Lesson 33: Insects
(*To join Henry Li's online Chinese brush painting class, please click here . )
This 4-hour video lesson was first recorded in prof Rao Wei's office at Nanjing University, China while she was doing a demo of painting a grasshopper in elaborated style with freestyle flowers on unsized Xuan, then, in a live workshop with Henry Li on how to paint insects in Gongbi(fineline), Mogu(boneless) and Xieyi(spontaneous) three different approaches. It's a comprehensive lesson on painting insects.
Video Length: 2 disks(4 hours)
Assignments:
1)Assignment 1: Watch Prof Rao's Video demo carefully and take notes on the steps of painting the mogu flower and gongbi insect. Watch Henry's workshop video on gongbi insect and autumn leaves. compare your notes of part 1 with the process of henry's version if see if anything you can learn from both. Also, if you have any previous experience with Gongbi, please share with the class what's new you have learned in this particular lesson.
Than, try to make a copy of the grasshopper with the new techniques you have learned in this lesson. For background you can choose the autumn leaves and the same flower that professor Rao did.
(Let me explain why we are required to copy or trace the teacher's work to learn Chinese brush painting, especially Gongbi. I would suggest that you at least give "copying" practice a try in this lesson and through this process, you will realize that 1) it is impossible to reproduce the same quality of painting even though you use same "blueprint" from the master; 2) It is the most effective method to develop your own Gongbi skills. You will be amazed how everybody's interpretations of the same handout are different and reflect her/his own personalities. )
2) Watch Lesson 33 Part 2 and paint a boneless style insect and hibiscus flower on semi-sized or sized Xuan paper.
3) Based on Henry's demo in Lesson 33 Part 3 paint a free-style grasshopper with chrysanthemum.
Diagrams and finished paintings seen in the video are included in the handouts.
. This is the Download version. Click here to order the DVD version.
Here is the the introduction part of Lesson 33. Enjoy!
