Finding the right brushes and becoming familiar with the texture and nuances of oil paint is critical to successfully using this medium.
As far as brushes go, you can use hoghair oil-color brushes with this medium - two or three round-shaped ones, sizes 3, 6, and 8, and two or three flat-shaped, with one large one, size 12. These can be the usual long-handled type of brushes. They should be kept carefully and washed well with first turpentine and then soap and water after use (see Figure 14). They should be kept in a long round tin if you can find one.
You could do with a strong ex-army knapsack to hold your tin of paints and your tin of brushes, your bottles, large and small, of turpentine, and plenty of soft rag. You will also need a tin dipper, a fairly good big one with a turned-over clip at the base to clip on to your palette.
The chief point to remember is that now you are not dealing with a water medium which runs downhill and takes time to dry - you have the knowledge that almost as soon as your brush touches the paper, your paint will "stay put," you have no need to guide washes of color to the right place, and no need to wait for drying because the color dries almost at once. But it is not wise to put one wash over another as in watercolor - you have to get the full force of your color straightaway.
The mixing of colors is just about the same as with watercolors. The difference in use is the important thing. You do not mix up a lot of color, you dip your brush slightly into the turpentine in the "dipper" fixed to your palette, find the tint on your palette, and then take only the minimum of paint. Then, with very little of the required color on your brush point, you dip it well into the turpentine and rapidly apply it to paper. You aim at a full tonal effect from the start, for your colors will be fuller and stronger than in watercolor paint.
One of the things to remember is that as you are using a more expensive medium than water to dilute your colors, you must keep the amount of turpentine in your "dipper" as clean as possible by liberal and constant use of your rags. Should your "turps" become really dirty, however, do not hesitate to pour it away and put out some more.
Your technique should be one of directness, rigorous selection, emphasis, and simplicity, are essential for using this medium, for once a brush stroke is on the gleaming white paper, it is there finally: no subsequent overlaying with other tints is going to help - in fact, this will spoil the result at once. It spoils the effect if any preliminary drawing in pencil is made on the paper; therefore it is as well to take your smallest round brush and dip it slightly in your cobalt or ultramarine blue and, with a good jab into the turpentine, start off to draw your subject in a blue outline.
Or if you consider blue is too definite a color for your drawing you can use a mixture of madder and viridian green. This, mixed with plenty of turps, will give a nice soft warm gray tint, that will make a pleasant start to your work.
While visiting China, you will have the opportunity to learn traditional Chinese painting as well as calligraphy. While touring the ancient city of Lijiang, the paradise scenic city of Guilin, or visiting the noted mountain Huangshan, You will find here the most popular thing to buy is scroll of Chinese painting. You will also find it is extremely interesting and intriguing to paint with soft brushes. If you are a Chinese art lover, don't forget to take some of these stuffs back home.
Chinese painting is also called traditional Chinese painting. Just as its name implied, Chinese painting is painted with traditional Chinese painting tools in accordance with Chinese aesthetic standard. Chinese Painting has developed a unique style.
Chinese painting is painted on rice paper or thin silk with brushes, Chinese ink and Chinese painting dye. In terms of topics, Chinese painting can be classified into three branches: human figures; Landscapes; flowers and birds. So the painting of ladies, the painting of mountains and the painting of insects and fish belong to the three branches respectively.
On painting techniques, one is traditional Chinese realistic painting characterized by fine brushwork and close attention to detail, the other is freehand brushwork.
The Legend of Chinese Painting:
In 1949, the earliest work was unearthed from a tomb of the Warring States Period (475-221 B.C). The work was a painting on silk of human figures, dragons and phoenixes. This is the earliest work on silk ever discovered in China, it measures about 30cm long by 20cm wide.
From this and other early paintings on silk, it may be easily seen that the ancients were already familiar with the art of the writing or painting, brush, for the strokes show vigor or elegance whichever was desired. Paintings of this period are strongly religious or mythological in themes.
Paintings on paper appeared much later than those on silk for the simple reason that the invention of silk preceded that of paper by a long historical period.
In 1964, when a tomb dating to the Jin Dynasty (265-420 A.D) was excavated at Astana in Tinpan, Xinjiang, a colored painting on paper was discovered. It shows, on top, the sun, the moon and the Big Dipper and, below, the owner of the tomb sitting cross-legged on a couch and leisurely holding a fan in his hand. A portrayal in vivid lines of the life of a feudal land-owner, measuring 106.5cm long by 47cm high, it is the only known painting on paper of such antiquity in China.
The Classification of Chinese Painting:
Chinese Figure Painting: The style for paintings that illustrates human figures. "Figure" in short, is a major genre in the Chinese Paintings. Chinese Figure Painting is generally divided into Taoist-and-Buddhist Painting, Female Images, Portrait, Genre Painting, and History-story painting, etc. Figure Painting strives for precise and lifelike depiction of the character's personality, both outlook and spirit. In the contemporary age, Figure Painting stresses more on "learn from the nature", assimilates the western techniques, and has made progresses in both modeling and coloring.
Chinese Landscape Painting: regularly features mountains, water or mist which are symbolic. Water and mist donate happiness and good fortune with the mountains represents long life. Some artists who like to include people, animals and homes into the painting are trying to convey a feeling of a fortunate long and happy life with the unison of soul and nature coming together.
Chinese Flower-and- Bird Painting: Flowers and birds, being the leading figures since Neolithic ceramists painted their works, have conveyed the metaphors and images of artists for more than a thousand years. For example, the pine trees represent the uprightness and immortality. Together with the bamboo and prunes, the pine trees are known as the three friends of winter. The orchid, a modest flower, is often used to describe the virtuous artists and scholars. Another much depicted group of flowers are the flowers of the four seasons. They are the peony-standing for the riches and honors; the lotus-coming out of the mire without being smeared and meaning for purity; the chrysanthemum-meaning for elegance, righteousness and longevity; and the prunes-meaning for bravery and the messenger of spring.
