If Gu Weijing in the past wanted to copy "Bean Blossom Picture", facing the delicate brushwork of plant textures on the scroll, he would definitely feel like a dog eating a hedgehog and unable to start.
Chinese painting and calligraphy come from the same origin.
Compared with Western painters who evolved from "painters" and used a small brush to paint wildly on the canvas, in the field of Chinese painting, there are more rules and regulations on holding and using the brush.
Just a small soft brush,
There are six writing methods such as center forward, side forward, shun front, reverse front, scattered front and hidden front, as well as five different writing techniques of focus, thick, heavy, light and clear.
If we include more detailed small classifications that deal with different sceneries.
So there are no less than twenty or thirty types of different methods of drawing ink lines.
Countless painters have spent their entire lives working on these intricate and delicate brushes.
Gu Weijing began to paint traditional Chinese paintings when he was learning Chinese through babbling.
In the past six months, I have received guidance from experts such as Mr. Cao and Professor Lin Tao, but I still dare not say that I have mastered every brushwork.
When he originally painted the branches and leaves of flowers, he liked to use the most rounded and strong center, and use heavy ink with half water and half pigment to outline the edges.
This is the most stable choice,
The way of centering and straight strokes is like a flat-head screwdriver in car repair tools, which is very versatile.
You can use it to tighten slotted screws and cross screws, pry up decorative panels, dismantle express delivery, and open cans if necessary.
Anyway, I can do any job.
There's nothing wrong with being wrong, it's just not good enough.
A lot of things that are not good enough are piled up together, and the final picture will have a completely different look and feel.
"The original leaf veins of this painting... were painted like this!"
Gu Weijing followed the prompts in his mind and compared the texture details of the high imitation "Bean Blossom Picture" on one side, and suddenly felt enlightened.
It is difficult to speculate on violin technique based on the symphony;
But looking at the violin score and appreciating the timbre of the symphony, the difficulty has dropped exponentially for those who know basic music theory knowledge.
At this time, the originally obscure pen traces were like spider webs separated by skillful hands, peeling off the cocoons little by little, revealing the secrets to his eyes.
The way the branches of Castiglione's bean blossoms are drawn is obviously drawn in reverse strokes along the growth direction of the leaf veins.
"It's not reverse brushwork in the traditional sense. It should also incorporate some of the brushwork techniques of Chinese painting."
Gu Weijing observed the examples of painting techniques in the "Abstract of the Essence of New Body Painting" in his mind.
He felt the pen traces in the examples in the book in his mind——
During the process of writing, Castiglione's brush tip seemed to tremble slightly intentionally. The vibrations of the brush broke the original smooth color, showing the natural edges of the leaf veins in a fine-toothed shape, fully expressing them.
Lifelike.
"No, rather than using stains to understand it, it's better to say... this is more like the texture of the brush strokes produced by gently rubbing the fluff of the brush on the surface of linen, which is very common in oil paintings!"
Gu Weijing clenched his fists and muttered to himself.
Oil painters don't have many rigid rules for using their brushes, but painters pay great attention to the combination of brushwork and paint colors.
Perhaps due to cultural customs, Western-style painters are more "in flow" than Chinese painting methods, which have fixed rules.
Different themes, different substrates, different mediums and pigments...
Famous oil painters have their own little habits when using their brushes in various situations.
Techniques such as slowly rubbing the brush across the canvas, or trying to drag the brush in different directions, can help the paint show interesting textures and colors.
Not only can it be closer to the natural light effect, but it is also a way of expressing the painter's personal emotions.
The most obvious example is Van Gogh.
Among the many oil painters of the same period, Van Gogh's most notable personal brush style was that he liked to press the paint brush on the canvas and vibrate and rotate it to form specific swirl-like brush strokes to express his expression. Psychedelic starry sky and crazy emotional state.
And Lang Shining's painting method obviously has a certain shadow of Western brushwork style.
But it is softer, much more precise, and requires more control on the wrist.
Gu Weijing judged,
This is probably because oil paintings use thick paste pigments, while Chinese painting-style works prefer water-soluble plant pigments.
The ability of pigments to adhere to and smudge on the substrate is different, so the brushwork will need to be slightly adjusted.
"interesting."
Gu Weijing slowly started writing.
Bean flowers grow silently on the surface of the rice paper, with emerald green branches and leaves and small lavender petals so delicate and charming.
Gu Weijing writes very smoothly, with almost no sense of stagnation.
With the assistance of "Summary of the Essence of New Body Painting", just like when doing geometry homework, the system teacher has already listed all the problem-solving ideas and auxiliary lines and started drawing.
Painting is natural and light.
This painting "Bean Blossoms from the Immortal Calyx and Changchun Album" in the National Palace Museum in Taipei during the Eastern Xia Dynasty is a type of painting on silk.
The so-called coloring on silk refers to using traditional Chinese painting colors to paint on silk.
It would be too luxurious for Gu Weijing to use silk silk when he was copying and practicing. Good silk silk was much more expensive than linen canvas, so he used ordinary cooked rice paper.
Cooked rice paper with better water-absorbing properties can better express the characteristics of subtle brushwork.
Gu Weijing constantly verified the contents of the knowledge cards with the original imitation of "Celestial Calyx Changchun Album: Bean Blossoms" and his own paintings.
This feeling of flowing clouds and flowing water, and realizing the painting techniques that were originally puzzling to him one by one, made him so happy that he felt so happy.
Soon, Gu Weijing completed the main body of the bean flower.
Chinese painting takes less time than oil painting, which is also relatively speaking.
This "Bean Flower Picture" is not a very large work, but in addition to the bean flowers, there are also a lot of scenery such as grass, rocks, and birds.
He really followed the auxiliary instructions in "Summary of the Essence of New Body Painting" and finished all the paintings one stroke at a time, and he stopped sleeping.
After copying the bean curd, he put down the brush.
Probably because I only painted a small part of the original work, the system did not give a percentage of the copying similarity.
[Bean Blossoms from the Immortal Calyx Changchun Album (Partial Copying)]
[Oil Painting Technique: Lv.4 Professional Painter·First Level (3136/5000)]
[Chinese Painting Techniques: Lv.4 Professional Painter·First Level (1086/5000)]
[Mood: Simple work]
Gu Weijing crossed his arms and looked at the effect, very satisfied.
“Awesome!”
Lang Shining's painting techniques in the original work are still far superior to his, but the overall artistic charm and style are already 70% to 80% better.
If he were thicker-skinned, Gu Weijing could definitely think that he had already painted both physically and spiritually.
"For scriptures, are you still painting?"
Mr. Gu was wearing pajamas, holding a copy of "Zero Basics of Photography for the Elderly" under his arm, and appeared beside him like a ghost.
"I didn't notice when you came down."
Gu Weijing raised his head and saw his grandfather, and was slightly frightened.
"Actually, I haven't been here for a few minutes. I saw you drawing, so I didn't bother you." Gu Tongxiang waved his hand, indicating that his grandson did not need to be affected by him.
Older people tend to have trouble sleeping.
Mr. Gu was lying on the bed and flipping through a few pages of textbooks on hobbies for the elderly. Just as he was preparing to go to bed, he heard movement in the gallery facade downstairs, so he came down to take a look and saw his grandson painting.
The old man has always been very precious to Gu Weijing.
Good talent, hard work, and good luck.
If you can win Mr. Cao's favor, as long as you continue step by step, there is no reason why you can't make a career.
"Eh? Is it imitating Castiglione?"
Gu Tongxiang suddenly raised his eyebrows.
When he went downstairs, he put his glasses on the bedside in the bedroom and couldn't see the details clearly.
However, he still had a rough idea of the scroll next to his grandson Gu Weijing. It was the "Bean Blossoms of Immortal Calyx and Changchun Album" that he imported from the Eastern Xia Dynasty, a masterpiece by Castiglione of the Qing Dynasty.
"Well, the painting feels pretty good."
Gu Weijing nodded.
"Feels good? You're not old, and your tone is not bad."
Mr. Gu Tongxiang was happy.
He gently patted Gu Weijing's shoulder with the textbook under his arm, and lectured: "At my age, I dare not say that I can draw even one or two points of fur in painting Lang Shining. How old are you, you dare to say that it feels pretty good?" .I’m not afraid of the strong wind blowing my tongue.”
Regarding Lang Shining's paintings, Gu Tongxiang still thinks he has a say.
The imitations of Lang Shining's new body paintings in the store were selling so well that Mr. Gu had already had the idea of writing his own imitation of Lang Shining.
Gu Tongxiang couldn't even imagine whether he could paint the essence of Castiglione.
Castiglione was not a painter like Holbein, who could control the strokes with millimeter precision, nor was he a master of calligraphy and painting like Zheng Banqiao, who incorporated Ouyang Xunkai's pen stand method into his paintings.
Using the pen itself is not complicated.
If you can imitate even one or two points, you can make a lot of money just by bluffing foreigners.
The old man checked all kinds of information and sat for three months looking at Castiglione's picture album. He even signed up for a cheap tour group for senior citizens to visit the Forbidden City to see Castiglione's original works.
As the saying goes,
God rewards hard work, as long as you work hard, you will be rewarded.
After a season of hard work, countless hardships, and even a handful of precious hair falling out, Gu Tongxiang finally came to a realization and discovered a secret——
I am not the material to imitate Castiglione.
Ideal is full, the reality is very skinny.
This method looks simple, but it is really damn difficult to draw.
If your family opens a gallery in a tourist attraction, you will inevitably have to paint imitations.
Mr. Gu has also imitated works that are much more difficult than Castiglione's paintings, such as "Ode to the Goddess of the Luo River", "Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains" and "Five Horses", national treasures whose value cannot be measured in terms of money.
Painting can be drawn;
In fact, it is nothing more than a question of the quality of the painting.
But none of these masterpieces troubled Mr. Gu as much as Castiglione's works.
So weird.
The chef, who has been cooking for a lifetime, wanted him to forcibly combine the salty and spicy Hunan cuisine with the sweet Jiangnan stir-fry. The result was extremely awkward, and the more he painted, the more popular he became.
Mr. Gu looked at his three months of study results. After careful consideration, he concluded that foreigners just like exotic customs and should not be curious about this taste.
Selling this kind of thing outside is not only unscrupulous, but also easy to damage the brand name.
Gu Tongxiang lit a brazier in the yard, burned all his "failures", and never mentioned imitating Castiglione again.
"Lang Shining's painting method is difficult."
He did not expect that his grandson would also follow his own path.
"Don't be discouraged if you are not good at painting. If the secret of new body painting is easy to figure out, how can Lang Shining be successful?" Gu Tongxiang comforted Gu Weijing as he looked at the way he was about to speak but hesitated.
"You have to learn from me, Grandpa. It's not embarrassing at all if you can't understand the painting. It's embarrassing if you have to keep your mouth strong."
When the imitation painting failed, the old man's mentality was still quite good.
It's not that Gu Tongxiang has a particularly open-minded mentality, but that his family, whose elders have actually been court painters, know the secrets of this industry better than outsiders.
As the old man said,
If the secret of new body painting was so easy to find out, Castiglione would not be as famous as him.
Mr. Gu's biggest extravagant wish from the beginning was just to be able to imitate a few superficial things.
Court painters are actually a rather pitiful group of people.
They are very close to power,
In the Forbidden City, the status of Qi Daizhao, who played chess with the emperor to relieve his boredom, the court actors who sang ditties, and the vaudeville troupe who performed acrobatics for the concubines were much higher.
But in the final analysis,
Court painters were still just power-dependent servants who provided sacrificial and recreational services to the royal family.
This is actually very similar to those concubines in the harem who look after each other every day. Everyone hopes that their painting skills will be favored by the emperor.
This is where the best painters in the world gather together.
The emperor appreciates your painting skills, and you will be a celebrity guest in the mansions of dignitaries, and your paintings will be worth a fortune.
If your painting skills and works are not outstanding enough, you will be like those maids from the cold palace who may not even see the emperor a few times in their life, you will be nothing.
The court painters in charge of the painting academy in the Qing Dynasty did not even have formal grades.
Both the upper and lower limits are exaggerated.
There are some lucky people who can draw like Castiglione, and be able to draw a noble nobleman holding a third rank and wearing a flower feather on top.
Like those poor little eunuchs and old palace maids, there were also some who really starved to death in the Forbidden City and froze to death.
The painter's entire life and fortune, as well as the entire family's ambition for success, are pinned on a small paintbrush.
The King of Chu had such a thin waist that many people died of starvation in the palace.
Castiglione is so appreciated, and his paintings are so effective, who wouldn't want to learn a few strokes?
During the Qianlong Dynasty alone, according to historical records, there were three foreign missionaries, namely Lang Shining, Wang Zhicheng, and Ai Qimeng, who practiced the combination of Eastern and Western painting techniques.
Among the local court painters, there were also two local painting schools, the Loudong School and the Yushan School, headed by painters such as Tang Dai and Leng Mei.
Everyone is aware of the amazing art style that combines East and West, and everyone wants to get a piece of this popular art genre.
Which of these senior masters is not a person of extraordinary talents?
Those who are truly famous for their paintings,
There is not just one Castiglione.
Gu Tongxiang didn't believe that his grandson was good at painting.
Even if he is studying painting with Master Cao Xuan's second apprentice, Professor Lin Tao, it won't work.
(End of chapter)
