The Art of Chinese Painting

A Day in the Life of Jaslin (IB1)

The weekly Chinese calligraphy and painting classes with my friend Serena have been an exceptionally rewarding part of our IB CAS experience.

Traditional Chinese paintings are usually done with ink on rice paper, the colours of nature were only expressed through the shades of black ink monochrome. For our paintings, our class uses the same brushes and paper as for our calligraphy. Unfortunately, we're not able to be completely faithful to the traditional materials, though we do our best to replicate the right techniques. For example the low-level quality of the paper limits the amount of water we can use, and we often use watercolours to add splashes of colour. 

Each week our teacher provides us with printed fact sheets as well as paintings and calligraphy examples from old masters. In this way, these classes have not only allowed me to express myself creatively with the hands-on experience of putting brush to paper, but also gave me the opportunity to become more connected with my culture by learning the meanings behind each and every character, phrase and painting subject matter.

Some examples of my favourite things to paint are flowers (plum blossoms and poinsettia), bamboo, landscapes (Shan shui 山水 Paintings), birds (cranes and chicks), fruits and vegetables. Sometimes we are also able to paint directly from life, this could be using real vegetables as references, or going outside to the garden to look at the bamboo.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed learning about different traditional painting techniques such as ways to hold the brush, how much pressure to use, diluting the ink with water to create nice transitions between light and dark shades and the number of brushstrokes for the petals of flowers or the leaves of trees. Something that I’ve taken away that I think is particularly useful is the method of grouping the leaves of trees and bamboo into bunches of three, which makes them appear more natural.

“I believe that patience is a very important skill to learn in life…”

I agree that both Chinese painting and Calligraphy require quite a lot of patience and trial and error. I'm extremely embarrassed of my first attempts at painting. However, I believe that patience is a very important skill to learn in life, plus the final results make the process all worth it. To conclude, all these skills we’ve practiced have made this CAS experience a very rewarding highlight in both our lives and our CAS portfolios!