Techniques Revealed - The Secrets behind Zhang Daqian, from the Master Himself

The hair and beards, if not painted properly, may look like a cluster of water-soaked black cotton wool stuck to a reluctant head. The old masters of the T’ang and Sung Dynasties are most adept in the art of painting hair and beards. Their technique is to execute a dozen odd fine strokes with a thin brush and condensed ink at suitable places, according to the shape of the face, then to wash them over with diluted ink two or three times. That gives the hair and beards a pliant and lustrous appearance, as though each individual one is traceable to its root, and naturally they look graceful and lovely.

In portraits, the most important thing is the spirit. Whereas form and attitude indicate the body, the spirit reveals the inner self. According to the traditional technique of Chinese portrait painting, the registering of emotion on the face should be subtle and reserved so that it may inspire sympathy in the heart of the beholder.

The secret of painting fish lies in the painter’s ability to express the fishy gladness and freedom of motion in water. If the fish should appear to be out of water, so to speak, that would be tantamount to divorcing it from its natural instinct. …… In a fish picture, sometimes it is necessary to enliven the beauty of its composition and break its monotony with rocks and plants which, however, should be painted in ink monotone, instead of colour, in order to achieve the effect of plain refinement.

Rhythmic vitality is essential to landscape painting and its absence will exclude the picture from the true connoisseur’s appreciation. It is not enough merely to distinguish between the principal and the subordinate parts, the express and the implied, the foreground and the background, and the near and the distant. The secret lies in the inspired dynamic application of the brush, pigment and water….

The importance of copying the old masters, as a step towards the mastery of the technique of painting, can hardly be exaggerated. The painter must can fuse the technique of the old masters together with his own genius and attain the artistic perfection of being able to give full expression to the idealistic state of his mind.

It is advisable for the artist to plant flowers in his garden and keep some in vases in order that he may have the advantage of living with them and observing them at close range. Such everyday intimacy will enable him to give full expression to the infinite variety of the flower’s lovely presence and attitude, as well as its dynamic urge to live and grow.