeze and the moon, full of silver ash, only to listen to the osmanthus flowers in the shade whimpering, leisurely, and issued a flute sound, it is really more desolate than before." Cao gong used the word "silver ash" to express the hidden sorrow behind the prosperity.
Second, black plus white becomes gray. Using ash directly as the color word, the Tang Dynasty Duan Chengshi "Youyang Miscellaneous Tricks" has "wings on the back, slightly gray" "gray crane is as big as a crane, all gray" Song Dynasty Fan Chengda described gray, 黪, light blue and black. Gray, which can be tendentious, may be cold or warm, such as mugwort, bluish gray, black gray. It can also represent a texture, such as the wings of a butterfly, which is itself a gray, a dusty gray, and unlike the "gray" of light ink, it is opaque and has thickness. White and black add up to gray, can light ink also be considered a kind of ash? We can find "gray" in "Ink Five Colors".
Although "ash" was not respected in ancient China, it can still be found "gray", the sixth time in "Dream of the Red Chamber", "stone green carved silk gray rat cape, big red crepe silver rat skin skirt", gray rat is a gray animal, its fur is a very beautiful gray, it seems that only here, gray has a little precious.
It was not until modern times, under the influence of the West, that the semantic symbolism referred to by gray changed. Up to now, gray has become a darling, such as the gray in fashion is a neutral color, fashionable; there is also "high gray", which emphasizes the elegance of gray; and recently there is also a popular "grandma gray", which highlights the calm and noble of gray. In Western painting, gray has never been spared, such as Morandi's paintings, there are only a few bottles, several whites and grays, but their world is very rich. His paintings are mostly of different grays, unified in a hue, occasionally with one or two more jumping colors, but also coordinated in the colors of the picture.
Looking back at Qian's "Eight Flowers Picture Scroll", the gray used in the painting is very similar to Morandi's, and I have been wondering how the gray selected by Qian appeared, definitely not the kind of gray that the ink has faded. There are many kinds of ash in the "Eight Flowers Picture Scroll", the background color of the paper is a kind of rice ash, the branches of begonias are warm ash with ochre, and the branches of pear blossoms are a kind of cold ash. There are also rust-red grays, pale pink-green grays, navy blue grays... Looking at Morandi's paintings, these grayscale colors can be found. Maybe Morandi's palette has a few colors he usually uses, and he knows how to match it with a paintbrush. Chinese painting is not like this, perhaps at the bottom of the color is light ink, then flower blue or ochre, and then a little rouge with stone green, stone green and vermilion mixed is also a kind of gray, and finally covered with a layer of white powder. Or you want to gray as long as the ink plus the flower blue and finally covered with white powder, if you want to be purple, use some rouge, and if you want to be green, add some stone green. And the stone green is divided into the first two greens, three greens, and four greens, so this kind of pinching is completely dependent on the needs of the picture. The superposition of colors in Chinese paintings is different from the coloring method of Western paintings, which requires experience and grasp of color, and the layers in front of the superposition are nothing more than the presentation of the last color.
Third, the "gray" in black and white gray, here is a degree, is an intermediate rhythm. Ash reduces the brightness, to ink color to adjust the color, or with a contrasting hue tone, or to add litholite green or white powder in the color, so that it is not so bright, the so-called de-fire, so that the picture is deep and deep, should be the gray functioning performance. When you convert a color photo into a black and white photo, you can find that there are only three shades of black, white and gray in the picture, and many of the colors are classified separately, some to the black tone, some to the white tone, and some to the gray tone.
Below, we can carefully consider how the colors in the "Eight Flowers Picture Scroll" are modulated.
Rouge plus ochre
After a faint carmine color and ochre, it will become a delicate warm water red (Figure 1), there is no rouge of cold color nor ochre old, very tender, suitable for dyeing in the depths of the flower buds, equal dyeing and then lightly cover a layer of clam powder, that is, white and red flowers. Through the use of different proportions of ochre and rouge, this aqueous red can have various biases. It can be warm or cold.
Figure 1 [Yuan] Qian Xuan's "Eight Flowers Picture Scroll" (partial) Rouge plus ochre
Rouge plus ink plus flower blue
Rouge and flower blue are plant pigments dissolved in water, first the ink is adjusted in the rouge, and then the flower blue is adjusted into this black red, and the appearance is black and purple. Increase the amount of rouge and ink as needed, often used to dye the flower tray part of the white plum blossom (Figure 2).
Figure 2 [Yuan] Qian Xuan's "Eight Flowers Picture Scroll" (partial) Rouge plus ink plus flower blue
Ochre plus stone green
This color is often used to dye the stems of the leaves, making the stone green warmer and closer to the natural state (Figure 3).
Figure 3 [Yuan] Qian Xuan's "Eight Flowers Picture Scroll" (partial) ochre plus stone green
Moga flower green plus garcinia yellow
The sum of the flower blue and garcinia will appear green, and the larger the amount of garcinia, the greener it will be. A little garcinia plus flower blue and ink, mainly flower blue and ink, is a more literary blue-green (Figure 4).
Figure 4 [Yuan] Qian Xuan's "Eight Flowers Picture Scroll" (partial) Mo jia hua qing and garcinia yellow
Stone Kato Yellow Granite
This color is often used to cover the back of the leaves with flower buds, flower holders, etc. The stone green and ochre are warmer gray-green, and a little garcinia will appear more delicate (Figure 5).
Figure 5 [Yuan] Qian Xuan's "Eight Flowers Picture Scroll" (partial) stone green plus garcinia plus ochre
Stone green plus stone green plus flower blue plus white powder
In this color, the amount of stone blue, stone green and flower blue is relatively small, and it is adjusted to a grayish blue and then added white powder to make it more saturated and thick (Figure 6).
Figure 6 [Yuan] Qian Xuan's "Eight Flowers Picture Scroll" (partial) Shi Qing plus stone green plus flower green plus white powder
Fujiaki Kakoishi Kaku-Chen
Garcinia garcinia and ochre will have a golden color, and a little more vermilion will turn into a strange orange color, which is often used to dot the flower buds, and it will be very refreshing at just a little (Figure 7).
Figure 7 [Yuan] Qian Xuan's "Eight Flowers Picture Scroll" (partial) Garcinia garcinia plus ochre plus Zhu Ping
I also use "gray" tones in my creations, which is also the benefit of studying ancient works. Whenever I start creating, I will design the main color of the picture in advance, rarely use colors with high brightness, and use more intercolor, as if filtering out a layer. For example, the classic ancient paintings we see are all baptized by the years, even the most gorgeous colors, with the passage of time, have faded, we do not know what these ancient paintings look like in the original color, but they are now presented, mellow vermilion, deep indigo, warm stone green, this should be the "pulp" of color.
The following are the step diagrams and partial diagrams of my work "Amnesia" for your reference.
Shi Qing plus Zhu Zhen
Shi Qing and Zhu Zhen are contrasting colors, and it is generally rare to use the two overlays, but I found that the two bright stone colors produce a kind of gray, and the gray will change relatively according to the shade of the stone green (Figure 8 "Amnesia" step diagram). The weight of Shi Qing is greater than that of Zhu Zhen, which is a kind of blueish gray. I often use this contrasting shade and gray in my work. The background color in "Amnesia" is Shi Qingjia Zhu Zhen repeatedly superimposed, cleaned, and finally obtained.
Figure 8 Gao Qian "Amnesia" Step diagram Shi Qingjia Zhu Zhen
Mecca Rouge plus anthocyan plus stone blue
The flower blue and rouge will be purple, and a light layer of ink will be applied to this purple color, and finally dyed with a four-green cover. The dyed blue has the composure of a flower blue and the jump of stone blue (Figure 9 "Amnesia" part)). In fact, although many layers of colors are very complicated, but the amount is not much, each layer is also relatively thin, Chinese painting itself is very restrained and subtle, so these color changes are extremely subtle and delicate.
Figure 9 Gao Qian "Amnesia" Part Of the ink plus rouge plus flower blue plus stone blue
Ochre plus flower blue and ink
When you need a blue-black but need a little warmth inside, you can stack it like this. However, be aware that the sum of the anthocyanins and ochre will precipitate, so try to dye them separately (Figure 10 "Amnesia" local).
Figure 10 Gao Qian "Amnesia" local ochre plus flower blue and ink
Rouge plus stone green
Ochre plus stone green will turn into a warm gray green, while rouge plus stone green will turn into a neutral gray green. When we look at nature, we will find that many colors are very subtle, and the color of rouge and stone green is very subtle. The effect of head green and three greens plus rouge will vary greatly. The amount of rouge greater than the stone green will turn into an elegant crimson red (Fig. 11 "Amnesia" part).
Fig. 11 Gao Qian "Amnesia" local rouge plus stone green
Stone green plus rouge plus white powder
Shi Qing and rouge are blue-purple, and then covered with white powder, it becomes pinkish blue-purple (Figure 12 "Amnesia" part).
Figure 12 Gao Qian "Amnesia" local Shi Qing plus rouge plus white powder
While we are imitating ancient painting techniques, we should also appreciate the breath conveyed in the painting, and color is a factor that can reflect the temperament of the picture. Time is a huge factor, plus air, moisture, smell, wind and rain, even the breath of people... These many attachments were finally synthesized into what we see now. Therefore, sometimes we really don't know why the entrance of aged wine is so warm, and the color on the painting can not paint that calmness.
Artist - Gao Qian
In 1995, he graduated from the Fine Arts Department of Nanjing Academy of the Arts with a bachelor's degree in Chinese painting. In 1998, he graduated from the Fine Arts Department of Nanjing Academy of the Arts with a master's degree in Chinese painting. From 1999 to 2013, he worked at the Shanghai Art Museum. In 2016, he graduated from the China Academy of Arts with a doctorate degree in fine arts. He is now a full-time painter of the Academy of Literature and Art of the China Academy of Arts, a national first-class artist, and a master tutor.