Time Drawn: April 2010
I took a Chinese Painting class one semester at the local community college. It’s a really good community college, with excellent teachers. It’s top quality, just with a focus in profession-specific and introductory classes rather than the more in-depth academics you find at non-community colleges. I learned a lot in the handful of classes I took there, and I keep thinking about taking a few more if I get enough spare money. Maybe some entrepreneurial classes…
The Chinese Painting class focused on the Spontaneous form of this traditional art (Xie Yi in Chinese), rather than the Fine Line (Gong Bi in Chinese). Xie Yi focuses on the feeling of the subject and a lot of the techniques are about painting something in a few lines, emphasizing strength of line. Gong Bi takes a lot longer, since it uses lots of detail and lines. It has a more descriptive look rather than Xie Yi’s simple-lines method.
I probably would have preferred Gong Bi over Xie Yi, but then, I didn’t even know there were different schools of Chinese Painting before taking the class. I still use the paints and brushes I was introduced to in that class, but my style is certainly closer to Gong Bi these days. I still do some pieces with the fluid style I learned, but I’m too fond of detail to keep with it too long.
I still really like this method of drawing fish, though.
