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See Shirley's Chinese Gongbi Paintings
See Shirley's Chinese Xieyi Paintings
See Shirley's Mixed Chinese Gongbi & Xieyi Paintings
See Shirley's Chinese Mogu Paintings
See Shirley's Chinese Baimiao Paintings
Chinese Painting has a long history and its own traditions.
In ancient times Chinese paintings were divided into many different categories depending on their contents. Nowadays paintings are mainly divided into three main categories with respect to contents:
Figure Painting (r辿n w湛 hu)
Landscape Painting /Mountain and Water Painting (shn shu hu)
Flower and Bird Painting(hu nio hu)
etc.
The form of a Chinese painting can be divided into many different categories from different angles.
Depending on the painting's technique, it can be divided as follows:
Gongbi Painting鐚鼻n鼻 b hu鐚
Xieyi Painting鐚xi y狸 hu鐚
Mixed Gongbi and Xieyi Painting (鼻n鼻 jin xi )
Baimiao Painting鐚b叩i mi叩o hu鐚
Mogu Painting鐚m嘆 鼻 hu鐚
Depending on the use of color, it can be divided as follows:
Colored Painting (s竪 ci hu)
Ink and Water Painting (shu m嘆 hu)
etc.
Depending on the medium鐚Where is the picture painted on, on the paper, on the silk or on something else) and the picture frame, it can be divided as follows:
Fresco (mural painting)鐚b狸 hu鐚
Painting on a Screen鐚p鱈n鼻 fn鼻 hu)
Scroll Painting鐚jun zh坦u hu鐚(on paper or silk)
Album of Painting鐚c竪 y竪)
Sector Painting (shn min)
Chinese Figure Painting is said to have reached maturity during the Warring States Period鐚475 B.C.-221 B.C.鐚, although there is another theory that says it didn't mature until the Han Dynasty (202 B.C.-220 A.D.).
The Mountain and Water Painting (Landscape Painting) began to take shape in Wei (220 A.D.-265 A.D.), Jin鐚265 A.D.-420 A.D.), and Southern and Northern Dynasties 鐚420 A.D.-589 A.D.鐚, but it is still the background of the Figure Paintings, then it became an independent painting in the Sui Dynasty 鐚581 A.D.-618 A.D.鐚 and Tang Dynasty (618 A.D.-907 A.D.), it was flourishing during the Five Dynasties (907 A.D.-960 A.D.) and the Song Dynasty (960 A.D.-1279 A.D.). At this time, the Chinese Ink and Water Painting prevailed, and people enjoyed expressing the objects with Chinese ink and water, instead of many colors.
The style of Chinese painting gradually tended towards the xieyi (free-style) in the Yuan Dynasty (1206 A.D.-1368 A.D.), and this style continued to develop during the Ming Dynasty (1368 A.D.-1644 A.D.) and the Qing Dynasty (1636 A.D.-1911 A.D.). It mainly emphasized on the ideas of the artists and expressed their spirits through painting.
Affected by the arts of Buddhism and Christianity in the Tang Dynasty (618 A.D.-907 A.D.), the Ming Dynasty (1368 A.D.-1644 A.D.) and the Qing Dynasty (1636 A.D.-1911 A.D.),Chinese painting emphasizes 紊絽鐚筝緇綽羣鐚 Wai shi zao hua, zhong de xin yuanartists should learn from nature outside, to get muse (created inspiration) inside,it requires artists膃鐚絨鐚 Yi chu bi xian, hua jin yi zaihave an idea before starting to paint, the idea should still be behind it has been after the painting is finished ,篁綵腑, 腑綵弱: Yi xing xie shen, shen xing jian beito paint the features of nature and express its inner spirit, both the appearance and spirit should be harmonious.
Because painting and calligraphy come from the same rootstock, both of them express thoughts, ideas and artistic conception with line. Painting, calligraphy, poetry and seal cutting are well connected, and interact with each other, together they make up a special artistic character.
The tools of Chinese painting are mainly:brush, Chinese ink, paper, thin silk and inkstone.
Chinese Gongbi Painting
Chinese Gongbi is also called Traditional Chinese Fine Brush Painting or Chinese Realistic Painting, and is characterized by fine brushwork and close attention to detail.
A Chinese Gongbi is painted using a Chinese writing brush (Mao Bi), Chinese ink and Chinese painting colors, on some impermeable material, mainly on Shu Xuan (impermeable paper), Shu Juan (impermeable thin silk), that has been covered a layer or more layers of gelatin and alum water to ensure that the wet color or color water can not soak through.
Chinese Gongbi is the opposite of Chinese Xieyi Painting. The latter is more freely and quickly sketched paintings, mainly to sketch the thoughts of the artists.
Chinese Gongbi emphasizes meticulous detail. Every thing should be expressed with a quite delicate, meticulous style. Every line, stroke and detail, even a strand of hair must be painted clearly, therefore, it requires the artists not only to have good painting skills, but also to work with very peaceful hearts and much patience. Usually, a Chinese Gongbi Painting takes a long time to complete.
Line is the skeleton of Chinese Gongbi Painting;everything is expressed by different lines. Line gives Chinese Gongbi Painting a strong ornamental result.
Depending on the techniques, Chinese Gongbi Painting includes Baimiao (painting with exact delineation with Chinese ink only), Gongbi Dancai (painting with exact delineation and light colours) and Gongbi Zhongcai (painting with exact delineation and enriched colors).
To paint a Chinese Gongbi painting, the artist usually has to go through a set series of steps:
Draft it with pencil;
Copy and delineate the draft as a Chinese Baimiao with Chinese ink and brush. Various lines ( there are at least 18 sorts of lines) are used in painting a Chinese Baimiao Painting.
Color it several times (usually 3 to 9 times) so that it will be a Chinese Gongbi Painting. (During the process, you usually need to brush the paper with gelatin water and alum water to fix the color on the paper and to prevent seepage through the paper or silk.)
The Song Dynasty (960 A.D.-1279 A.D.) reached to the highest peak in Chinese Gongbi Painting.
Chinese Xieyi Painting
Chinese Xieyi Painting is also named Freehand Brushwork and is characterized by vivid expression and bold outline.
Xie means write; Yi means meaning, idea. Xieyi means to express (but with the style of writing as calligraphy, write out the idea or thought in an artist's heart or mind, instead of something they can see with their eyes only). So, to express the thoughts or feelings of human being through painting, and to express the spirit of the natural objects is the core of a Chinese Xieyi Painting.
A simple and summary style, focusing on the spirit of objects to express an artist's feelings directly and freely is the basic character of Chinese Xieyi Painting.
Since the Tang Dynasty (618 A.D.-907 A.D.), Song Dynasty (960 A.D.-1279 A.D.), and Yuan Dynasty (1206 A.D.-1368 A.D.), many painters joined the Xieyi Painting, pushing it the mainstream of Chinese painting.
In the history of Chinese art, many great Xieyi artists also were great writers, poets or thinkers. They had a good education, were very intelligent,had creative minds and high art skills, and with generous mind and rich thoughts, they set out to paint something simple but interesting, with free and quick strokes, to stress the spirit of the objects they painted, while not paying too much attention to the shapes of the objects. Wang Wei (701 A.D.-761 A.D.), Su Shi (1037 A.D.-1101 A.D.), Mi Fu (1051 A.D.-1107 A.D.), Ni Zan(1301 A.D.-1374 A.D.), Dong Qichang (1555 A.D.-1636 A.D.) , Shi Tao (1642 A.D.-1707 A.D.) , Ba Da Shan Ren(1626 A.D.-1705 A.D.), Wu Changshuo (1844 A.D.-1927 A.D.) and Qi Baishi (1864 A.D.-1957 A.D.) are all famous Chinese Xieyi Artists.
Chinese Xieyi usually is painted on special paper that is permeable, called Sheng Xuan. The permeability of the paper can help artists to express their thoughts and feelings freely.
Chinese Xieyi can be divided into Small Xieyi and Big Xieyi. The difference is in the degree of freedom. The latter is much freer.
All the paintings that I painted for the poems in this publication are Chinese Xiyi Paintings.
Mixed Chinese Gongbi and Xieyi Painting
Mixed Chinese Gongbi and Xieyi is a traditional Chinese painting that has combined the two opposite painting techniques together, to create a new painting style.
Sometimes, people paint the main part with Chinese Gongbi style, use the lines to express it in the painting. It can be a person, a thing, or an animal depending on what you want to express mainly. Meanwhile, people use Chinese Xieyi or Mogu style to paint the background or the objective view.
But this is not absolute. Usually, as long as there are the two different styles in one painting, we call it a Mixed Chinese Gongbi and Xieyi Painting.
Therefore,Mixed Chinese Gongbi and Xieyi Painting has some realistic parts characterized by fine brushwork and delicate strokes .It also pays attention to the detail part,on many occasions, this part is the focal point of the painting;also it has some freehand drawing parts, to make the main part stand out by contrast.
Usually, in a mixed Chinese Gongbi and Xieyi Painting, the Gongbi part is not very strict as same as a Chinese Gongbi Painting, it can be a little more unhurried and relaxed.
I have learned to paint some Mixed Chinese Gongbi and Xieyi Paintings as my assignments in Chinese National Academy of Arts. Now I show some of them to you and hope they can help you to have a basic feeling about Mixed Chinese Gongbi and Xieyi Painting.
Chinese Mogu Painting
Mogu is also called Boneless Painting, in other words, it is a kingd of paintings without the outline of lines with Chinese ink, but with forms achieved by washes of ink and color.
The name of Mogu first appeared in a book by Guo Ruo Xu in Song Dynasty (960 A.D.-1127 A.D.).
Instead of using ink lines, Mogu Painting uses colors or colored lines and color gradation to create a painting.
Mogu Painting was created by Zhang Zengyao during the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420 A.D.-589 A.D.).
In the Five Dynasties period (907 A.D.-960 A.D.), Huang Quan significantly developed it to paint trees and flowers.
In Tang Dynasty (618 A.D.-907 A.D.), Yang Sheng mastered and developed it.
In Ming Dynasty (1368 A.D.-1644 A.D.), Xu Wei further developed it and started applying this technique in Landscape Paintings.
In Qing Dynasty (1616 A.D-1911 A.D.), Yun Shouping (Yun Nantian) made it famous and Ren Bonian, Wu Changshuo developed it further.
Mogu Painting has only been a small stream in Chinese painting history since it was created, so there have not been many famous Mogu Paintings passed down.
I started to learn Mogu Painting in China Central Academy of Fine Arts.
According to my instructor:
Chinese Mogu Painting is a painting style that uses the methods of Chinese Xieyi, to achieve the results of Chinese Gongbi Painting. Therefore, it is somewhere between Chinese Gongbi and Chinese Xieyi.
Moguin Chinese meansthere is no skeleton. Since ink lines are the bones of Chinese painting, if there is no bone, then it means artists do not paint Mogu Painting with ink lines, but create a painting directly with colors or colored lines.
Instead of using Chinese ink, Chinese Mogu Painting uses the colors directly.
Chinese Baimiao
Chinese Baimiao is a line drawing in traditional ink and brush style, therefore, it is also called a linear art.
Baimiao is painted with lines using Chinese ink. It is simple, summarized, clear and without color. Every line should be able to be seen clearly, and even a strand of hair must be expressed clearly.
There are at least 18 kinds of lines used in Chinese Baimiao.
When we paint a Baimiao, we must be responsible for every line and draw it similarly to write Chinese calligraphy. Every line must go through the process from the beginning, going on and stop until the end, just as we write every stroke in Chinese calligraphy.
Baimiao is one of the steps of Chinese Gongbi Painting. If we color it, it will become a Chinese Gongbi; otherwise it can stand as an independent art style.
Because lines are the skeleton of Chinese painting, every student who learns Chinese painting must learn Baimiao.
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