chinese ink painting


6 7 8


6


7 8


9 9


With the leaves and stem in place, we can now add the orchid flowers. Despite looking simple, they can be intricate to paint so


practice first on a separate sheet of paper. Begin by loading a smaller brush (for example, a plum blossom brush or small white cloud brush) with pale grey ink. Paint two short fat strokes parallel to (but not the same size as) each other.


Add two longer strokes, one each side of the central pair and one short one anywhere amongst the four petals. Vary the direction of


each petal as shown.


When you feel comfortable painting the flowers, add several of them to your original stem. Paint a few buds at the tip of the


stem, using just two strokes instead of five. Attach each flower to the main stem with a pale stalk.


Dot the ‘heart’ of each flower with a few jet-black sooty ink dots – these are a calligraphic ‘dot’ stroke similar to the Mandarin character for mountain (“shan”).


72 Artists & Illustrators


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84