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| Demo - Chinese Orchid | |
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Chinese Orchid Please click on the image to see enlargement. |
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This illustrates the correct way to hold the Chinese brush.For this exercise, use a brush with either wolf-hair or "white cloud" bristles. Colours used: indigo, cadmium yellow pale, alizarin crimson. |
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To paint a Chinese orchid, start with the flower part of the plant: dip the whole bristle of your brush into light green and then dip just the tip into alizarin crimson. Apply the tip of the loaded brush to Xuan paper and press the entire length of the bristles until they are in contact with the paper. Then lift the whole brush off the paper in one smooth action [see #1 on diagram to left.]. Immediately add the small, stroke at its base[#2]. This will form the "lips" of the most central bloom. Using the same brush & without reloading, apply the 3 outer petals. |
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Continue in the same manner to add more flowers, being careful to vary orientation of the blooms. Be sure to vary the ratio of green paint to red in each bloom so it looks more natural. |
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The stem of an orchid is gently bent due to the weigth of the blooms. With this in mind, place your blooms along a soft, curved orientation. At the end of a stem, you will commonly find the buds. |
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Carefully join all the flowers to the stem with a light touch. The stem is painted from the tip towards the bottom, where the stem thickens to show its strength. Traditionally, each petal surrounding the lips will have 3 dots of colour. However, for this orchid, I decided to add lines (or striations) to the petals. |
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Start adding leaves using an "orchid & bamboo" brush. Load the bristles with a dark green paint. To the tip of this loaded brush, add a touch of Chinese ink. Starting at "a," touch the tip of the brush to the paper near the base of the stem. Pull this line in a curved motion, up & to the right and apply pressure to the bristles until they make full contact with the paper [b]. Still moving in a fluid motion, slacken off the pressure as you reach the finished length of the leaf and gently lift the brush [c]. |
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The placement of the 2nd leaf is very important.At the base of the stem and near where the 1st leaf began, start the 2nd leaf - being careful to produce an "eye-hole" [a] between the base of the 2 leaves. Also be sure to have a gentle, sweeping curve whenever you add a leaf and note how, by turning your brush, you can depict the changing orientation of the leaves.This enhances the likeness to nature. |
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By adding more leaves, we complete the composition. Short strokes of green are applied from top-to-bottom or vice versa. They represent new leaves and shoots. |
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This is another example of a Chinese orchid done with Chinese ink alone. By studying the composition, you can see how the delicate nature of the orchid is depicted. You could click on the image to see the enlargement. |
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