How to distinguish Chinese painting from hand painting

Appraisal of calligraphy and painting works requires certain skills. Some tricks can effectively distinguish some ordinary printed matter, but the high-grade printed matter copied by high-tech means needs careful consideration and cannot be popularized as a professional appraisal method.

1, paper characteristics

Hand-painted works have a demand for paper retting, focusing on form rather than similarity. Therefore, raw rice paper is often used in hand-painted works. On the contrary, printed matter is mostly semi-cooked propaganda and cooked propaganda, and it is too much or too slow.

2, the picture changes

Hand-painted natural, with ink three-dimensional sense, relatively speaking, the surface of printed matter is smooth and lacks three-dimensional sense; Hand-painted lines vary in thickness, depth and color, and are full of ink flavor. Ink dyeing is naturally not dull, but vivid and casual. On the other hand, the printed matter is stiff, with the same thickness, the same shade and the same color. Observing the edges of the color blocks in the picture, the connections between the color blocks are mostly separated and superimposed, with fine circular serrations, and some are mostly hand-painted, and vice versa.

3. Brush strokes and rhythm

The tools of Chinese painting are mainly brush, with strokes and rhyme. When people write, it is also a kind of movement, which is orderly, so you can see the order of strokes when you zoom in, and you can see broken pens and faint handwriting when you zoom in. Ink also varies from pen to pen. The biggest drawback of the printed version is that it does not have the free rhyme of Chinese painting.

4. Dip in water and wipe gently

Painting hearts are fragile, and most of them will be simply mounted, which is convenient for preservation or deepening treatment. In the mounted state, you can try to identify the painting with a paper towel dipped in water. After the hand-painted work is wiped, the paper towel is rougher and the picture color is the same as before; On the other hand, the color of printed matter is blocked, and the color of the picture is easy to fade, which affects the picture.

There are two printing methods for common calligraphy and painting works in the general market:

The first is woodcut watermarking, and the second is inkjet printing.

First, woodcut watermark

Woodcut watermark is the oldest and most effective imitation method in China. The first step is drawing, the second step is carving and the third step is layered printing. The level depends on the skills of draftsmen and stenographers. If the skill is not exquisite, it can still be observed with the naked eye. If there are some awkward lines in a painting, it may be imitation. Among them, Rong Baozhai is the representative with the highest technical level.

To some extent, it is not easy to distinguish the authenticity of woodcut watermark, because it also includes secondary processing and aging, so it is difficult to see at a glance, and it is often exhibited as a substitute for famous paintings, which has made great contributions to the protection of the original. A real painting has no ink spots where there is no ink, but the printed matter is occasionally "dirty" in the blank due to repeated printing. Some exhibition works in some museums, some of which are woodcut watermarks and some are inkjet paintings, can restore the charm of the original works and effectively protect cultural relics. This is a good way to kill two birds with one stone.