Chinese Landscape Painting Notes

The key to a good landscape painting is the painting of trees

No forest is no air. This means that trees are especially important in landscape paintings, and the mountains can only be immortal if there are trees to form a forest. In the traditional landscape painting occupies an important position, even if only painting trees, can become a complete work. When painting a tree, it is better to observe the overall characteristics of the tree first, and then observe the branches, because the ecology of the branches of the trees is also different due to the variety of trees. Beginners must first learn to paint landscapes from the dead trees or winter deciduous trees as the object of practice, so that you can better understand the growth of trees, no leaves of the branches of the tree structure is clear, distinct posture, easy to understand the growth of various trees and the basic structure of the growth of the law, the scenery of Guilin is the most suitable for painting, sketching the best place to go.

(a) branches

The structure of the branches can be roughly divided into three main categories, one for the type of upward growth, the traditional theory of painting is called antler branch, this type is the most common, such as willow, acacia, camphor and so on. The second is the type that bends downward, known as the crab-claw branch, such as the dragon's claw. The third is the type of horizontal out of the flat life, can be called the long arm branch, such as pine, cedar, cottonwood and so on. There are also between the two or three of the aforementioned forms. Before sketching branches around the tree on all sides, carefully observe, choose the most beautiful trunk and the most appropriate angle. First the trunk of the thick branches hook good, and then add the thin branches, painting the first to pay attention to the tree divided into four divisions of the principle, that is, the trunk of the tree before and after the left and right in all directions out of the branches of the situation, do not be like a fishbone, two and two, lack of staggering style. Secondly, pay attention to the arrangement of sparseness and momentum, can be a little give and take, in fact, twigs and tree tops can be boldly discarded, should be from the perspective of the art of choosing the principles of the principles of beauty for sketching. In addition, must pay attention to the brush, to be upright, each branch should be connected with the trunk or thick branches, can not grow in the air, to be accounted for, and the branches of the tree the longer the more thin, can not write the end of the thick or thick branches and thin, to comply with the ecological. (B) bark, tree roots Tree appearance, personality and characteristics can sometimes be distinguished from the texture of the bark, each type of bark has a different texture organization, such as pine bark is scaly, willow bark into diagonal cleft herringbone pattern, cherry rush apricot bark into a horizontal pattern, the bark of the Bo tree was twisted, there are still many difficult to describe the texture of the texture of the words, need to be carefully observed before the sketching. Painting the trunk, in addition to pay attention to the texture of the bark, but also need to draw a three-dimensional feeling, chapped bark * near the sides of the texture to be dense and narrow, ( or ink thicker ), near the center of the tree texture can be sparse ( or ink lighter ), so that in line with the principle of perspective. After painting the branches and trunks, then paint the roots, as to whether to paint the roots of the tree can be based on the amount of soil and stone or the type of tree depending on the type, usually more stone and less soil type, to show the heel of the majority; more soil and fewer stones, the case to hide the roots of the majority, such as banyan trees to show the roots of the majority. However, when painting, one can also decide whether to hide or expose the roots according to the needs of the picture, regardless of the differentiation between soil and stone, but one has to show that the roots rise from the soil and are firm and stable, rather than sticking into the soil and collapsing once they are pushed down. (3) Leaves

The arrangement and structure of leaves vary according to the type of tree. Regardless of the type of tree you are painting, it is important to understand the shape and arrangement of the leaves from a close-up view, and then look at the overall gesture and feeling from a distance. The twelve types of leaves pictured below are common in Taiwan. Nature's number of trees is the best spectrum of paintings, varied, so that we can draw endless, usually should do more observation, diligent sketching. The ancient method of painting trees was first widely used, in which each leaf was outlined with more than two lines and then filled in with color. After the rise of ink and wash, the use of leaf clips gradually declined, and the use of single leaves (leaf-dotting) gradually increased, simplifying the use of one brush stroke to symbolize a leaf or a group of leaves, and depending on the shape of the leaf, there were many different symbols, such as pepper dots, Chinese character dots, Chinese character dots, plum blossom dots, mouse's foot dots, hanging vine dots, pine leaf dots, bamboo leaf dots, etc. However, these symbols were not the same as those used by the ancients. However, these symbols are all extracted from the observation of nature, both generalized and realistic, not made up out of thin air. In addition to pine, bamboo, willow, wu, and other leaves with distinctive image characteristics, other features are not very obvious, commonly known as miscellaneous trees. Point leaves need to pay attention to the top of the tree by the sun leaves more, * trunk leaves are usually sparse. (D) Pine Tree Painting The pine tree symbolizes the gentlemanly manners and longevity of mankind. Ancient people loved to paint pines, showing the uprightness and vigor of the pine, and the spirit of the sky and the earth. Pine skin is scaly, painting pine skin should be strong, hairy but not light, avoid too regular arrangement. Pine leaves such as needle-like, semi-circular, round, horsetail-shaped, serrated and many other different ways of painting, the pine trunk is straight, born in the rocky cliffs is curved. The pine trunk is straight, and when it is born in the rocky cliffs, it is curved. (E) willow painting method Ancient people used to say: it is difficult to paint a person's hand, it is difficult to paint a tree willow, a painting will be ugly. Willow tree is charming, with the feature of tilting to the water's edge, the willow trunk is old and the willow is tender. Painting willow should be slightly thick and thin, do not show the sharpness, pen slow potential even, soft with hard, such as pointing willow leaves, to be fluffy and full of changes. In Guilin Banyan Lake area sketching willow for the best practice place. (F) bamboo painting method in landscape bamboo, bamboo forest (jungle) in the form of appearances, the leaves can be divided into drooping bamboo leaves and upward bamboo leaves (clear forest new Huang Huang) and so on the two major forms. Painting can be painted first bamboo trunk, branches and trunk are slightly curved, pay attention to the sparse and dense interspersed, the arrangement of bamboo leaves should not be state neat, must consider the overall interest, the relationship between reality and distance. In Guilin, Li River on both sides of the most is the phoenix-tailed bamboo, is also the best material for painting bamboo. (VII) clump tree painting method clump trees often appear in landscape painting, more difficult to deal with, Song and Yuan painters depicted clump trees, from life, more realistic, such as Ma Lin's Fang spring rain figure, its branches and trunks of the intertwined, light and dark, guests and masters, near and far, the atmosphere is very successful in dealing with. Wang QiuLin figure is to clip the leaves of the tree is mainly a clump of forests, trees and branches and leaves that the relationship between the slightly messy. Painting clumps of trees avoid monotonous and dull side by side, trees have a guest and master, painting from the main tree to start, each other, the leaves are divided into thick and thin. Rows of trees should be staggered up and down, high and low. Painting mountains and rocks method, the previous blog post: welcome Christmas - Guilin - with my painting Guilin landscape painting techniques have been described in detail, and will not be repeated here. The shape of the mountain can be divided into, hills, ravines, peaks, mountains, hillocks, ridges, tops, etc., and there are slopes undulating rolling situation or due to the sunshine and sunset, rain and wind, clouds and mist changes out of the natural beauty of the painting of the mountain must be viewed from afar before the potential, and then close to look at its quality. The mountains can be divided into stratified rock, igneous rock and metamorphic rock due to different geology.