Calligraphy and painting were two of the most prized art forms in ancient China. Calligraphy was thought to be the highest and purest form of painting. The annals of painting in China dates back to the 2nd century BCE. In the earliest times, painting and writing were made out on silk, until paper was later invented during the 1st century CE.
Chinese art, and in particular, Chinese painting is highly regarded around the world. Chinese painting can be retraced to as far back as six thousand years ago in the Neolithic Age when the Chinese have begun utilizing brushes in their paintings. Chinese art dates back even sooner than that.
According to theme topic, Chinese paintings can be categorized as landscapes, character paintings and flower-and-bird paintings. In typical Chinese painting, Chinese landscape painting embodies a major category, depicting nature, especially mountains and bodies of water. Landscapes have customarily been the choice of the Chinese because they show the poetry inherent in nature. Consequently, many esteemed paintings are landscapes.
The most popularly known form of Chinese art is “Water-ink” painting, where water-ink is the medium. Some of the vital things required for the Chinese painting include: paper, brush, ink or ink stick, ink stone, and color.
• Brush: The Chinese brush is a necessary element for Chinese painting. The brush should be strong and flexible. Two types of brushes are used. The more delicate brush is created from white sheep hair. This brush should be soaked first, and then dried out to deter curling. The latter one is fabricated from fox or deer sable fibers, which are very resilient, and tend to paint better. The procedure the brush is used depends on the varied features of brush strokes one wants to achieve, such as weight, lightness, gracefulness, ruggedness, firmness, and fullness. Different types of shades are used to express space, texture, or depth.
• Ink Stick: There are three types of Ink Stick: resin soot, lacquer soot, and tung-oil soot. Of the three, tung-oil soot is the most commonly used. Otherwise, Chinese ink is ideal if ink stick or ink stone are inaccessible.
• Paper: The most generally used paper is Xuan paper, which is made of sandalwood bark. This is highly absorbent, so the color or ink diffuses the moment the brush stroke is laid. The second most well-known is Mian paper.
• Color: The earliest Chinese paintings employed Mo, a type of natural ink, to bring about monochrome depictions of nature or day-to-day life. Made of pine soot, mo is diluted with water to obtain unique shades for conveying appropriate layers or color in a painting.
Chinese painting is called shui-mo-hua. Shui-mo is the combination of shui (water) and mo. There are two styles of Chinese painting. They are gong-bi or detailed style, and xie-yi or freehand style. The second is the most common, not only because the objects are drawn with just a few strokes, but also because shapes and sprites are drawn by simple curves and natural ink. Many ancient poets and scholars used xie-yi paintings to express their spiritual angst.
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