What are the basics of practicing calligraphy, please? Thanks!

Brushholding, character method.

Detailed

To write good brushwork you must master the brushwork and characterization.

Brushholding:

Su Dongpo said, "There is no fixed way to hold the brush, to make the virtual and wide." Five fingers pen method: that is, with the thumb and forefinger belly pinch 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, but also to play the role of the pen to the hook; ring finger of the occasion of the flesh against the inside of the pen, playing the role of the pen to the outside; pinky attached to the lower part of the finger belly of the ring finger, auxiliary ring finger pen to the outside of the push. Holding the pen should be as the ancients said: "make the palm of the virtual as holding the egg", so as to facilitate the operation of 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 to hang the wrist and elbow, by the size of the word to decide, small words low hold, pillow wrist; large words high hold, hang the wrist; and then large need to hang the elbow.

Writing method:

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.

Lifting and pressing--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 falling and one lifting, alternating constantly, the pen is also constantly lifting and pressing in the process of writing. 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).

Junction - also known as junction or inter-frame structure. Mr. Qigong once pointed out that to write brush characters, one should grasp the inter-frame structure, and the other should practice the characteristics of the strokes. The structure 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 level".

Calligraphy learning steps

1. Pick the right tool, such as hard pen to pick the pen or art pen, brush according to their own learning basis to choose the sheep hair, wolf hair, or sheep hair and rabbit hair mixed. Ink can generally use oringdan or hero, brush calligraphy ink is recommended to use a thicker ink, such as one of the cabinet. Paper selection (fountain pen selection of harder absorbent better paper can be, brush selection of burlap, or old newspapers)

2. Copying posters: friends who have not studied calligraphy can according to their own preferences posters to come to practice, the general hard pen and brush calligraphy have **** the same point - that is, the word is similar to the structure of the intermediate structure, the structure looks good, the font is basically not difficult! The structure of the good-looking font will not be difficult to see. So it's crucial to choose a post.

3. Practice: first observe the structure of the order, understand the structure of the pen, and then understand the pen. Every day to insist on practicing an hour.

4. You have to understand the structure of the characters on the posters by heart, first imitation, imitation like, to insist on practicing until skillful.

5. With the foundation you can start practicing chapter: is the overall layout of a word, thickness, size, etc., can make people feel the charm.