What are the main materials for Chinese painting?

The tools and materials used in painting are the special Chinese brushes, ink, paper, ink stone and silk.

1. Brush

The brush was created in China and has influenced the traditional writing habits of Korea, Japan, and a wide range of other Asian regions. Brushes are divided into hard hair, soft hair and part-hair, hard hair represented by wolf hair (weasel tail), soft hair represented by sheep hair (goat whiskers), depending on the writing and painting, the type, as well as personal habits, the use of brushes is also different, sheep hair soft, wolf hair robust, part-hair soft with rigid.

Chinese calligraphy and painting, are inseparable from the use of brushes. In particular, the lake brushes of Huzhou (present-day Shanlian, Zhejiang Province), the Xuan brushes of Xuanshou (present-day Jingxian, Anhui Province), and the brushes of Jinxian, Jiangxi Province, were the best.

2, ink

Ink "oil smoke" and "pine smoke" two kinds of ink, oil smoke ink made of tung oil or add burnt smoke processing; pine smoke ink made of pine branches burnt smoke processing. Ancient Huizhou produced ink, has always been loved by the literati, Huizhou ink has the reputation of gold.

There are two kinds of pigments, the use of which produces different effects, one of which is plant-based, such as flower green, Teng Huang, rouge, peony red, etc., the performance of the transparent, fine texture, but the color will fade over the years; the other is mineral, such as cinnabar, Zhu Bleach, head of the green to the three green, the head of the green to the three green, ochre, rocky yellow, white powder, etc., the performance of the opaque, with a covering force, the color does not fade over the years.

3, paper

Chinese painting with a wide range of paper, such as xuanzhou produced xuan paper, sichuan leather paper, henan yuxian cloth paper, hunan lai yang cotton paper, etc., and by extension, not only paper, damask, silk and other fabrics are painting materials. But Xuan paper variety, high yield, good quality, its characteristics will be the requirements of Chinese painting brush and ink charm can be best played out, and cheaper than silk, so Xuan paper has become almost synonymous with Chinese painting paper.

Xuan paper is divided into two kinds of raw Xuan and cooked Xuan. Ripe Xuan is processed with alum water, ink and water is not easy to penetrate, on which can be neatly and carefully depicted, repeatedly color, so like silk fabric, suitable for painting brushwork; raw Xuan is not processed by alum water, ink and water is easy to penetrate, pen for a fixed, no change, and penetration, can produce rich ink changes, so writing painting with raw Xuan.

4, inkstone

Inkstone is grinding ink. Requirements for delicate and moist, easy to send ink, and ink fine and even without dregs. Inkstone in Anhui Shexian Sheyan, Guangdong Duanxi Duanyan, Gansu Tao Yan, and Shanxi Chengni inkstone, the most expensive, known as the four famous inkstone. Often ancient people for a famous inkstone, at all costs.

Expanded

Chinese painting materials are not without reason, the use of improvement and even change, have a necessary humanistic background. The use and selection of materials are related to the level of production at the time, the cultural and artistic needs of the society at the time, the promotion of spirituality and culture, as well as the requirements of art itself, and the humanistic significance of art materials lies in these relationships.

Materials and culture are a material and spiritual relationship, a relationship of mutual antagonism and interaction, and there is also a dual relationship between the whole and the local. Painting material promotes the development of art and culture, and at the same time, culture gives painting material a heavier cultural meaning.

First of all, human beings' innate love of beauty and human nature should be the driving force for the development of art and materials. Because of the emphasis on literati temperament and the popularization of art, because of these beautiful ideals that drive the development of art, there will be a chain reaction, thus improving the art materials.

From silk to paper, the emergence of ink painting can be said to be a result of the different aesthetic requirements of the people, coupled with the improvement of technology. Secondly, the improvement of productivity, technological progress on the development of painting materials can be said to have played a direct role in promoting, without the ingenuity of the craftsman to improve the tools, but also difficult to have the artist's skillful work.

The development of production technology, science and technology and the whole country's culture, economy and politics are inseparable from the background of painting materials is not so simple to say.

Again, there are cultural deposits in the art materials, began to play a "scale" metaphor, through the humanities and historical deposits, the art materials will no longer be just materials, it will have more spiritual connotations, the literati gas, the national temperament, in fact, is also embodied in the most basic materials above.

Baidu Encyclopedia - Chinese Painting