In the hub, when I should be sleeping!

Heya, I'm not very with it, but I thought I would share a little piece of excellent news.... I'm in the hub with two of my school friends, and I was attempting to create a poster for one of my classes... (what does Italian cooking, Vietanamese cooking, Sign Language (NZ) and Chinese Calligraphy has to do with each other?) Ok, so after writing them down like that, I guess I could incorporate a map highlighting the different countries?
Back to my good news, I spent all afternoon practicing my Calligraphy, and was having a hard time sticking to the rules... so when I began this poster, I thought about rules and procedure... each has the basic, or the building blocks, so I went looking for a picture showing the process (or stroke order for those who follow my blog).... and voila!!!!



I'm excited to keep going now....

http://www.archchinese.com/



http://blog.roodo.com/betterchinese/archives/3013301.html

On my way to finding Chinese Calligraphy paper...

http://www.art-virtue.com/principles/p7-paper-ink-stone.htm

I found this very helpful website, and it had the same orange ink calligraphy in my previous post!



Then I found this very inspired cheat sheet!

The whole website is informative, from chosing your ink, ink stone, paper, the list goes on and on, with youtube videos to help support your choices. I love this quote too: "never let a brat handle an inkstone"

I LIKE these clips!!

 

What caught my attention first was the orange ink! Then I started thinking, I should really get some of this paper... I'm unsure where to purchase some??

LESSON 2 - sharp horizontal

Again, turn the volume down... the videographer is quite comical, and the calligrapher goes out of shot, but the information is poignant.

LESSON 1 - HORIZONTAL STROKES

WARNING!!!!
turn the sound down!!! and watch the way that she is holding the brush.

RULES

RULE 1:
Horizontal stroke preceds a vertical stroke or a downward stroke either to the left or to the right.

RULE 2:
A downward stroke to the left precedes one to the right.

RULE 3:
The strokes are usually written from the top down.

RULE 4:
The strokes are usually written from left to right.

RULE 5:
When strokes are enclosed by another stroke or strokes on the top-right, top-left, or left-top-right sides (that is, with an open bottom), the enclosing strokes usually precede the enclosed strokes.

RULE 6:
When strokes are enclosed by another stoke or strokes on the bottom-left, or leftbottom-right sides (that is, with an open top), the enclosed strokes usually precede the enclosing strokes.

RULE 7:
When strokes are enclosed by other strokes on all four sides, the strokes on the left, top and right sides are written first, then the enclosed strokes, and finally the stroke at the bottom. This is commonly described as "putting everything inside before the door is closed".

RULE 8:
A vertical stroke in the middle usually preceds strokes on either side.

RULE 9:
If a vertical stroke in the middle crosses other strokes, it is usually written last.

I know it seems a lot, but they are all common sense... wet ink smudges!!!

CLARITY

This word means clarity or clear in Chinese, Japanese Kanji, and old Korean Hanja. Looking at the parts of this character, you have three splashes of water on the left, "life" on the top right, and the moon on the lower right.

Because of something Confucius said about 2500 years ago, you can imagine that this character means "live life with clarity like bright moon light piercing pure water". The Confucian idea is something like "Keep clear what is pure in yourself, and let your pure nature show through". Kind of like saying, "Don't pollute your mind or body, so that they remain clear".

This might be stretching the definition of this single Chinese character, but the elements are there, and "clarity" is a powerful idea.

 

EXAMPLES: