国画 guó huà

Chinese Traditional Painting

The Types:

‘Meticulous’ Painting

Realistic painting with fine brush strokes, close attention to detail

工笔 Gōng Bi

Landscape Painting 山水画 shan shui hua

One of the most popular forms

Black ink or colour

Mountains, Rivers

Figure Painting

Historical Figures

Story Characters

Females

Flower and Bird

Brushes

• Specific brush techniques and strokes • Dotting methods, especially for

plants• Rabbit hair, sheep hair, deer and

ox, goat hair.• Round brushes regain ‘bounce’

when wet, and enable painter to vary width by adding or decreasing pressure

Ink

Often black, similar or the same as calligraphy ink

Ink cake ground onto painter’s stone slab with water – amount of water changes consistency of ink

Thick ink is glossy

Thin ink is lively and translucent

Paper and Silk

• 纸 和 丝 Zhi he si

• Painted on silk or paper

• Original paper made from pulp and bark

• Different paper absorbencies

• Silk less absorbent, doesn’t show brush strokes

Ceramics

Scrolls