Wandering on the edge of the sketch.
It is not concrete, but it points to infinite possibilities, a pure expression of the mind, shining with the "light of life" of nature.
Introduction
This book is a collection of artistic essays by the painter Dang Zhen. Based on his own creative experience and experience over the years, the author returns to the most basic art forms and painting languages such as sketching and watercolor, and conducts in-depth thinking on the fundamental issues of painting.
Dang Zhen is a Chinese painter with a unique style and a university teacher, who is on the front line of creation and teaching, and has first-hand experience of the problems existing in the current painting practice and the misunderstandings in teaching. He observes, researches, asks questions, and explores solutions through his own practice.
This book starts with sketches, and the topics discussed are not limited to sketches, but also involve the essential characteristics of painting and the artist's way of thinking and psychological state, which has good reference value for painting research and teaching.
How to feel, record and maintain the full vitality of the individual in the form of sketches? All the confusion you want to know about sketching can be answered in this book, or take you to find the direction of the answer.
Recommended by famous experts
Liu Jin'an:The "edge of sketching" that Dang Zhen talks about is actually a keen measurement of sincere life feelings. The systematic training of modeling and formal language is not the main body of his painting, but more like the material equipment of an expedition. Therefore, the "edge of the sketch" is not concrete, but a kind of imaginary finger of infinite possibility.
Liu Qinghe:This book brings together a large number of sketches by Dang Zhen in recent years, and pours out his long-lasting passion and concern for the relationship between man and nature. Looking at these works, a strong sense of vividness comes over me. Changing perspectives and maintaining personal judgment - these sensitive links perceived from the unfamiliar** are in turn a feedback to the body, mind and nature, as well as the nourishment and experience of each painting practitioner's own life. In this sense, although the diversified exploration of painting language and concepts is particularly important in contemporary times, the way of channeling is to truly approach the creative state of pure mental expression.
Duan Jianwei:Dang Zhen's sketches always use a simple tone to express the most vivid and vivid things of the object. Different objects and different feelings also make him constantly look for the most suitable way of expression, so that his brushwork can present the natural "light of life". This is what touches people's hearts with these paintings, and it is what the painter has been sticking to all these years.
Sketch the edges
When I first learned to draw, I put a lot of energy into sketching for a while, but later I found that this kind of hard work for more than ten years has become an "obstacle" to my subsequent progress. The opportunity for this kind of reflection was after the summer vacation of my sophomore year of college, I took a batch of sketches that I thought were very good, and went to Liu Qinghe to read them, and his sentence "Your biggest problem is that your drawings are too similar to good sketches" was like a slap in the face, and I had to stop and rethink the standard of "right and wrong". After that, I tried to change my pursuit, trying to find new ways and possibilities beyond the familiar tools and materials. At that time, there was an atmosphere of pioneering and innovative among the students of the ** Academy of Fine Arts, so I began to read a lot of foreign art history books as a member of the Chinese Painting Department. I even secretly felt proud, thinking that I was also a practitioner who adhered to the principle of "foreign for Chinese use".
Xinchang Sketch No. 1 27cm 37cm | 2018
Later, I found a breakthrough in formal language and formed a relatively cutting-edge personal schema. This schema with a novel style and a unique language has continued until the age of no confusion. But new problems finally appeared, thanks to the form but confined to the form, blindly seeking new and changing, almost exhausted all my youthful righteousness. My belief in form began to waver, and yes, there had to be something beyond form. Is it from philosophical ideas, or from the feelings of life? The connection between the two cannot be just words, and the real core of formal language needs to be faced with a very clear sense of self. When the self-vigilance of formal language becomes self-awareness, the consideration of its depth also has a new criterion.
Xinchang Sketch No.2 25cm 35cm | 2018
As a result, I have a new understanding of sketching, which in the simplest words is not to immerse myself in the so-called "sketching", but to constantly wander away from the margins of sketching. By extension, this understanding is to maintain a state of skepticism and in doing so, to amplify the dimension of self-perception. Because of this, self-imposed patterns do not become barriers. Any possibility has the opportunity to be incorporated into the subject, and merging and metamorphosis thus proceed naturally. Going a little deeper, the painting that unfolds from this experience will no longer have a so-called routine, nor will it matter whether it is new or old, good or bad. Facing the truth of oneself, opening up one's perspective, and expanding one's horizons is the only way to transcend almost all criteria.
Excerpt from the foreword to The Edge of Sketching.
Xinchang Sketch No. 3 25cm 80cm | 2018
The stone cliff of the Xinchang Great Buddha Temple is as if casting, there are ancient trees on it, and the temple building is built along the mountain, which is integrated with the stone cliff mosaic. This is not only the perfect combination of artificial and natural, but also a metaphor for the mystery of "no difference" in Buddhism. Therefore, when I painted this scene, I treated the mountains and rocks as clouds, and painted the real thing as illusory—filling the picture with the breath of Sumeru. Corresponding to the realm of nothingness with high brightness and light gray is my understanding of "returning to the void". The language of painting is a visual presentation of rational thinking and spiritual perception, and in the process, it is necessary to constantly reflect and scrutinize, and strive to approach purity.
Autumn in northern Shaanxi 24cm 26cm | 2015
Autumn in northern Shaanxi is only warm. The yellow dots, lines, and surfaces are not only for the needs of the composition of the picture, but also to try to leave the footsteps of the sheep herders and the sound of the wind blowing the leaves.
Rice Fat Sketch No. 8 27cm 37cm | 2013
It's nightfall in Mizhi County. In the afterglow of the setting sun, I stood on the earthen cliff and looked at this old city made of blue steel, and my heart was heavy, and a cold autumn aura of slaughter permeated my whole body. At this time, the hand that painted was frozen, and the picture was frozen, and the traces of pastel smearing were blurred, and I was in a daze with the old city into a cold dream of late autumn.
Character Sketch 69cm 43cm | 2010
This painting of the old man's work was also achieved overnight. The dry pen is rubbed, like a wind sweeping away the leaves. When you paint, you will have a heavy hand, and there will be a sound when the brush strokes across the paper—like the sound of metal rubbing and the blade of a knife cutting through the air.
(Wen Dangzhen).
*: Post-70s ink).
About the Author
Dang Zhen,Born in Jinan, Shandong Province in 1973, Hui nationality. In 1996, he graduated from the Chinese Painting Department of ** Academy of Fine Arts and joined Shandong Art Institute to teach. In the same year, his work "Solid Support" won the silver medal in the first National College Student Calligraphy and Painting Competition. In 2004, he was admitted to Tian Liming Studio of the Chinese Painting Department of ** Academy of Fine Arts to study for a master's degree. He is currently an associate professor and master's tutor of Capital Normal University, a distinguished researcher of the China National Academy of Painting, a distinguished professor of the Academy of Fine Arts of Henan University, and a distinguished professor of the School of Art and Design of Lanzhou Jiaotong University. In 2021, he held the "Parallel World" Dang Zhen Ink Painting Exhibition at Guan Shanyue Art Museum in Shenzhen. He has published the art collections "Today's Chinese Art Series: Dang Zhen", "Chinese Contemporary Young Painters - Dang Zhen", "Dang Zhen Collection", "Sketch Classics: Dang Zhen Collection".