With comprehensive instruction and artist tips and tricks, Special Subjects: Beginning Chinese Brush is the perfect resource for beginning artists. Explore and experience this traditional medium! Special Subjects: Beginning Chinese Brush teaches aspiring artists everything they need to know to get started creating Chinese brush paintings. From choosing brushes to painting techniques, composition, and development, Special Subjects: Beginning Chinese Brush is bursting with valuable skills and lessons to help you learn how to use this traditional medium. Artist Monika Cilmi guides you through an exploration of a variety of step-by-step Chinese brush paintings, covering basic concepts and techniques, such as different brushstrokes, as well as how to blend traditional methodswith your own personal style. Building on these introductory techniques, you can practice your craft with projects that cover a variety of subjects, including birds, flowers, and traditional landscapes. This is one tool that no artist will want to be without!

A second addition, also known as Ning Yeh's "Gold Edition" updates his original guide of step-by-step instructions for Chinese Brush Painting.

Try your hands at these historically and culturally important methods, and create some beautiful paintings of your own. Chinese painting is an ancient art that has evolved and become refined over many centuries. Artists brush ink and color pigments onto silk or paper using a variety of techniques, with two main approaches: gongbi a traditional and realistic style based on line drawing, and xieyi style, a freehand method that uses fewer strokes to suggest objects in a less literal way. Painting themes generally fall into three categories: figure, landscaping, and bird-and-flower. Chinese brush painting is mainly presented in lines, shades and white space to express the feelings about nature, social phenomena, and the very essence of the universe. The framework for this expression is often traditional: certain subjects carry cultural connotations that are well-known and imbue the painting with a layer of meaning beyond face value of objects shown. The traditional subjects such as mandarin ducks, butterflies, and the 'Four Gentlemen' (plum blossoms, orchids, bamboos, and chrysanthemum) are examples that contain this rich cultural meaning. Readers will learn first about the tools and materials, then painting techniques. Early pages explore the very basic painting methods and subjects—perfect for beginning painters—but continue to build skills for painting plants and animals of increasing complexity. Chinese Brush Painting illustrates several Chinese brush painting techniques with the use of different tools, brushwork and color mixing. With the step-by-step projects, you can first follow the introductory lessons to learn the necessary skills of brushwork, usage of paper, and characteristics of water, ink and colors; then follow the advanced lessons to learn the compositions and more complicated color applications.

“You’ll want to keep this book close to your painting table....Guides you from the beginning with information on the materials you need and the basic steps involved.”—Decorative Artist’s Workbook. “With the right instructions and a little time you can get very good results, and that’s what this book provides—step-by-step, manageable little steps to the goal.”—The Crafter’s Bookshelf.

A Beginner's Guide to Chinese Brush Painting teaches this ancient art form in an easy-to-understand way--no prior experience necessary! As one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world, Chinese brush painting has been used for thousands of years to create images that harness the imagination, and capture the inner spirit of a subject--be it an animal, landscape or tree. All you need for this simple, but beautiful, art form is black watercolor paint, white paper, a brush and some creativity! An introduction tells you about the history of brush painting, and also gives tips for holding your brush, achieving different shades and collecting your materials. After that, the book takes you step-by-step through more than 35 hands-on activities--including basic strokes, putting them together to create an object or scene, the importance of leaving open space and even writing some Chinese calligraphy. With the help of this book, artists of all ages can learn to paint: Bamboo stalks, branches and leaf clusters A knotted pine tree and its delicate needles A snail with a spiral shell and little body peeking out from underneath A waterfall gliding down the side of a mountain And much more! You'll find that this activity will help you learn to center your mind and thoughts, and your masterpieces will be inspiring decorations or great gifts for friends and family. Get started learning this "soft martial art!"

"How-to" manual provides all levels of students with detailed methods for painting such simple subjects as bamboo and plum blossoms as well as more ambitious motifs. 150 illustrations, including 82 in full color.

Many Chinese brush-painting instruction books only focus on painting a few species of flowers, such as lotus, peony, and plum blossom, because these flowers symbolise various ideals in the Chinese culture. This book introduces painters to a variety of brushwork and floral painting techniques, and shows how to apply them to a diverse collection of flowers.

Presented in an easy-to-understand way that is perfect for children, Chinese Brush Painting teaches the ancient art of Chinese calligraphy. For more than a thousand years, a traditional Chinese style of art--brush painting--has been used to make pictures that are more than just pictures. These are images that harness your imagination, and capture on paper the true spirit of an animal…or a landscape…or a tree. All you need is black paint, white paper, and your best mental focus! Step by step this calligraphy for kids book shows you how fun it can be to paint Chinese characters in the traditional way. Once you learn the basic strokes, you can put them together to create everything from a pine cone to a mountain scene. you will even be able to write some Chinese calligraphy. You'll find that Chinese brush painting will help you learn to center your mind and thoughts. And your masterpieces will be inspiring decoration for your walls or great gifts for your friends and family. Open this book, pick up your brush and let's get started!

Chinese brush painting uses minimal strokes to describe the essence of a subject and capture its rhythm and grace. This beautiful book contains 200 exquisite motifs to re-create, from flowers and fruits to wildlife and scenery. This book starts with a brief history of Chinese painting styles, followed by a chapter on materials, tools, and basic techniques. The heart of the book is a directory of 200 motifs, starting with the "Four Gentlemen"â?¬â? the bamboo, orchid, plum, blossom and crysanthemum. Chinese painting courses usually begin with the Four Gentlemen because the wide range of strokes required to paint each of them provides a catalog of strokes that can then be used to paint any other subject.The Chinese Brush Painting Bible is especially designed for artists of all levels, beginner to advanced, who are looking to hone their skills in a specific style of artwork. The books are 6.5in x 8in, hardcover with an internal spiral binding so they lay open flat as readers follow the steps on their own canvas. This book is beautifully illustrated and contains hundreds of colorful pieces of artwork, photographs, and helpful diagrams. Step-by-step instructions help guide artists through the learning process.

Full of gorgeous brushwork, easy-to-follow instruction, and exciting art materials, this complete kit is the perfect introduction to the ancient art of Chinese brush painting. After an introduction to the philosophy behind painting with Chinese brushstrokes and techniqes for holding and guiding the brush, aspiring artists are guided through step-by-step painting projects. Several accomplished artists show their process of painting subjects ranging from traditional bamboo and animals to a landscape and figure. And this kit contains everything needed to complete all the projects in the 32-page lesson book. The hardcover case includes a 40-page paperback book with corresponding Spanish translation, watercolor paints, Chinese paintbrushes, ink stick, ink stone, palette, and watercolor paper.