Chinese Brush Painting (10 page)

Number 7.

The horizontal bone stroke lies above the center horizontal line. A new curved stroke crosses it. Try this stroke several times. It starts as a nail stroke, curves after it crosses the bone stroke, and ends with a quick move backward.

Number 8.

Make the trailing stroke to the right first. Then start the left descending stroke next to the top one, make a curve, and end the tail by rolling the brush up.

Number 9.

Notice that the left descending stroke is thicker. It starts next to the center vertical line and curves down over the diagonal line. The next stroke is like making the curve on number 4. Start like a bone stroke, curve up, and roll the brush to make the corner. Then curve in slightly and curve back to the right with a hook stroke. Since this is a new stroke, practice it several times.

Number 10.

This is an easy stroke, as you already know the nail stroke on the center vertical line and the bone stroke near the center horizontal line.

The numbers 11 through 19
use simple additions of the character for ten and a number. Eleven is “ten one,” twelve is “ten two,” and so on. 20 is “two ten.” In numbers with more than two digits, the teen numbers require putting a “one” before the ten as a placeholder. 2010 would therefore be written as “two thousand zero one ten,” and 2011 would be written as “two thousand zero one ten one.”

If you want to write the year on your paintings, the following characters can help you. Larger numbers are written with more than one character. They are shown in two ways: written from left to right, as in Western style writing, and up to down, in the Chinese style. For your paintings, use the Chinese style and stack the numbers vertically going down the side of the page.

Number 1000.
This number has the character for 1 and the character for 1000, which is made from a bone stroke, a blunt nail stroke, and a dragged dot.

Number 2000.
This number has the character for 2 and the character for 1000. It is read as “2 x 1000 = 2000.”

Number 2007.
This number is made with the characters for 2000 followed by the characters 0 and 7. When a zero occurs in the middle of a large number, you need to write a zero, but only one, even if there are two or more zeroes in a row in the Western number. So 2007 in Chinese is “two thousand zero seven,” where the character zero stands in for both the zeroes in the Western number. 2008 would be “two thousand zero eight,” and 2009 would be “two thousand zero nine.”

Painting Plant Characters

This book teaches you how to paint three of the most important plant subjects in Chinese painting: orchid, bamboo, and pine. When you finish a painting, you can add the character as a title of the painting. The characters use some of the same basic strokes you have already learned. You can practice the characters now, or you can wait until your painting is ready for a title.

“zero”

Number 0.
A plain circle, like a Western zero, is sometimes used for zero. But the character for zero is used more often, especially in schools. Try your hand at making the zero character by following the sequence of strokes shown.