What is the moral of Chinese painting?

Chinese painting is very picky in the choice of painting themes. Flowers and birds are mostly painted with plum, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum, lotus and peony, because they imply innocence and integrity, elegance and nobility, or grace and wealth. There have been countless painting masters who have expressed such a theme. Painting animals is the first to promote lions, tigers and other legendary beasts that can ward off evil spirits. Cattle and horses are also the objects that painters are willing to express, because Kyle of Mercedes-Benz inspires people to forge ahead, and hardworking oxen can teach people to persevere ... However, although there are some paintings about donkeys, such as Poems on Donkeys' Back, Riding Donkeys in Drizzle, Riding Donkeys upside down, etc., they are rare, and most of them are mainly characters, and donkeys are just a foil. In the Ming Dynasty, Shen had only one donkey painting, which was the first of its kind. Later, Xu Wei inadvertently wrote that although Badashan people were named after donkeys, they did not see their paintings of donkeys. Liu Zongyuan, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, once published his masterpiece "Donkey of Money", but Mr. Liu pushed a docile donkey in front of a tiger to test it. The result of the law of the jungle is inevitable. He blames this on the donkey's natural ignorance and calls it "the donkey's skill is poor". Since then, donkeys have become synonymous with stupid things, and few people draw pictures on them. ? However, real artists are good at finding beauty in what people take for granted. Mr. Huang Zhou went to Xinjiang to sketch many times, and with the artist's insight, he made his own unique aesthetic discovery of the little donkey that can be seen everywhere. The donkey he wrote is charming and cute. He painted so many "Xinjiang customs" in his life, but the most vivid and touching artistic image left to people is the donkey. The donkey in Huangzhou, the frog in Wang Ziwu, Xu Beihong's horse and Qi Baishi's shrimp are called "four wonders" by experts. 1978 In the summer, the Hundred Donkeys Map created by Mr. Huang Zhou was presented to the Japanese Emperor as a national gift during Deng Xiaoping's first visit to Japan, and Xiao Lv entered the elegant hall. Since then, the donkey has been widely used as a painting theme, and it has a unique style in many creations that reflect the theme of rural life. There are many famous painters with the theme of donkeys in China, and painting donkeys is accepted and loved by the masses. I am a native of northern Shaanxi. I have lived and worked in northern Shaanxi for a long time, and I am engaged in the art work of grassroots people. I like the "Krabi donkey" that can be seen everywhere here, which is named after its main producing areas, Jiaxian County and Mizhi County. The villagers commonly call it "black swallow with white belly", that is, black as a swallow. Krabi donkey, with its tall figure, slender limbs, straight back, black and white appearance and its heroic spirit, is free and easy, bold and radiant, giving people a lively and lovely feeling. Because it can carry things, pull carts, ride, plow, push and grind, it has been "half the country" for many years. When wishing the foal a full moon and his first birthday, invite the donkey home and give him a "bonus", that is, buy a piece of red cloth and put it around his neck. When "adding materials", the whole family put out wine to celebrate ... far beyond treating ordinary livestock. I have been painting donkeys for more than 40 years. From 65438 to 0956, after I became a middle school teacher, I picked up a sketch book and went from village to village to sketch. Animals are my favorite subject. Donkeys, horses, cows, sheep, camels and deer raised by farmers are all my favorite subjects. 1960 After I was admitted to Xi 'an Academy of Fine Arts, I caught a glimpse of a donkey raised by the boiling water master, so I often rushed it to the field to sketch. After graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts, I returned to northern Shaanxi, and my long-term grass-roots life provided me with unique conditions for painting donkeys. 1at the end of 994, I went to see Mr. Huang Zhou who was sick with a long admiration and a drawing to be published. I don't want to. After seeing the draft, he cheerfully called his wife, Zheng Wenhui, out of the back room to look at the painting together, and repeatedly praised: "You are on the right track in grass-roots work. If you don't have the experience of working at the grassroots level for a long time and facing life, you will never paint so well ... "Then he said with emotion," Some of our famous old painters have lived for a short time, and the results are even more illusory and fake. Just eat some old fame ... "Mr. Huangzhou is a person who has embraced life enthusiastically all his life and is a bitter school. I was deeply touched by his words. I am convinced that there is no end to art and no end to going deep into life. As a painter, once out of life, it becomes passive water. It is impossible to really draw a donkey without observing and understanding it in life. How to draw a donkey? According to my personal experience, I can sum up three points:

First, draw more sketches. I advocate sketching in life from the beginning, training my keen sense of image, training my ability to capture dynamics, and understanding the lessons of failure and the joy of success. Mr. Ye Yuqian, a sketch master, called himself a savage, but he didn't enter or join the Academy of Fine Arts, and struggled in numerous failures. Sketch can capture the complex shape and dynamics of donkey in a few seconds or dozens of seconds, and it is obviously not enough to rely solely on the vision of eyes, the memory of brain and the familiarity of hands. What do we do depends on the support of theory. Beginners will find it difficult to describe the performance object more deeply after a period of sketching practice. In order to avoid detours, it is necessary to have a rational understanding of the appearance characteristics, anatomical structure and activity law of donkeys. With the support of theory, sketch is not a matter of "painting a gourd ladle" or "painting a tiger according to a cat", but a rational analysis and understanding of the impressions seen by the brain, from the outside to the inside, eliminating the complexity and preserving the essence, and expressing its structure and essence in a highly generalized, washed and concise way. Here, sketch, as a way of painting, draws not only the donkey in life, but also the image of the donkey in life, which is an artistic image created after "processing" by the human brain. Sketch itself is a process of re-creation, and a good sketch is creation. Being diligent in practice is the key to drawing a good sketch. No matter how well you understand donkeys, you can't draw well if you don't sketch in life and exercise your ability to feel images. Many people who have received strict training in the Academy of Fine Arts have a solid sketch foundation, but they can't start with a sketch. A successful painter's feelings and understanding of the image are interdependent and integrated. The painter's perceptual knowledge, with the wings of rational knowledge, can express this feeling more freely, boldly and actively, and avoid the blindness and passivity of feelings. ?

Second, use and learn from it. At first, sketching was easily overwhelmed by the complex body and ever-changing dynamics of the donkey, and there was no way to start. At this time, we might as well learn from some excellent animal paintings of Chinese and foreign artists and copy them repeatedly. First, we can deepen our understanding of animal structure and exercise our own modeling. Second, we can learn how to write with lines. In addition, we can also boldly use photos, which will freeze and freeze the instantaneous dynamics and provide us with a fixed posture that the donkey will never get tired. The vivid three-dimensional relationship and internal structure displayed in a certain light can be used for us to study and practice repeatedly. But the use of photos should also be based on understanding. You must not paint a tiger as a cat, but describe it superficially. What you can't draw is still like a photo. Speaking of which, I remember reading a book about drawing animals in a bookstore not long ago. All the animals in the book are drawn according to photos. They look slim and unscathed, but careful analysis is full of mistakes. The author ignores the most essential thing, that is, the structure of animals. People are often confused by non-essential factors such as fur and shade, and go straight to the point. It can be seen that the purpose of treating photos is to use photos as a means rather than an end. The art world has different views on the use of photos. Many famous painters at home and abroad use photos when they create. I don't think it is necessary to argue. Known as the "father of photography" is actually the French painter Daguerre. It can be seen that photography has an indissoluble bond with painting since its birth. Angel, Delacroix, Cezanne, a master of post-impressionism, Gauguin, Rodin and Picasso, who are famous for expressing exotic customs, all use photographs as examples of painting, and some of their works have become masterpieces handed down from generation to generation. Photos are not usable, they are for me. Computers have been widely used now, but it doesn't mean that the function of the human brain has been reduced. ?

Third, study hard and practice hard. If painting other subjects requires hard study and hard practice, I think painting animals may require more arduous artistic labor. I often think that there are many painting stars in China, but few people paint animals. As far as horses are concerned, only Han Gan, Li, Li and Italian have been handed down from generation to generation. There are only a handful of contemporary artists like Xu Beihong and Liu Boshu. In addition to personal hobbies and other factors, I think the main reason is that the complex body and ever-changing posture of animals are difficult to control, which makes many painters flinch. Although Huang Zhou, a master of art, has made such a profound study of donkeys, he still finds himself blaming himself for "painting donkeys": he is all thumbs, unable to do his job, and ultimately unable to achieve the desired results. He likes to draw camels, but sighs, "I've never drawn a good one." This reflects the endless nature of art and the difficulty of drawing animals. If you really want to draw a good donkey, only by constantly observing and studying the shape, spirit, shape, appearance, living habits and emotional world of the donkey, and persisting in sketching practice for a long time, can you really grasp its laws and get through the modeling. Next is the practice of ink painting. How to establish your own pen and ink system is even more difficult, and there are more failures. For decades, I have never tasted the joy of drawing a donkey successfully, but emotions such as "clumsiness", "inadequacy" and "finally being unable to get what I want" always bother me. However, beginners should not shrink from difficulties. As long as you persevere, study hard and practice hard, you will gradually adapt to and master it and explore a set of painting methods that suit you. ? The compilation of the book "Techniques of Drawing Donkeys" is to summarize my experience in drawing donkeys for decades, hoping to provide introductory guidance for art lovers who are interested in learning animal painting, and also hope to provide video materials for artists to create donkeys. I know that all this needs a deep art education, so I have done my best. However, there is no end to learning, and what I have absorbed is just a drop in the ocean. So I sincerely hope to hear the valuable opinions of my peers and readers.