Try your hands at these historically and culturally important methods, and create some beautiful paintings of your own. Chinese painting is an ancient art that has evolved over many centuries. Artists brush ink and color pigments onto silk or paper using a variety of techniques, with two main approaches: gongbi a traditional and realistic style based on line drawing, and xieyi style, a freehand method that uses fewer strokes to suggest objects in a less literal way. Painting themes generally fall into 3 categories: figure, landscaping, and bird-and-flower. Early pages explore the very basic painting methods and subject but continue to build skills for painting plants and animals of increasing complexity. With the step-by-step projects, you can first follow the introductory lessons to learn the necessary skills of brushwork, usage of paper, and characteristics of water, ink and colors; then follow the advanced lessons to learn the compositions and more complicated color applications.
