The student must first get acquainted with brush, ink stick or ink, inkstone,
paper and color.
Brush
The Chinese brush is itself an important part of the act of painting, both in its
strength and in its flexibility. When brand-new it seems stiff and hard but after a
brief soaking in water it becomes soft and flexible, coming to a fine point when
drawn out of the water or ink.
There are two kinds of brushes, one being softer than the other. The soft hair
brushes are mainly made of white colored sheep-hairs which has been often wet
and redried so that the curl is gone but the fibres are strong yet flexible, and the
others are of deer or fox sable fibres, which have resilience.
From the wide range of brushes to be found, choose perhaps three at first and
later six or seven, from a fine one for line work to one large enough for leaves and
branches.
If the Chinese brushes are not available, watercolor sable brushes
are suitable for practice work. The more resiliant the brush hair the better for
Chinese painting.
Ink Stick
Ink sticks are
of three kinds. One is made of tung-oil soot, the second of resin soot
while the third of lacquer
soot. Those made of tung-oil soot are most appropriate
Black and rich in lustre,
they can be graded into different shades in use. The resin
soot ones are jet black,
but they are not ideal for painting, because of their want of
lustre, except for some
special cases in delineating black fowls and beetles.
Lacquer soot ink sticks
are most lustrous, and suitable for depicting the pupil of the
eye.
Student may use Chinese
ink instead of ink stick and inkstone, if both of
the ink stick
an inkstone are not available..
There are many qualities, names, and sizes of rice paper. Nost of the best now
available is made from rice plant fibre, sometimes combined with cotton; and some
good papers are made from hemp.
Chinese painting may be done either on paper or silk. Of paper the most commonly
used is called "Xiuan" paper, the best of which is made of sandalwood bark. The
other is called "Mian" paper.
Both of the papers are of two different types, one is absorbent, on which the ink
or color diffuses as the brush stroke is laid. The other is non-absorbent or
water-proof paper.
If the papers are not available, any absorbent paper you can find is suitable
for practice work. It may be newsprint, or drawing quality - any unglazed paper
at all which produces the effect you want and with which you like to work.
Color
All Chinese painting
colours are water color. There are commomnly used for
washes and tinting purposes
after ink has first been applied in the painting.
The commonly used colors
are:
Gamboge Yellow
Prussian Blue
Vermilion Red
Crimson Red
Burnt Sienna
Titanium White
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