03.1: Experimenting With Calligraphy Brushes And Ink

Abstract Expressionism can be oddly similar to traditional Chinese art. This is especially true in Franz Kline’s art. Take a look at Franz Kline’s Composition, 1955.    

Dramatic black strokes mark a white background. The dynamic curves and slashes are absolutely exhilarating as they take the center of your attention. There is a striking resemblance to East Asian calligraphy, especially wild cursive script where characters are more loose, expressive, and unique. 

This week I practiced calligraphy and landscape painting with traditional Chinese brush and ink. Let’s see how I did.

Calligraphy

I failed. After the first two minutes, I learned that calligraphy is extremely difficult. I started with the eight basic strokes of Chinese calligraphy. For reference, here is how the strokes should look.  

And now, here is how I did.  

It’s not the best. In fact, it reminds me of kindergarten handwriting (very far from standard form). What I noticed quickly was that my calligraphy brush often frays, making precise strokes more difficult. This may be because it’s a cheap one dollar brush from Daiso, but no worries. I dug around and found a better brush–one that’s at least a few decades old. Still, I had fraying problems and then it struck me. More ink in the brush would keep it from fraying! This might be because of the sticky property of water which should be in the ink. It worked but it had its limitations. Ink ran out of the brush quicker and it would go back to fraying. Add too much ink, then it spreads too far on the Xuan paper (rice paper). 

I did get a really good ‘hook’ though. I liked it so much that I circled it.

Character Writing

While I may have gotten one good stroke, I couldn’t get a good character. Next, I tried writing the character 永 (yǒng) which has all eight basic strokes of Chinese calligraphy. Then, I tried my name.  

It takes great confidence to share this image publicly because I can’t even stop myself from laughing. If you remember my last blog, I said a painting is not complete until the artist signs their name, so I must learn how to write my name. It turns out I still can’t write my name 冯广齐 (Féng guǎng qí). Right now, I am staring straight at a 冯 and a 广 and a 齐 that are just completely incorrect, and what is that chaos towards the bottom-right corner of the center page? I still can’t get over the fact that while doing this exercise I kept switching between traditional and simplified Chinese. I remember thinking that I have discovered why China created a simplified version of Mandarin: Because they want their literacy rate to go up.

Closure

Calligraphy is hard–very hard. For now, if I do need to sign my name, I will do it small. I am dividing my third week of Senior Project into two blogs, so head on over to the next one to see my landscape painting! 

Cheers!!!