As mentioned earlier there were pointers on how to create effects in Chinese ink painting. For example, one could save old calligraphy brushes with fuzzy, stiff split-haired tips, and use it to create fine lines placed closely together. Another tip was to save the water used to wash brushes in, as it is really just a more dilute version of the ink used, and this can be used to make lighter shades, like in the red blossom painting (she painted the branches at the back in a lighter shade to imply distance and add depth, and make it feel like one is really standing on the tree looking at the branches). The white feathers of the crane were made with white powder. As far as I know, Chinese ink does not usually use white ink like in Western painting.
For 山水画 (scenery paintings) or in fact any Chinese painting, she said, always, always draw the trees first. It sounds strange, doesn't it. I mean, in 山水画 where they depict breathtaking waterfalls and tall cliffs and mountain villages, it would be logical to do the cliffs first since they make the bulk of the painting and theoretically the trees and houses are only side details. But the actual logic behind this is that when the trees are done, we know where the roots are, and so we can pinpoint the location of the rocks of the cliff, and the houses, and so on. Furthermore the trees cover the rocks, so it would be more sensible to paint the rock around the tree root rather than paint the rock first and later go over with the tree.
From here on I'm just speculating, and making generalisations on what I saw today. If those are not real aspects of Chinese painting please correct me!
This is not Western painting, where one can always cover up mistakes with more layers of thick modelled paint. Chinese ink has a different chemical composition being a completely different material, and if the ink is not black it is usually translucent when dry. Hence we can't do it like Edouard Manet and his "A Bar at the Folies-Bergere" (he painted the waitress at the bar four times over because he kept changing his mind about where she should be in the composition).
Another point about painting trees first: when doing a close-up composition like the work with the cranes, or with the red blossoms, the branches of the tree provide direction and movement and a general structure of how your composition is supposed to look like. The trainer painted the branches of the tree first, then added the side details like the flowers or the cranes.
One more thing I noticed about the paintings: there was hardly any modelling of brushstrokes. I guess that is not very possible when working with dilute ink. Gradients and shadows (or light and dark areas) are created using intensity of line thickness and spacing in the crane painting, like cross-hatching (except with curves). In the red blossom painting texture on the branches was created by a half-dry brush (where you dip the brush in the ink, then wipe it on another surface until only some of the ink is left and the brush feels relatively dry, creating a patchy effect that also gives the grey areas). The lighter areas of the branch were highlighted with the roughly-painted line with varied thickness that looks arbitrary but somehow enhances the organic form of the branch.
A lot of times, white areas in Chinese painting are represented by negative space, since there isn't any white ink like there is white paint. For subjects like water bodies strokes of dilute colour must be added to depict current and waves. Most of the rest I learnt is about brush manipulation; the cranes' legs were done entirely using brush, and so were the stamens and pistils of the red flowers. (It looks too perfect to have been done by brush, doesn't it?)
Looking at the caption made me remember another Chinese saying:
诗中有画，画中有诗. I asked the teacher what that was all about, and she said that some poems, like 春晓 (a classic) were written when poets looked at artworks done by masters and wrote poems based on that; and in turn when anyone looks at those poems they would be able to metaphorically conjure the imagery such that it looks like a painting, or vice versa - looking at the painting reminds them of the poem. (and here I was thinking people like
李白 got inspiration from real first-hand experience.)
That leads me to another question: how come Nanyang's a Chinese school yet we don't have Chinese art in our AEP syllabus?
