Paintings

Chinese Calligraphy

Beginner Chinese Calligraphy

Beginner Chinese Calligraphy, The Han Dynasty in 100 A.D. is the first origin of Chinese characters. The Chinese dictionary completed at that time included around 9,353 characters. The next version of the Chinese dictionary came out of Qing Dynasty and was called the “Kangxi” dictionary. The 42 booklets contained over 46,964 characters, which most are not even used today. There are variants on the characters, revised and refined in the current simplified edition of the Chinese language. This edition was put out by the People’s  Republic of China in 1956. This book  narrowed the characters down to about 6,500. This is considered a simplified form and is the most common form used today, although some remain committed to using the old traditional ways.

Chinese characters have been defined as complicated yet beautiful in their meaning.  They are complex in relation to other writing languages. Romanization is used in terms of relation or simple visual information, however the meaning of the character remains mysterious as the art styles behind it. Some Chinese characters mimic similar tones of other characters, yet have different meanings. Some characters written with just an added dot or stroke, turn into something completely different.

Of Chinese history, the crowning achievement to their culture, is the Chinese characters. They are an abstract art form displaying incredible depth of meaning in just a few brushstrokes. This thick symbolism has made it’s way into mainstream art from centuries gone and desirable still today. Words like love, faith, endure, tranquility, written in a one character form creates a personalization amongst the observer admiring it.  Many of these characters live on walls in homes to communicate a feeling.  Many masters have created their own unique style and now exists over 120 different styles of written Chinese calligraphy.

Learning to draw these characters requires patience, proper tools, clear concise instructions and of course, lots of practice. Acquiring this skilled art form can be hours of entertainment and enjoyment because it is so unfolding in a multi conceptual way.  You will learn the proper directions and different styles (one or two you may adopt as your own), and you will also learn each character’s simple, yet intense meaning. More than likely, you will choose a few complimentary to your own personality and self-expression. Rich information and cultural history is born from learning to write Chinese characters. The ability to dive into a whole new world is invigorating and creating the beautiful work is self actualization process all on it’s own.

Whether you embark on learning to write one character well to display as art on your wall, or you continue with the craft to put words together, even learning to read Chinese, it is rewarding.  The more you unravel the mystery living inside each of these characters, it seems to create added curiosity and a desire to keep going.

The ancient art of Chinese characters are popularized in cultures other than Chinese. The styles and forms of characters seen everywhere, are now a highly demanded art to learn.

About the Author

Simple and General Learn about Internet Marketing, Affiliate, Blogging, Copywriting, Google Adsense, Forex, Payperclick, Search Engine Optimization, Ebay, Copywriting, Private Label Rights, Social Networking, Web Traffic, Article Marketing and How To Make Money Online Blog Blogatme.com

What materials are required to practice chinese calligraphy?

I am an arts student i hear that practicing chinese calligraphy helps in improving strokes.I have been unable to find specific internet on the net and i dont want to pay....are there any specific brushes/pens that are used ..please help !!

Wow, it's so rare to find people here interested in the Asian arts! As a fellow arts student, some suggestions:

Use bamboo brushes of varying size, depending on the size of the characters you want to write. Fine sable hair is a pretty good choice, but for larger brushes wolf hair is also found. Avoid synthetics like the plague, especially nylon brushes! They don't hold the ink as well, and don't streak in the spontaneously beautiful way natural brushes do.

You will also need traditional inks, using an ink stone and a rubbing surface (usually a stone resevoir that can be found in Chinatown shops). This method is closest to tradtional style, allowing you to create different levels of the ink's darkness depending on how much you grink the ink stone with water on the stone tablet. You can get shades of gray to a deep rich black. Alternatively, you can use bottled Chinese / Japanese ink. I found some good resources to do these at Utrecht art supply, and Japanese kozo paper as well (essentially Chinese rice paper) which work very well.

The reason many people prefer the traditional papers and inks is because they don't bleed so much if mixed right, and offer the most variability. You can use smooth watercolor paper as substitute if you must. Avoid the ones with grains because the grain will skew and bleed unevenly. Some people use watercolors (goache) black instead of the usual ink, and it would also work alright if you don't want to invest in the ink. But absolutely essential is the bamboo natural hair brushes. Don't use pens / oil or acrylic brushes.

When mixing the ink, avoid using too much water. It's kind of hard to find the perfect balance - too wet and it bleeds too much or doesn't give you the darkest black, too dry and you can't get a consistent stroke and your brush gets prickly fast. It's better to have your brush hold a lot of dark ink, and then blot the brush slightly on a rag or napkin or the side of your cup / dish to remove the excess ink on it than to have it too dry.

Oh! One last thing I forgot to mention. You don't hold the brush the same way you hold a pencil / pen. You hold it upright so that your thumb points upward along its length, and your index and middle fingers then support the other side. The brush should point almost straight down, opposite the direction of the thumb. Most of your movements therefore should come from the wrist and forearm, not the fingers.

I hope that helps, maybe too much info to take at once haha. Good luck with that. I KNOW it helps you with brush technique because I've taken traditional ink painting and a bit of Chinese calligraphy and it really emphasizes brush technique. Best of luck!

Chinese Calligraphy

Tags: art, calligraphy, china, chinese, chinese calligraphy, chinese calligraphy characters, chinese calligraphy font, chinese calligraphy history, chinese calligraphy symbols, language

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 3rd, 2008 at 6:54 am and is filed under paintings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.