The Versatile Master Artist

If it were the former Gu Weijing, wanting to imitate the ”Bean Flower Painting,” facing the delicate plant texture brushwork on the scroll today, he would surely feel like a dog encountering a hedgehog, at a loss.

Chinese painting and calligraphy share the same origin and vein,

Compared to the Western artists who evolved from ”painters” dabbling furiously on canvas with a small brush, the realm of Chinese painting pays more attention to rules and techniques for holding and using brushes.

With just a small soft-haired brush,

there are six ways to use the brush: central tip, side tip, smooth tip, reverse tip, scattered tip, and hidden tip, as well as five methods of ink application: intense, dense, heavy, light, and clear.

If considering the finer categorization for handling different scenes in the painting,

the methods for different ink-outline lines alone exceed twenty or thirty types.

Countless painters spend their entire lives absorbed in these intricate and delicate brush techniques.

Gu Weijing started painting Chinese Painting since he began to babble as a child.

In the past six months, he has been guided by masters like Elder Cao and Professor Lin Tao, yet he still dares not claim he has fully understood every brush method.

When he originally painted the stems and leaves, he liked to use the most rounded and robust central tip, paired with half water and half pigment heavy ink to outline with smooth strokes.

This is the most stable choice,

The method of central tip and smooth strokes is like a flathead screwdriver among repair tools, highly versatile.

You can use it to screw flathead screws, Phillips screws, pry open a decorative panel, dismantle a package, or even open a can if needed.

It can accomplish any task.

There’s no mistake, just not good enough.

Many ’not good enough’ pieces piled together, would ultimately create a vastly different visual perception on the final piece.

”The vein of the leaves in the original piece... is painted like this!”

Gu Weijing, following the mental prompt, compared the texture details of the highly imitated ”Bean Flower Painting” nearby, suddenly felt a revelation.

Predicting violin techniques from symphonic music is difficult,

but appreciating the sound of symphonic music while looking at violin scores, for those who understand basic music theory knowledge, the difficulty decreases exponentially.

At this moment, the originally obscure brushstroke trajectories appear as if the spider’s web is expertly spread open, gradually revealing the mystery layer by layer before his eyes.

The method Lang Shining used to stroke the branches in the ”Bean Flower Painting” is clearly using reverse strokes, outlined along the growth direction of the leaf veins.

”Not the traditional sense of reverse strokes, it should incorporate some Chinese Painting soaking and dyeing brush techniques.”

Gu Weijing observed the brush technique examples from the ”Essence of New Body Painting” in his mind.

In his perception, the brush trajectory on the exemplar in the mind expressed by Lang Shining’s pen seems to intentionally tremble lightly, the nib vibrating, breaking the original smooth color, presenting the leaf veins in fine serrated natural edges, completely displayed.

Vividly lifelike.

”No, rather than insisting on understanding through dyeing, it’s more like... it’s akin to the very common sight of oil painting, where the brush bristles lightly rub against the surface of the linen, creating textured brushstrokes!”

Gu Weijing clenched his fist, murmuring to himself.

Oil painters do not adhere strictly to numerous rules, but they pay great attention to the combination and match between brush techniques and color pigments.

Perhaps due to cultural customs, compared to the fixed rules of Chinese Painting techniques, Western painters are more ”flow state.”

Different themes, different substrates, different media pigments...

Famous oil painters, when facing various situations, each has their small habits in brush usage.

Such as slowly brushing on the canvas or attempting to drag the brush in different directions, these methods can render the pigments in moving textures and colors.

Not only is it closer to the effect of natural light, but it also serves as a way to express the painter’s personal emotions.

The most obvious example is Van Gogh.

Among many oil painters of the same era, Van Gogh’s most notable personal brush style was his fondness for pressing the paint-loaded brush onto the canvas, vibrating while spinning, forming a vortex-like specific brush stroke to depict a phantasmal ”Starry Night” and mad emotional state.

Lang Shining’s painting method, apparently possesses some shades of Western brush styles.

Yet softer, much finer, requiring greater control over wrist strength.

Gu Weijing judged,

A likely reason being oil paint is thick and creamy pigment, while the style of Chinese Painting prefers water-soluble plant-based pigment.

The pigment’s capacity to adhere and stain the substrate differs, hence the brush technique is slightly adjusted.

”Interesting.”

Gu Weijing slowly lowered his brush.

Bean flowers sprouted silently on the surface of the rice paper, with the emerald green leaves and pale purple flower petals vividly alluring.

Gu Weijing painted with great fluency, almost without any sense of stagnation.

Assisted by the ”Essence of New Body Painting,” like doing geometry homework, the system as a teacher has already laid out the solution thought process and auxiliary lines for his painting.

Painting becomes natural, nimble, and light.

The ”Immortal Flower Spring Eternal Album: Bean Blossoms” from the Dongxia Taipei Palace Museum is a type of colored silk groundwork.

What is referred to as colored silk groundwork indicates painting on silk using Chinese Painting colors.

If Gu Weijing were to use silk for practice while copying, it would be overly extravagant; good silk is far more expensive than linen oil painting canvas, so he used ordinary mature rice paper.

Mature rice paper, with its better water absorption, is even better at demonstrating detailed brushwork characteristics.

Gu Weijing continuously verified the contents of the Knowledge Card, against both the reproduction of the ”Immortal Flower Spring Eternal Album: Bean Blossoms” and the painting created with his own brush.