Bi-Fa (pronounced B-Fa)

A reader was a little taken aback by my comments in "What Brush Stroke". The quibble was about my tone of the language. I seemed to suggest that only Chinese Brush Painting pays attention to brush strokes. Whereas I know very little about other brush works, i.e. watercolor, oil, acrylic etc, I do know that Chinese Brush Painting places foremost emphasis on Bi-Fa, the method (discipline) of the writing instrument. Calligraphy and painting is about the same foci, Form and Bi-Fa (brush strokes). In fact, many teachers in Chinese Brush Painting would insist that students "write", and not "paint" the lines.

The Chinese Brush owes its characteristics to a round body with a pointed tip. I am told that there are 8 basic techniques in applying the brush on paper, utilizing not only the tip, but also the belly of the brush. Couple this with various speed, angle, degree of dampness, and whether the point is split or solid, the permutation on the possible ways to reveal with a Chinese Brush is endless.

The picture insert shows the start of a line with a point at the top line. The second line started with a rounded stroke, which is accomplished by travelling the brush in the opposite direction to begin with.





The importance of understanding the basic premise of the brush, is to understand how to take advantage of the brush. In this example I am trying to paint a "line" of various thickness. As I traverse the brush across the Xuan paper, different pressure is exerted, and the brush responded by spreading( or condensing ) its coverage.




Now we shall see how this "line" applies to painting. In the example, I am painting a dragonfly.

The picture on the right shows the result done with this proper technique. The "wing" is a line written with various thickness. It is all about the control of the brush. The wings look natural, and possess "Chi" (energy) and have "Li" (strength)

The picture on the left is done with the wrong technique. I blocked in the color. You might say that I "painted" the wings instead of "writing" the wings. Upon close examination, one can observe the border that I had painted around the outline of the wings, and then filled in with color. Obviously they look like wings, but they are devoid of the "Li" and the "Chi" shown on the other dragonfly. Perhaps it is the small imperceptible irregularities in the brushed shape, versus the static intentionally painted outlines that bestows the energy. I suppose this is the argument about hand tailored suits and hand stamped Ferrari bodies.



One might argue that to the casual patron of the Chinese Brush Painting, what is the big deal. The big deal is whether it matters to you or not. If you accept the premise that Chinese Brush Painting is about Bi-Fa, then you must learn to appreciate that.

You can play a G arpeggio on a violin using all 4 strings, but you can also play the G arpeggio using only the G string. To the untrained ear, they are the same notes. However a violin patron could tell the difference in the timbre of the notes and appreciates the skill level of the performer, lest not forget the composer's expressive intent in having all the notes played on the one string. Same dictum can be applied to the understanding and appreciation of Chinese Brush painting. It is not necessarily a matter of whether my art form is better than yours , but where the emphasis lies.

To Be or Not To Be

In a perfect world, under ideal conditions, we work on a painting, from start to finish, everything as planned, eyes to the heaven, say THANK YOU.

Reality is, we often sway from our original sketch, be it conceptual or physical.
Artistic expression, or any expression for that matter, is a dynamic process. This light might suddenly pop up in our head, or our own tentacles of curiosity might drag us into saying...WHAT IF ?

I usually resort to one of two ways of deciding which path I should follow.

The first one involves a transparent sheet of material... could be a plate of glass, acrylic, overhead projection transparency or a sheet protector. I would then lay this transparency over the spot where I am dubious as to what should be done, and I would do a rough sketch on it. Thus I am able to see the effect of before and after, without ever committing myself.

In this example, I have a painting of 2 fishermen working at night. I was trying to capture the reflection of the lantern and the moon in the water. Where I failed was the composition... I had the fishermen and the Beacon Rock all lined up in a straight line, and this is visually awkward. So I wanted to see if I could cover up the bottom fisherman with silhouettes of tree tops. Well, the jury is still out on this one.



The other trick I use is to just paint it out in plain water. Xuan paper is so absorbent, plain, clear water will leave its' traces, long enough for us to consider and reconsider. Note of caution, the brush should be on the dry side.... just wet enough to leave a mark for us to see the spatial relationship. In this example, I am trying to see if there could be a dialogue of trees and the bridge.

Since any brush mark on Xuan paper is almost indelible, the above tricks are most useful before you attempt on that part of the painting. It does not bode well if your intention was to totally change or substitute something after the fact.