1) Oil painting decorative painting: It is the most aristocratic type of decorative painting. It is purely handmade and can be copied or created according to the needs of consumers. The style is relatively unique. The more popular oil painting themes on the market now are generally landscapes, figures and still lifes.
2) Dynamic painting: It is an upstart in decorative painting. It has won the favor of many consumers with its beautiful patterns, clear colors and dynamic effects. Dynamic paintings are also mainly landscapes, with mountains and flowing water, simple and elegant. Because the new technology used can produce excellent visual effects, the flowing water and white clouds in the painting have a certain sense of movement.
3) Wooden paintings: made of wood as raw material and glued through certain procedures. There are many types of wooden paintings: there are freehand landscape paintings made of pieces of wood, which have a strong sense of layering and color; there are wood carvings, such as figures, animals, African masks, etc.; there are also uncarved materials. , such as wood blocks with bark, original color hemp rope, etc.
4) Photographic paintings: They are mainly remakes of foreign works, which are highly ornamental and contemporary.
5) Silk painting: It is relatively abstract, has novel effects, and can have a unique decorative effect.
6) Weaving paintings: Using wool, fine linen and other raw materials, weaving them into brightly colored patterns. The main themes are ethnic minority customs, natural scenery, etc., with rich ethnic minority colors, used for decoration. The room has a unique style.
7) Pyrography: It is made by high-temperature pyrography on wooden boards, and the color is slightly darker than the original color of the wood. The lines of the pattern are thinner, and the effect is more nuanced. Pyrography mostly uses traditional Chinese painting techniques, usually traditional landscape or animal paintings, with an antique feel.
In addition, there are decorative paintings made of a variety of other materials, such as bamboo, leather, glass, ceramics, etc. Consumers can choose according to their own hobbies and aesthetic tastes, thereby making the room more pleasing to the eye. .
Gouache painting techniques
Mastering perfect expression techniques is an ability that enables works to reach a high artistic level. The techniques and methods of painting are directly related to artistic expression, appeal and aesthetic value. Therefore, there is no artist who does not attach great importance to the research and exploration of painting techniques. There are actually no fixed formulas for various painting techniques; the continuous improvement of painting tools and materials, the renewal of artistic concepts and aesthetic consciousness, and the emergence of various new painting styles will promote the continuous innovation and evolution of techniques. However, each type of painting has accumulated many techniques and experiences that can be widely used in its own professional practice. These techniques and experiences are worthy of learning and reference.
1 Thick Painting and Thin Painting
In the production process of gouache painting, most colors need to be mixed on the palette before entering the painting. Mixing colors and using the amount of water and white pink are issues that reflect the expression techniques and characteristics of gouache painting. Watercolor painting simply uses water to adjust the color to control the thickness of the paint, thereby producing changes in brightness. It also uses the dryness and wetness of the water color to obtain the special performance effects of watercolor painting through the bleeding or reset of the color. Oil painting uses mixing oil (turpentine or linseed oil) and white to control the thickness and brightness of the color. Gouache painting is somewhere between the two. You can use water to thin the paint and make it translucent, so that the lightness of the white paper can also show through the color layer. Moisture causes the color to become thicker and thinner, and the thickness changes the brightness, which will produce a wet painting bleeding effect similar to watercolor. This is the thin painting method in gouache painting.
If you use the thick painting method in oil painting to make gouache painting, you have to use less water and more pigment and white to increase the thickness and brightness of the color. However, even though the thin painting method of gouache uses a lot of water, it is impossible to achieve the lively, bright, smooth, and dripping artistic effect of watercolor painting. The thick painting method cannot firmly adhere the thick color layer to the painting paper like oil painting. We often see some gouache paintings that are painted too thickly, causing the color layer to crack and peel off, resulting in damage to the picture.
You can also use the first color remaining in the color palette as a basis for connection, or first adjust the hue of the color to be connected as a standard for continued connection. These are methods taken in the absence of experience. With experience, it will not be difficult to judge how to mix the connecting colors. Another dry connection method is to use lines and color dots to connect two different color blocks naturally and softly, showing a rounded three-dimensional effect. You can use lines or dots of either color. , draw a transitional intermediate color at the connection to achieve the expressive effect. This is the same as in printmaking, using techniques such as arranging lines or dots to express levels of communication.
Three-stroke method
The brush is the main tool for painting expression (others include drawing knives and tools for pursuing special effects in the picture). The expression technique of traditional Chinese painting has pen and ink as its core. , brushwork plays a more critical role. Chinese painting is a combination of brushwork, ink, and paper characteristics
to produce effects. It uses points, lines, and surfaces to play an important role in shape, layout, skeleton, and vivid charm.
Chinese painting brushes have different performances due to different materials and production methods. The ways of using the brush include center strokes, side strokes, straight strokes, reverse strokes, and various strokes that vary in virtuality, solidity, and weight. , through various brushwork and ink colors, the works are rich and diverse, showing strong expressiveness and appeal. Although Western painting does not have the same significance and role as the brushwork in Chinese painting in terms of brushwork techniques, in terms of expression skills, brushwork cannot be ignored either. The brushwork techniques of traditional Chinese painting can provide important inspiration and are worth learning from.
Gouache brushes are the same as Chinese brushes. Their different functions are determined by the different production materials and methods. In color painting, colors are produced through various brush strokes and techniques to produce expressive effects. The texture of the brush (soft and hard), model (size), shape (flat, round, pointed) and color dipping, water content, thickness, dryness and wetness of the color, as well as various ways and techniques of using the brush, are truly and vividly expressed Create complex and diverse images and scenery. Brushstrokes can enhance the atmosphere and artistic conception of the theme, express the author's passion and the sense of movement of certain themes, and can also produce the rhythmic beauty of the picture. Many unique color effects often rely on brushwork to achieve. However, the super-realistic painting style that emerged in modern times does not pay attention to the expressiveness of brushstrokes. There is even no trace of brushwork in the entire picture. The image is as neat and detailed as a photo. This is a painting style whose purpose is to pursue the sameness to the extreme. realistic sense of reality.
The brushwork in painting is closely related to the painter's style and personality. From the choice of the subject matter to the artistic treatment to the expression method and the mood and artistic conception pursued, all are inseparable from the brushwork. It is difficult to comprehensively introduce this brushwork technique, but for some commonly used brushwork methods with regularity, it should be the basic knowledge and skills that must be mastered.
The difference between large and small brushes - the application of brushes of different sizes is related to observation methods and brush usage habits. At the beginning of learning to draw, people are generally accustomed to using small pens. This is because when sketching at this stage, in the habit of observing scenery, they tend to focus more on details and local parts, and pursue to clearly understand every detail they see. It is satisfying to draw it, so I use a small pen. This kind of performance effect is conceivable. The details of the picture cannot form the center of the theme and cannot produce touching charm. For example, taking a landscape painting as an example, you should at least know how to use large strokes to lay down the background color so that the color has a great relationship. Large pens should also be used for the sky, ground, hills and some parts that need to be concise and summarized; small pens should be used to create smaller images and in-depth depiction of details. The process of painting a painting requires multiple large and small brushes to divide the work and use them alternately from beginning to end, so that the brushstrokes will not be monotonous and lack expressiveness. Brushstrokes are an artistic means of shaping shapes and expressing themes. To shape the image of characters or natural scenery, brushwork must be combined with the physical characteristics and structure of the object. Round objects must be shaped with many arc-shaped brushstrokes.
Vertical objects often need horizontal brushwork to shape, such as thick tree trunks or human arms and legs. Combining horizontal brushwork with painting can show more thickness; when painting water or ground, long horizontal strokes are generally used. It can further show the depth of the plane; when painting large-area still life tabletops, backgrounds, walls, and sky in landscapes and other relatively flat color blocks, the brushwork should avoid being as monotonous and rigid as the masonry craftsman painting the wall. You need to use horizontal, vertical, and natural strokes at will. The diagonal and other strokes with changes in the direction of the strokes increase vividness. But it should be noted that these color blocks are behind the main object, have a certain depth, and serve as a foil for the object. The pen must be steady and calm. The brush used must be of appropriate size. Because the themes expressed in the pictures are different, the required emotional and artistic conceptions must also be different. For example, for quiet and peaceful artistic conceptions, horizontal and softer brushwork is more often used; strong, lively, decisive, and clear brushwork is used to express joy, turmoil, and tension. The calm and steady brushstrokes are closely related to the serious and solemn artistic conception of the picture; the soft and casual small brushstrokes can enhance the graceful and lyrical mood; the bold and bold brushstrokes can show the roughness, boldness and magnificence of the theme.
The effective application of formal factors such as points, lines, and surfaces in brushwork is an important condition for producing rich and vivid expressions in the picture. The method of combining lines and surfaces to express the body has a special painting effect. The dryness, wetness, thickness, and thinness of the lines in the brushwork, as well as the front and side edges, weight, speed, virtual reality, etc. of the strokes can appropriately express various images and picture effects. Chinese brushes have the characteristics of lively and smooth lines, and can be used freely and freely. Square-head flat pens are suitable for using block-surface brushwork to express scenes with a thick three-dimensional sense of space. Some artists who are new to gouache painting often suffer from technical shortcomings, which can be summarized into the following categories:
(1) Focusing on the local area, specializing in small strokes for details and losing the general outline;
(2) Using only one type of brushwork to depict objects of different shapes and textures lacks variation in brushwork, resulting in a monotonous effect and loss of vividness;
(3) The brush cannot be closely combined with the body structure, and the body shaping lacks rigor and weight. ;
(4) The brushwork is cumbersome and the style of writing has no sense of priority and rhythm;
(5) The brushwork is weak and has no changes in strength and reality, making the picture lose its charm.
Four Painting Knife Techniques
The painting knife is a very common tool for oil painting, and the knife has various shapes and different effects. The painting knife used in gouache painting is borrowed from oil painting. This is a creation, and the special effects it obtains add another style to the gouache painting technique.
When painting gouache, a painting knife is used, and there is no fixed model. Some gouache painters use oil painting knives, or make them into various shapes and sizes according to their own painting requirements, such as pointed head, square head, round head, etc., which can be decided at will. Regardless, the knife needs to be thin and flexible. As long as it has this characteristic, even if it uses plastic or bamboo chips, it can also become an economical and practical painting knife.
When expressing objects with a drawing knife, it is not as free as using a brush. It can draw soft strokes or lines with varying thicknesses, but it is also difficult to express specific and detailed images. It is only suitable for thick paintings and cannot be used for thin paintings that contain more water. This is the limitation of the painting knife. However, its application function is similar to the expression effect of the painting knife in oil painting. It is suitable for expressing rough shapes and objects with clear contrast in appearance, such as rocks, mud, general distant views or trees, building walls, bricks and tiles. The sky, mountains, water and other large-scale scenery are all very suitable and unique.
When mixing colors with a painting knife, generally do not add water to make the paint thinner. The amount of pigments to be mixed must be accurately estimated. Do not mix the paint too much and then scrape it onto the paper before coloring. Instead, the color effects are revealed through the changing techniques of the painting knife. In fact, the color used with the knife has the factor and effect of color juxtaposition, so it is more vivid, louder, harder and more powerful than the colors under the brush, so that subtle and unexpected colors can be painted. The drawing knife can also be used to scrape out various changing lines and surfaces on the wet color base using the front and side of the knife to express different shapes and textures by using the force and speed. The effect is wonderful.
In addition, you can also use a painting knife to dip a thin layer of color into the surface of the dry color, and lightly apply a layer of it on the surface of the dried color. It will resemble the stroke effect of a dry pen, which can enrich the relationship between colors and enhance the richness of the color. You can also use This method adjusts the relationship between color tones. All of the above are some of Hua Dao’s practical experiences in painting techniques. When using a drawing knife, you should also pay attention to its adaptability. In some places where the drawing knife cannot be used to achieve technical effects, do not use the drawing knife. Painting knives generally have to be used in conjunction with paintbrushes to achieve complete artistic effects.
Five lines
Why should we talk specifically about lines in gouache painting techniques? Lines are originally a technique for modeling, just like light and shade. Because from the perspective of painting practice, from the beginning of sketch training, the significance and expressive power of line in modeling have been perceived, but its aesthetic value and influence on artistic style have not been fully recognized by people. In traditional Chinese painting, line drawing is used as the basis of modeling, which has become a major feature of the painting style. In Western paintings, some impressionist painters were influenced by the formal characteristics of Eastern art and absorbed the charm of line expression to create new forms and styles. The artistic characteristics of gouache painting are very consistent with the requirements of decorative form, and line is naturally an important factor. From the works of Ding Shaoguang in the appreciation of works in this book, we can find that his decorative painting style combines the decorative taste of Eastern and Western classical art and modern art. The thread not only enhances the gorgeous and sparkling effect of color, but the thread itself is also full of the rhythm of music. The artistic function and characteristics of lines are inherited and developed from the neat, rigorous and beautiful lines in traditional meticulous and heavy-color paintings. Others, such as the bright, strong, elegant, rough and simple lines in woodcut prints and the rough and elegant lines in folk New Year paintings, are all formal factors that can be used for reference in gouache painting. In application, line can be used as the basic skeleton of composition and image expression, and then added with color. You can also lay out the colors first and then use lines to enhance the image. Threads can be of different thicknesses, shades, moist and smooth, or dry and spicy. The application of various lines in gouache painting must be used flexibly and creatively according to various requirements, so that the effect will be very rich and interesting.