Painting the zodiac year every year, ushering in the year of the dragon in a flash, I am very happy to talk to you about my experience of painting dragons in the year of the dragon.
The dragon is the only one in the Chinese zodiac that is created through people's imagination, and we need to trace back to the roots of such a virtual image, not only to let people find the provenance in the works, but also to strive to have their own artistic innovation on the basis of inheriting the tradition.
The legend about the dragon can be traced back to the ancient Fuxi period, and some people say that it was the period of the Yellow Emperor, who was considered to be the descendant of the dragon, and people used the dragon as a totem. In Chinese culture, the dragon represents authority, dignity, wisdom, strength, auspiciousness, and luck, it is the patron saint of the people, and the cultural connotation given to the dragon has become a spiritual symbol of the Chinese.
The mythical dragon can fly and be fickle, calling for wind and rain. Regarding the image of the dragon, Luo Yuan's "Erya Wing" recorded: "The horns are like a deer, the head is like a camel, the eyes are like a rabbit, the neck is like a snake, the belly is like a mirage, the scales are like a fish, the claws are like an eagle, the palm is like a tiger, and the ears are like a bull's .......""The image of the dragon has been described very completely, and there are many classic works about the dragon, such as Chen Rong's "Six Dragons" in the Southern Song Dynasty and the relief Nine Dragon Wall of the Forbidden City in Beijing, all of which portray the legendary dragon vividly, further deepening people's understanding of the image of the dragon.
In this way, even if it is a mythical animal, there is not a lot of room for the painter to play, but I still made some attempts in creation.
According to my original idea, the size of the dragon does not need to be too large, which is the opposite of painting the cow, otherwise the momentum will be too majestic, so I finally chose to fight the side of the card. Whether it is a sketch or a sketch on the spot, Xuanka can not only achieve the moisture of the ink color, but also see what can be seen in the control of the water and color of the freehand, which is also just suitable for my expression style, but if I paint a large freehand, it is not very suitable.
I used the traditional nailhead rat tail drawing for the line drawing, which benefited from the calligraphy practice for a long time in recent years, while emphasizing the use of the brush, I paid more attention to the texture of the line itself and the contextual expression of the overall depicted object. As the saying goes, "it is difficult to draw a dragon and a tiger", so it seems to be consistent with this sentence to go deep into the structure of the line and draw the dragon with a pen in the bone method.
In addition, I drew a "dragon umbrella" behind the dragon's ears formed by the hyoid bone supporting the epidermis to strengthen the dragon's majestic majesty. In terms of the overall color design of the picture, on the premise of not losing the smell of ink, I boldly used blue and orange polar colors to set off, and each picture was divided into large blocks with straight lines, so that the composition was slightly modern, and finally I used the Wei and Jin style small block inscriptions.
In addition, I am constantly trying to draw dragons in other expressive styles, and strive to create some works that satisfy me to celebrate the upcoming auspicious Year of the Dragon and bless ......
Painting dragons in the Year of the Dragon is still unfinished. (Author: Yu Shizhong, "post-70s" calligrapher and painter.) He is a member of the Liaoning Artists Association, a director of the Dalian Artists Association, and a director of the Comic Art Committee).