Chinese calligraphy has been long revered as mysterious and truly beautiful. Perhaps some of the appeal comes from the fact that these ancient words are created using abstracted symbols and pictures. These give each word a shape and design that is unlike any Western letter. Creating your own Chinese calligraphy is something that you can learn and master with patience in your own home.
Selecting Your Tools
There are many options available for the beginning calligrapher. However, there is one particular tool that you must have. That is a brush. You can buy a traditional Chinese calligraphy brush or a watercolor brush. Whatever brush you choose, you need to make sure that the bristles can come to a clean point.
You can purchase bottled calligraphy ink or the more traditional ink sticks. To use ink sticks, grind them into powder on a special ink stone and mix with water to the correct consistency. Bottled ink can occasionally be thick, in which case you will need to add a little water to it.
Practice your calligraphy on rice paper. This type of paper is relatively inexpensive and is the traditional paper that is used for Chinese calligraphy. You can also use thick watercolor paper or any craft paper with a coarse texture.
Practicing the Basic Strokes
There are several basic strokes that you should practice before attempting calligraphy characters. Almost all the Chinese calligraphy characters are composed of these strokes, and it will greatly assist you to feel comfortable not only with the motions but also holding the brush and moving the ink across the paper.
The wider area at the start of a stroke is created by starting the stroke with a small move to the left and then curving around to the right before continuing the actual line of the stroke. Try this with diagonal strokes as well as downward strokes. Create a horizontal stroke by applying the same principle, but you will need to curve the line back on the right side so that the left and right ends of the horizontal line are wider than the middle.
Creating the Calligraphy
After you have practiced all of the strokes many times, you can begin creating Chinese calligraphy characters on paper. Take your time when creating these characters and watch out for common mistakes like using too much ink.
Combine the strokes that you have practiced to create a Chinese character. For example, create the character for "life" with a slightly diagonal stroke starting on the right. Then add a downward stroke under the first. Paint a horizontal stroke across the downward stroke and add two dot shapes to the upper left and right side of the downward stroke. Practice this character many times in order to master it.
