How to get started in calligraphy

Brush Calligraphy Beginner (a) pen Su Dongpo said: "put the pen without a fixed method, to make the virtual and wide." Here to introduce the general use of the "five fingers pen method": that is, the thumb and forefinger belly pinch the pen (appropriate height), to ensure that the pen does not fall off; middle finger in the forefinger below the outside of the pen, not only to strengthen the forefinger to pinch the pen's strength, but also to play the role of the pen to the hook; ring finger of the occasion of the flesh of the armour against the pen on the inner side of the pen, play the role of the pen outward push; pinky attached to the ring finger in the role of the pen; the small finger attached to the ring finger in the pen, the pen is the only thing that the pen can do for the pen. The little finger is attached to the lower part of the ring finger's belly, assisting the ring finger to push the pen outward. When holding the pen, as the ancients said: "make the palm virtual as holding the egg", so as to facilitate the pen. Learning to write should always practice holding the pen, hook back, launch and rotate the pen (plus the role of the wrist) to practice drawing straight lines and arcs. The height of the pen and whether or not to hang the wrist, elbow, by the size of the word to decide, small words low hold, pillow wrist; large words high hold, hanging wrist; and then the big need to hang the elbow.

Calligraphy is the art of modeling lines. The so-called penmanship is mainly how to create ideal lines (dots and strokes) with the pen method.

(2) Lift and press

When the pen is pressed down to write, the strokes are thick, and when it is lifted up, they are thin. Just as a person walks with two feet, one down, one up, constantly alternating, the pen in the process of writing is also constantly lifting and pressing. This is the only way to produce lines that are never the same thickness.

Each stroke has three processes: the entry stroke, the traveling stroke, and the closing stroke. Into the pen, there is the "exposed" method, along the pen and into, so that the beginning of the stroke was pointed or square; there is the "hidden" method, against the brush, horizontal strokes want to the right first left, vertical strokes want to down first up, so that the brush is hidden in the stroke, the beginning of the stroke is basically a rounded shape. Strokes should learn to use the "center stroke", so that the tip of the blade is always running in the middle of the points and scratches. In order to make the strokes have strength, but also learn to use the brush, line in the stay, stay in the line, to avoid flamboyance. There is a "show" (gradually raise the pen to the surface of the paper, the painting was pointed, such as hanging needle vertical, apostrophe, press, hook), there is a "hide" (will be the tip of the pen back to the painting, such as hanging Luzhu vertical, the end of the stroke is rounded).

(3) Junction

The word "junction" is also called "junction" or "frame". Mr. Qigong once pointed out that the first thing you need to do when writing brush characters is to grasp the inter-frame structure, and the second thing you need to do is to practice the characteristics of the strokes. The structure of the frame is more important than the characteristics of the strokes. The character with a good inter-frame structure is still pleasing to the eye even if the characteristics of the strokes are not prominent; on the contrary, it will not work. Therefore, it is very important to carefully study and grasp the laws of the word's structure. The so-called "distribution of the first learning, but seek to be correct".

Learning to write should start with regular script or clerical script. After mastering a variety of penmanship and then learn other styles of calligraphy have a foundation. Pro post is a necessary means of practicing good words. No post, all by their own ideas randomly write, is not on the road. Learn to write the word must have perseverance and perseverance, to be persistent, guard against arrogance, not a day's sunshine. It is often said: "as long as the work is deep, pestle and mortar into a needle". As long as according to the law of learning to adhere to the pool, inevitably learn.

First, pick the right pen, ink and paper felt. I do not know where you are, if it is in the south of the Yangtze River, for example, the old street of Tunxi in Huangshan, it is easy to prepare a complete set. Pen with a medium-sized pen size is appropriate, the selection of the least to see whether the pen straight, whether the nib can be wet back into the tip (can not be jagged), probably in a few dollars to a dozen dollars of the pen can be; ink with a "one to get the pavilion" it, there is a very strong smell of ink, probably in the bottle, the price is not very expensive, write out the color of the ink than elsewhere! To be good; paper selection of burlap (yellow with "m" grid, looks like handkerchiefs, in the middle of the grass), burlap on the "knife" to sell, a knife about 80 to 100 sheets, cheap and more, very suitable for beginners to practice; felt to buy a small piece of good, about a meter long and wide is enough. The first is a small piece of felt, about a meter in length and width, and that's enough.

Second, do not rush to write. After laying a good pen, ink, paper and felt, in the woolen paper "m" grid in the circle and flowers. The so-called "circle" is from the center of the word "rice", like the "wave plate sugar pattern" like a circle around the outside, draw the circle as far as possible to maintain "even strokes, even between the strokes, the number of circles"; The so-called "flower", is along the "rice" grid of the eight branches of the drawing of petals in turn, but remember that is according to the "8" stroke order (if you do not quite understand on their own to grasp the next or ask around will be (If you don't know much about it, you can try to figure it out yourself or ask your friends). These two are the basics of the basics, practice strokes.

Thirdly, it is clear what type of font you want to write, which font, and then buy the posters. If you want to get started, some people say to use the official script and some say to use the regular script, I recommend using the regular script, the regular script is to lay the foundation for sharpening the mind, practicing the regular script, the other are his variations or easier to learn than him, but it should be noted that in order to write the regular script is not an easy thing to reach the peak. I first learned to use Liu Gongquan's "Liu Style" characters, because it has a detailed order of strokes and structure, as well as the position of each character in the "m" grid, it is easy to imitate. But I don't know if it's still available, so look for a similar script.

Doing the above steps should be considered an introduction, and when the regular script is almost practiced, you can practice a series of fonts such as clerical script, seal script, running script, cursive script, etc. The last step is to learn more about "calligraphy". The last is the understanding of "calligraphy", in this point I have not realized, you can also view some calligraphers of calligraphy to explain the video and related materials.