Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Keep on improving









3 comments:

Lee Wei Joo said...

Getting better and better!

mary mcmillen said...

Hi,
I love the paintings you do, and am also into Chinese paintings myself. I have noticed recently a lack of improvement in my work. I was wondering if you had any tips or suggestions, or what classes you took?
Also, I was wondering what paper you used as it did not seem to be rice paper?

Thanks so much!!

Bee said...

Hi Mary.

Thanks for visiting and apologies on the late response.

I have also painted on colored blank cards in addition to rice paper for variety.

I did have a more than a year long weekyly/monthly chinese brush painting class with a dear friend originally from Taiwan. That helped tremendously in establishing the basic strokes of brush painting and coloring techniques, both one-stroke (写意) and elaborate (工笔) styles. That ended about one-two years ago and since then I have used published brush painting guidebooks by established masters as well as chinese brush painting blogs that provide various patterns for learning purposes.

For painting bamboo and orchids, it will be a good idea to use the so-called orchid-bamboo brushes (兰竹笔). My favorite online arts supply store is OAS (http://orientalartsupply.com/).

And most important, practice, practice, and practice. The axiom "practice makes perfect" does have a certain ring of truth to it.

Here's wishing you continuous improvement and enjoyment in chinese brush painting.

Bee