Chinese watercolor painting techniques are based on a 6,000-year-old tradition of brush painting with ink and mineral-based color pigments. Watercolors were adopted from Europe by Chinese artists around 1900. Calligraphic and traditional painting techniques are adapted by modern Chinese artists to produce exquisite watercolors featuring landscapes, figures, flowers and animals.
Materials
Chinese watercolor painting techniques are executed using Chinese materials. Traditional Chinese watercolors contain mineral and vegetable pigments mixed with animal glue binders. Chinese brushes feature soft, hard or a mix of animal hair. They have long, fine tips allowing a variety of expressive strokes. Raw shaun rice paper is highly absorbent and used for spontaneous-style painting with broad, blended strokes suggesting form and texture. Harder, mature rice paper allows fine strokes for highly detailed artworks.
Brush Techniques
Chinese watercolor brush techniques are adapted from traditional painting methods. The brush is held by the index finger and thumb with the other fingers closed between the palm and the brush. This allows the freedom and flexibility to paint basic types of strokes. The center brush technique involves the brush held perpendicular to the paper to create soft, evenly toned strokes. The side brush technique is where the brush is held at an angle of 90 degrees or less to the paper. This creates broken, rough-looking strokes.
Multiple Colors
Chinese brushes are designed to absorb and hold more color than regular brushes. Their long, soft animal hairs allow the painter to load two or more colors in a single brush. The brush is soaked in water, held sideways and rolled in the pigment. The colors can be mixed or kept separate on different parts of the brush. This technique allows multiple graded color effects with a minimum of brush strokes.
Composition
While appearing naturalistic, Chinese watercolor techniques do not strictly adhere to Western principles of composition. Perspective is often ignored, with pictures depicted from a bird's-eye view, as if the viewer were looking down on the subject from above. The background is often left out or simplified to draw attention to the painting's subject, whether it's flowers, animals or people. There is often no fixed light source in Chinese artworks, allowing more interpretive freedom for the artist.
