Revisiting old skills

I've been given a few opportunities lately to show people how to paint with a Chinese brush. I was apprehensive at first about shouldering such a responsibility.  It was going to take time away from me twiddling my thumbs.  I had better use for my time!  Then I was timorous about my own inadequacy.  I did not want to be branded as a dilettante.  I eventually placated myself that my job was to offer my knowledge as a coach and not how well I could do it as a player.  

The fundamentals of using a Chinese round brush is in mastering the brush tip within the brushstroke. Hence center-tip and side-tip.  Such techniques can best be seen in paintings of bamboo.  

A bamboo painting by Shi Tao (1642-1707)

 

Bamboo is also symbolic for being a good citizen.  Bamboo is stiff, yet flexible.  It is difficult to break a bamboo.  Bamboo is a symbol for humility, because it is hollow in the center.  The bamboo represents integrity, as the word for the "node" in a bamboo is a homonym for the word "integrity" in the Chinese language.  Bamboo branches out only at the nodes, thus a mature bamboo plant shows distinct layers of leaves, resembling rungs of a ladder.  Hence the bamboo teaches us to shelter and nurture those who are below us, allowing them to grow as well.  My mentor encouraged us to paint bamboo with reverence to the virtues of the bamboo.  Then I had a student painted a Christmas card with the bamboo as a wreath.  Definitely couldn't fault the originality, but there was a cultural disconnect somewhere.

Rungs of leaves on bamboo plants,

 I used a photo that I took as the model for my bamboo tutorial, 

I was cognizant with the virtues and symbolisms of the bamboo when I took this photograph.

The long stem to me represented the spirit of an aging plant which was truncated at the top node.   The yellow leaves perhaps signaled the inevitable end, despite putting up a good fight.   Yet it persisted.

The younger, greener leaves flourished under the embrace of the aging plant.

With the help of modern technology, specifically the "clean-up" and "add sticker" functions available through the IOS photo app, I was able to create a composite using my photo and examples of bamboo leaves from a textbook.

My task now would be to do a proof of concept rendition, one that could be reasonably painted and narrated within the framework of an hour. 

I needed to reacquaint myself with writing bamboo leaves again.  Sure one would not forget about how to ride a bicycle once the skill is learned, but there's a difference between riding in a straight line versus cutting a zig-zag path.  Some practicing was called for.

Onwards with my proof of concept,

This proof of concept might even pass as a painting with appropriate cropping,

Water ripples again

It was time to enjoy my new toy again.  My airbrush.  I charged the battery to 100 percent and I was ready to rock and roll. 

My subject matter would again be water ripples.  There's something about that ephemeral shimmer that hypnotizes me.   

This time around I would use a semi-sized Xuan paper and see how that would work with my alum solution.

I began the laborious task of laying down the shimmers with the alum solution.  Perfect opportunity to practice my center-tip and side-tip brushstrokes.

I angled my desk lamp to see the tracks better,

After that was completed, I placed my paper over newspaper and was ready for the airbrush.

The resulting piece was extremely disappointing,

The alum solution did not provide a strong blocking, or "resist" effect.  The tracks were mottled and faint.  Definitely not the result I was anticipating.  I didn't know if that was due to the fact that the paper was already semi-sized.

Perplexing.

I was distraught enough to abandon my project.  I was not being complacent but I had always accepted the fact that a lot of my attempts ended up in trash cans. 

Couple of days later I decided to re-engage my painting, hopefully to gain a fresh perspective and figure a way out.  The tracks did look more succinct now that the paper was thoroughly dried.

Should I airbrush on more layers of the indigo and hope for a more intense contrast or should I repeat my alum solution brushstrokes and then airbrush again and hope for a better reveal?

I had waited a few days to come this far, no harm in waiting for a few more days to devise a more concrete solution.

The Chinese round brush continued

I've alluded to how and why the Chinese round brush is more than a mark making instrument.  Like almost all utility tools, it sometimes attracts the perversions of fame over function.  I am ashamed to admit that I have fallen victim to the pursuit of the "best" brush; brushes that are handcrafted in limited quantities by supposedly "famous" artisans.  The lure is to manufacture a want.  Wanting a rare product, a unique way of packaging the brush hair, a brush that looks and writes like no others.  I am reminded of automobiles.  Some cars cost over a million dollars.  Yes they are certainly fine pieces of machinery and they go fast but for the average driver they are just symbols of conspicuous consumption.  I am not convinced that owners of such cars are necessarily better drivers.  Do they even use the million dollar car as transportation or as a trophy in their garage.  Thus I am an average painter and I fail to appreciate the virtue of these fine rare brushes.  I just thought rare brushes could buy me status.  What was I thinking.

Anyways I am not here to vent, just because I paid an exorbitant price for a mediocre product.  I am trying to expand on how the brush is used in painting.

I've loaded just the tip of a wet brush with ink, holding it flat on the paper with the tip pointing towards me. Nudging the brush in small arcs I can depict floral petals

If more attention was paid to the voids and the separation between the petals, this flower head could be more wholesome.  But you get the gist of it.

Canada geese is a favorite subject of mine.  The white band just behind its eye on the neck is a distinct identifier.  It is a simple matter of writing the beak, the top of the head and the neck, leaving a gap at the top of the neck.

Holding the brush side tip, write the body of the bird.  I then use a clean wet brush to draw out the ink to the breast and tail area.

This one is done on inkjet photo paper, just for the heck of it.  ( INK-jet, does anyone get the correlation?)

I'll illustrate the different nuances between a center tip and side tip brushstroke.  The following is a crab leg done with side tip brush.  The tip of the brush is loaded with ink so one can see the trek of the brush tip.

In the next example, the image of the left is done with center tip brush.  The ink tone is even across the width of the leg.  The one on the right is done with side tip brush.  

The one on the left feels sturdy and proper whereas the one on the right is more playful, with varying widths and ink tones.

The following is an example of a person using the wrong edge of the brush in painting (writing) the crab legs.  I am drawing your attention to the two crabs on the upper left corner of the insert.  It's not like the person doesn't know how to use the brush, but due to whatever lapses he throws it out of the window. The result is wiry lines that resemble nothing of the exoskeleton of legs of a crab. 

Using side tip brush, writing a short arc

When a succession of such segments are put together, a shrimp is bone.

Starting with three simple lines, center tip, we have the basic construct of the leg of an insect.

Using a side tip brushstroke, write the wings and thorax and head of the insect

Write lines for body and whiskers etc. using center tip brushstroke,  we have a complete insect with just a few simple brushstrokes.

Three  simple side tip nudges become the body of a frog

Add limbs to complete the painting

Here is an example of a frog on a lily pad employing these simple brushstrokes

This writing is not meant as a tutorial for painting.  There are different ways to skin a cat.  The crux of the matter is how to use the Chinese round brush properly to get the results we want.  As the round brush does not come with an edge, only a tip.  The blog hopes to emphasize the importance of knowing the aesthetic difference between a center tip and side tip brushstroke, and allow them to be our allies. 

The Chinese round brush, more than a mark making instrument

I grew up in the era when composition class required the use of writing with a Chinese brush and ink.  The brush might as well be a piece of twig for me.  Something that I could leave a legible mark on my exercise book so that my teacher could read and grade my work.  In those formative days, I was not fortunate enough to receive the mentorship of how to properly use a brush.  Sure the teachers showed the different roots of the Chinese character and there were Fa Tie ( books of model letter, model character) for us to copy during penmanship classes, but we did not receive individual guidance.  Perhaps the class size was too big.

A brand new Chinese brush has its hair glued together to form a point and is rather stiff.  The new brush is meant to be soaked in water to dissolve the glue such that the hair is separated to its individual strands.  The scattered and spread out hairs would come back to a point after wetting with water or ink; when surface tension works its wonders.

The new brush is on the left and a used brush is in the middle.  The brush on the right shows how the hairs would come back to a point when wet.

Imagine having a wet wad of hair at the end of a thin stick and I was suppose to wield that and write thin lines with that floppy mess?  No way!

My answer to that was to not soak the new brush in water.  I would just jam the tip of the new brush onto the desk, such that the first few millimeters of hair separates, and I would write with that very limited "point".  Obviously that negated all the virtues bestowed by a Chinese round brush.  My lines were all thin and even.  Neat!

As the act of writing continued, the bristles of the brush became more scattered.  Ink and water had crept up to the belly part of the brush and was dissolving the glue.  The writing process became more labored. I became more frustrated.  My lines were getting fatter and irregular.  Fortunately I never washed my brush after each writing.  The ink would dry on the brush and it became stiff again.  

I wonder how many of us have the same story to tell.

I might as well be using a ballpoint pen, but this was before ballpoint pens were invented.  Yes, I'm that old!

It wasn't until I was in secondary school when Chinese Brush painting was part of the curriculum that I realized the wonders of the Chinese brush.  I basically had to re-learn everything about the brush.  All that became more succinct when I started to learn brush calligraphy in earnest.  It became clear to me why people say that calligraphy is the foundation of brush painting.  It's all about the brush, and the brush is more than a mark making instrument.

In calligraphy class, we were told to pay attention to the tip of the brush.  As the brush traverses the paper to write a line, the tip could be placed at the center of the line, hence the center-tip brushstroke. The brush tip is in line with the direction of travel of the brush.  If the tip however is pointing at any angle other than the direction of the travel, then the nab of the brush is basically dragging along and not in the orientation of the travel and that describes the side-tip brushstroke.

To illustrate the cumbersome statements above, I am write two lines with a brush that has the dark ink on the tip of the brush only.  Obviously the ink is going to migrate to the sides and belly of the brush, but the brush tip should leave the darkest mark on paper.

Hence the top line is done with the center-tip brushstroke.  Dark ink is at the center at the start of the brushstroke and gets fainter as the brush travels.  The center white line is actually the mark left by the tip of the brush as the ink on the tip depletes and only water remains.  This brings up the special quality of the Xuan paper we use for our paintings.  It registers everything from our brushstroke.

The line on the bottom shows ink at the start, but loaded to the top and continues to load up on the top margin of the line.  This is due to the position of the brush tip, which is pointed towards the top of the paper as the brush is dragged to the right.  In essence the brush tip is at a 90 degree angle to the line of travel.  Again the void space in the brushstroke represents the part of the brush where ink is depleted.

Certain fonts in Chinese calligraphy mandates the use of strict center-tip brushstrokes, whereas others require both center-tip and side-tip brushstrokes.  The accomplishment and hubris  ( or lack of ) a calligrapher depends on the correct application of the brushstrokes.  When one looks at a piece of Chinese calligraphy, each brushstroke encompasses different widths, shapes, bends and corners. and yet they are all discrete brushstrokes.  A stick or twig certainly can't do that. They would have to go back and fill in to modify the shape of the markings. 

When we say "we write a painting", we mean exactly that.  We use center-tip and side-tip brushstrokes to achieve the shapes and lines of objects.  A prime example would be paintings of bamboo.

Bamboo leaves are nothing but lines.  The entire shape of the bamboo leave, or stem, is done by discrete brushstrokes and not by filling in the space as one would normally associate with painting.  Again, using my "tip-loaded-only" brush, I have "written" the following "painting",

The 3 bamboo leaves on the left are center-tip brushstrokes and the one on the right is side-tip.  An easy way to tell is by look for the points at the start of the brushstroke.  If the point is in the middle, it is likely center-tip.  If the point in at a corner, then the brushstroke is side-tip.

In the example above, C denotes center-tip brushstroke, and S is for side-tip brushstrokes.  The arrows point to the line (edge) left by the tip of the ink-loaded brush tip.  One can see the point at the start of the brushstroke is at the corner, and the brushstroke has ink loaded on one side only.

A painting often requires both kinds of brushstrokes to make it interesting and harmonious.  

The following is a pointing of bamboo leaves done mostly with center-tip brushstrokes

Here is an example of one done mostly with side-tip brushstrokes (you can see the start of the brushstroke is a flat end, feels like putty knife)

Hopefully you can feel the different nuances presented by the two examples above.  Generally speaking, in paintings anyways, center-tip brushstrokes can be so "proper" that they become dry and monotonous.  Side-tip brushstrokes are more rambunctious and spirited, but can get away from you really easily.  

Speaking of being rambunctious, here is an example of just one bamboo leaf, done in the side-tip brushstroke:

The painting is the work of the famous Ling-nan style Master Chao Shao-An.

Which one do you prefer?  Do you paint (write) with those distinctions in mind?

Using the side-tip brushstroke, I "wrote" two half-circles.  I loaded the brush tip only with ink to better show the track of the tip.

I then garnished my half circles with some lines and now we have an insect.

These are all discrete brushstrokes but I am making a case of the character of the brushstrokes.  The legs on the left side of the insect were done center-tip.  The ones on the right were done in side-tip brushstroke, where I could modulate the shape of the line with greater ease.  Perhaps this is not too evident due to the small size of the brushstroke, but hopefully one can at least surmise that the legs on the right are more interesting and life-like.

Here's another example of how simple written lines and appropriate brushstrokes can represent an insect in this case.  This is what  "writing" a painting means.

When we mix center-tip and side-tip brushstrokes, we can transform simple lines in a fish.  I am hoping that one could easily tell that the pectoral fins are definitely side-tip brushstrokes.

Just for fun, I am including the following photo is see if one can distinguish the two different brushstrokes

In painting, we would use the entire nap of the brush.  We use the tip, the side and the belly.  We hold the brush vertical, leaning, or even rolling flat.  I suppose the side-tip brushstroke is more exaggerated and expansive in brush painting.

Again using a tip-loaded brush with ink, side-tip brushstrokes describe the petals of a flower.

When the brush is totally flat on the paper, the with judicious positioning of the ink-loaded tip, we can see how a variegated petal or leaf can be described.

I hope to plead my case that the Chinese round brush is not just a tool for mark making, or dabbing.  The proper use of the brush demands knowledge, and most of all, practice.  If we fail to see it as a calligraphy instrument first, then we have minimized its importance in the realm of Chinese paintings.