What are the supplies for calligraphy

Hello, based on my experience in learning calligraphy, I would like to share with you the tools you need to prepare for practicing calligraphy.

Calligraphy tools of a brush

There are many kinds of brushes, general writing pen, roughly divided into three categories: soft, hard, neutral. Soft pen, there are sheep bright, chicken hair, etc.. Hard pen, there are purple hair (rabbit hair), wolf hair, mouse hair, and so on. Neutral (not soft and not hard) pens are known as "part-hair", and there are two kinds of pens: sheep purple part-hair and sheep and wolf part-hair.

Whether to use a soft or hard brush for practicing calligraphy depends on the size of the character. It is better to use a soft brush for writing regular script and clerical script, and a hard brush for writing lowercase script, running script and cursive script.

The quality of a pen is measured by its "sharpness", "flushness", "roundness" and "robustness". The so-called "pointed" is the brush hairs gathered when the brush should be pointed tax. The so-called "flush", is the brush hairs to look at the flattening to be flush, can be twisted with a finger to press the flattening of the pen to see if the inside and outside are flush, like the teeth of the grate as no discrepancy in the length of the brush. The so-called "round", is to write up Yu, all four sides are rounded as desired, must be the whole pen like the first out of the Shi fat shoots, round and full, no four convex, the so-called "healthy", that is, the elasticity of the strong, the new pen twisted, dipped in some spit, in the thumbnail to come up and back around the circle, the nib should be rounded freely. The tip of the pen should be rounded freely, there is no "grab hair" (protruding from the side of the hair), around the strike lift, the tip of the pen naturally closed, back to the tip. These four conditions together, we can see that the selection of the pen should pick some fat hair thicker, not thin and single, write up to be able to power.

New pen with gum on the tip, bought back, must first be immersed in cool water to let it slowly open (do not use hot water), do not twist or bite open with your teeth. Write the pen, hair open the whole pen one-third; write the pen, hair open the whole pen half, do not send more or all hair open. After writing the word, the remaining ink on the nib should be washed with water, squeezed dry, wiped smooth brush, inserted into the barrel or set on the pen cap. If placed for a longer period of time, should also be placed in the pen box on the camphor, to prevent insect infestation. These practices are to protect the hair from damage.

Calligraphy utensils two - paper

Writing calligraphy paper is roughly divided into two kinds of raw and cooked, raw paper absorbs water, cooked paper does not absorb water. In our impression, when it comes to rice paper, may immediately think of the kind of completely absorbent raw paper, in fact, in ancient times for a long time, are used to write on cooked paper. It is not recommended to practice writing on fully absorbent raw Xuan paper, because such paper is too absorbent to show the subtle changes of the brush on the paper. Of course, there is also a view that the raw Xuan paper with the ink natural blotting effect, and the book and traces of blurring, there is a kind of soft-focus beautification and pretend role.

The foundation of the practice of calligraphy to work on the more brown and astringent paper, so the paper to rough and absorbent is appropriate, usually with the Yuan Shu paper, burlap paper, Goryeo paper can be.

When you first start practicing calligraphy, such as practicing the middle stroke, and when you write seal script or clerical script, you can use partially ripe or half-ripe Yuan Shu paper. When you write lower case, it is suitable to choose a more ripe one, such as wax paper, which also has considerable requirements for the skill and precision of the book.

When it comes to paper, there are many kinds of production process and corresponding appearance, such as colored, sprinkled with gold and silver, and also made of various plants and flowers. Gao Lian in the "Zunsheng eight paper" in a list of many kinds of paper practice and appearance, each interesting, and said that the five-color paper pen, only white, white and pine color under the moon, such as the best, the most elegant, all kinds of intention is very lovely.

The unit of purchase of paper on the "knife", a knife of paper is usually one hundred sheets, and in special cases there are also fifty sheets. You can use more handmade paper and less machine-made when practicing calligraphy. Machine-made paper often does not catch ink, ink and paper is difficult to combine, easy to float on the surface, the word is not easy to see the spirit.

Paper preservation should pay attention to insect and moisture. Because of the fading of the fire, the aged paper will be more fine and moist, and can present a richer level of ink and brush than the new paper, so it is also more valuable.

Calligraphy tools of the third - ink and inkstone

Writing ink with pine smoke and gum ink two kinds of ink, practicing to gum ink is appropriate. When choosing to choose a light weight, fine texture (no impurities on it).

Grinding ink should be light and slow, to keep the ink flat, to make circles vertically on the inkstone, not oblique grinding or straight push. Grinding ink with water, rather less than more, grinding thick, add water and then grinding thick. The ink should be ground with water, not with tea or hot water. Ink should be ground to the right thickness, not too thick or too light.

After grinding, the ink should be put into a box to avoid drying out. Ink grinding time is relatively long, in order to avoid the right hand is tired, it is best to practice left-handed grinding.

Suggestions on how to sharpen ink

- Drop a small amount of water on top of the ink stone.

- Place the ink bar vertically on the ink stone and press and turn it gently. Grind clockwise, slowly and gently. The word "slow" is emphasized in the ancient saying "grinding ink is like a sick man".

- In the grinding process according to the ink thickness, adding water in stages. Be patient, grinding too fast, the ink is easy to foam, too slow, the ink is late.

- If you need a lot of ink, you can pour the ground ink into the sea of ink, and then continue to grind. You can also pour the ready-made bottled ink into the ink stone, add water, and grind it for a period of time with the ink bar, and use it in harmony.

- Lodging ink stagnant pen, if there is no special use habits, to wash the ink stone in time.

If we write with ink instead of grinding ink with ink sticks and ink slabs as the ancients did, we need to prepare an ink dish for ink and for adjusting the pen.

There are two main points in choosing an ink dish. Too lightweight disk is not suitable, because the larger brush in the ink and adjust the brush, a little force is very easy to knock over the disk, ink spilled on the table accident.

The second thing is that the edge of the inking disk should be suitable for scraping away the excess ink from the brushes as well as adjusting the bristles. Once upon a time, the ancients also designed small disks specifically for licking the pen, which we now replace with thoughtfully designed ink disks.

As for the inkstone, it was an indispensable stationery item for writing in ancient times, used for grinding and holding the ground ink. Grinding ink really requires patience, and nowadays we have a lot of things to do, time is limited, and our strength needs to be saved for writing Yu properly, so ink is still recommended for beginners.

If you don't grind the ink, the inkstone is not really used very much, now it is regarded more as a kind of cultural room elegant play and strange feelings of things, sends our appreciation of the ancient literati life.

Calligraphy tools of the fourth - other

Felt

Writing pads on the table felt, probably the least likely to think of a necessary equipment for people who do not write.

Writing on raw or partially raw paper, the ink will easily seep onto the table, and the paper will stick to the table, because of the non-absorbent qualities, the felt can hold the ink well. If you are using cooked paper, you can pad leather or write directly on the table so that the pen is harder and sharper and the edges are clearer.

Wool felts in creams, grays and some colors with low saturation work well. It is best not to choose a very high saturation, too bright color felt, looking at it will be fatigue, writing and painting paper usually have a certain degree of transparency, especially for painting, brightly colored felt will affect our judgment of the color.

Brush wash

The water Meng wash pen is called a brush wash, and in ancient times it was also called a wash.

It has three main functions, one is to provide water when writing, water and ink is the key to control the presence of ink color; the second is to wet the brush, the brush must be wet before dipping into the ink, long-term use of thousands of brushes directly Fukui ink damage to the brushes, and the third is used to wash the brush.

You can prepare more than a few pen wash on the table, when you go out, it can be replaced by a variety of water cups and bowls.

Paperweights

Paperweights will give us a sense of security when writing, just like its name a paperweight.

If the paper moves while you are writing, it can cause your pen to suddenly lose control, or you may not be able to write, so it's important to keep the paper down with something heavy. From the point of view of aesthetics, the objects on the desk reflect different materials, there will be a rich and harmonious beauty.

Metal paperweights work well because they are relatively small in size and heavy enough in weight. There are also paperweights made of stone or wood, and you need to choose the right one, otherwise it will be easy to be compacted, or the large size will bring obstruction, affecting the movement of the hand and the brush.

Brush Hill

Brush Hill, also known as the pen shelf, brush holder, is a good friend of the brush. It is the brush in writing need to pause when the rest of the place. Pen on the wet ink, a little carelessness will be stained everywhere, set up in the edge of the ink dish and it is easy to happen that the brush rolled off the dirty paper or table annoying situation, so for it to find a place to place is very necessary.

When a brush is placed on the brush hill, it has a sense of stability and organization.

There are many kinds of materials used for the pen hill, such as porcelain, wood, crystal and jade.