Chinese Brush Painting (13 page)

These two petals are the beginning of the flower, and the heart is where the two bottoms come together. The stroke for these petals is a press-and-lift stroke.

1.
Mix very dark paint, load the large brush and roll it to align the hairs, and hold your hand in position #1.

2.
Stroke 1.
Place the tip of the brush on the paper, press slightly, curve your arm to the left and down and then to the right and lift. This should make a dark comma.

3.
Stroke 2.
Starting slightly above the other stroke, make the curve, swing right and then left and down, making another comma opposite the first one.

Painting the Long, Light Petals

The long petals are painted from the outer edge inward toward the center.

1.
Prepare a medium light mix of paint and test the color on the mixing plate.

2.
Load the large brush with the medium light mix, tap off the excess, dip the tip only into dark paint, and tap off the excess. Hold your hand in position #1.

3.
Touch the tip of the brush to the paper, press and drag slightly, and lift, making a long thin tail that joins the heart. This should make a petal with a dark tip and light elsewhere.

Painting All Five Petals

Notice in the picture above the different positions of the flowers. Depending on where the two dark petals are placed, right or left, facing up or down, the flowers will look different from each other.

Practice painting all five petals together, as in the following example.

1.
Start with the two dark commas at the top.

2.
Change to medium light paint, tip the brush in the dark paint, and make one stroke from slightly upper left to the center bottom of the commas.

3.
Make a stroke from the upper right toward the center.

4.
Make the third stroke, which can be lower and at an angle but still connects to the center with the long thin stroke.

Painting the Stamens (the Heart)

The stamens at the center are painted with the calligraphy strokes for the character “heart.” They consist of three dots, a long dragged one and two small connected ones. The dragged dot part wraps around the short, dark petals, so it often does not show in the painting.

1.
Load the small brush with very dark paint and tap off the excess. Hold the brush in position #1.

2.
Touch and press the brush tip to make the left-hand dot, lift and drag the brush to make the curving tail, and then lift and press twice to make the two right dots.

Painting the Stems

The stem of a flower has a series of short branches at the top and a long stem down to the root with a graceful curve.

1.
Load a small brush with the medium light paint and hold your hand in position #1.

2.
Paint a short curve from the bottom of the flower.

3.
At the end of the curve, paint another short curve in the opposite direction.

4.
At the end of the second curve, paint another curve in the opposite direction and run it all the way down to the root of the plant.

The stems can be relatively straight or more curving, depending on the location of the flower in relation to the leaves.

Arranging Leaves, Flowers, Stems

Now you can put the different parts together to paint a full orchid plant.

1.
Plan an orchid design. You might use the arrangement of leaves that you have already practiced.

2.
Paint the leaves.

3.
Plan and paint an odd number of flowers between the leaves, such as in the composition above.

4.
For the stems, load the small brush with medium light paint and hold your hand in position #1.

5.
Paint the stems for the blossoms:

For the left blossom, start at the top, curve up, and come down to the root.

For the right top blossom, start at the heart and make a nice curve to the left down to the root.

For the right bottom blossom, start at the heart and swing around and down in a curve to the root.

Try other designs, leaf arrangements, and flower angles of your own. Remember to use odd numbers! It’s a game of three of one thing and five of another.