Chinese Brush Painting

Aug.25, 2009 in paintings

One of my favorite art instruction books is, How to Draw and Paint Watercolor, The Collector’s Series, by Walter Foster Publishing, Inc., published in 1991. It was republished as The Art of Watercolor by Walter Foster Publishing, Inc.

“Chinese painting techniques were developed from calligraphic strokes thousands of years ago. The relationship between the two art forms is still apparent today.” Lucy Wang

After reading Lucy Wang’s chapter about Chinese Brush Painting, I wanted to try it.

I found a lot of Chinese Brush Painting books and supplies at both Amazon.com and Dick Blick Art Materials who are both my Sponsors. At the bottom of this page is a scrolling banner from Amazon with Chinese Brush Painting books and supplies. For Watercolor paints, I found an excellent resource at Dick Blick Art Materials web site for choosing Watercolor Pigments.

Supplies for Chinese Brush Painting

Kits are available which provide the basic tools and equipment to get started.

Buy Holbein Artist Watercolors at Dick Blick Art Materials

In order to follow along with the instructions, I have provided links to show you the colors that Lucy Wang used in her illustrations; the Dick Blick website provides a lot of information on colors and their properties. Click on the color to go to the Dick Blick website for more information. The text in quotations is from the Dick Blick website. Use the back button to return to my blog.

Crimson Lake, “… similar to Rose Madder, the natural source of the historic color Alizarin Crimson”

Cadmium Red Medium, “Cadmium Red is a bright, warm red …”

Vermillion “contains Cadmium Red, alternate names, Cadmium Scarlet, Selenium Red.”

Aurora Yellow (Cadmium Yellow Light) “Cadmium Yellow is brilliant, dense, and opaque, …”

Indigo, (Antwerp Blue + Lamp Black) “…It has similar properties to pure Prussian Blue..”
“Lamp black is a very opaque, heavily staining black pigment …”

Burnt Sienna, “Burnt Sienna is a warm, mid-brown color …”

Light Bluish-Green (gouache, an opaque watercolor paint) closest match Cobalt Green

Cobalt Blue (gouache)”Cobalt blue is a semitransparent. …”

White (gouache) “Titanium White is the most brilliant of the white pigments. …”

Buy Holbein Sumi Set at Dick Blick Art Materials

Buy Yasomoto Rice Paper at Dick Blick Art Supplies

The next part of the book describes how to paint the seven basic strokes of Chinese Brush Painting. The books stresses that these strokes take practice to master. Below is my attempt to master these strokes, but, as you can see, I need more practice.

Basic Brush Stokes 1

Basic Strokes 2

Below are my copies from the practice exercises in the book. Lucy gives easy to follow step by step instructions on mixing colors and the strokes to use for each exercise.