Advanced Techniques for Contemporary Chinese Painting

Traditional Chinese water-ink paintings are done using black ink, and watercolor, and the surface was usually very thin rice paper. This demonstration is done using acrylic mixed with water and small amount of PH neutral glue. The paper is specially made so that it is more sturdy than regular rice paper. For reference in this article, I call it rice paper.

Block in shape with black

Step 1. Put rice paper on a piece of felt or soft cloth.

Step 2. Saturate rice paper with water using a broad brush to gently brush water from the center to the edges to get rid of air bubbles.

Step 3. Draw shape of landscape using black ink (or black acrylic mixture).

Add color on top of black shapes, wet on wet

Step 1. Use a different brush to pick up color mixture. Reddish brown for earth, Green for grass. Blue for distant mountain. Apply on top of the black shapes while it is still moist.

Step 2. Use a clean wet brush to soften edges for top of the mountain shapes to imply atmospheric perspective.

Darken shadow side

Step 1. Use smaller brush to pick up color of the shadow for the grass, rocks or mountains.

Step 2. Touch up shadow areas to enhance the contrast to create the dimensional effects.

Soak up to make light side of rocks

Step 1. Wet newspaper with clean water spray bottle. Gently put on top of the colored shape to make contact. Use large size newspaper for larger rock shapes.

Step 2. Pull the top edge of the newspaper to left up from the paint and put back to the paint. Repeat that motion to create the geometric shapes that you want.