Chinese Brush Painting by Caroline Self, Susan Self Read Free Book Online Page B

back to the center as you move upward slightly to the right. This action makes a zigzag across the page with a line that is light on the left side and darker on the right side.
3. Lift the brush slightly as you move your arm up the page so the trunk will get narrower, and end with a lift to make a tip.
    Go back and try all of these ways to make a pine tree trunk. Remember that this is a painting, and your trunk may not look like a pine tree trunk you see out the window. Decide which way you prefer to paint your trunk, and then paint it that way.
    Painting Pine Needle Wheels
    The pine needle wheel is painted with a center dot to which all the needle strokes go.
1. Load the brush with a very dark paint. Roll the hairs back and forth to make a fine point.
2. Use position #1 and make a dot. This will be the center of the wheel.
3. Directly above the dot, make a vertical stroke down to the dot. This is a pine needle.

4. Touching the paper lightly and swinging your arm at an even pace, move around the dot from the left to the far right, making strokes towards the dot in the middle. This is the top wheel of needles.

5. Below it and slightly to the left, make a dot for the next wheel center.
6. Stroke the brush from the left side to the dot, and continue around the half-circle, ending the wheel on the far right.
Principles of Pine
Needle Wheels
A cluster usually contains 5, 7, or 9 wheels.
Try to keep your arm pressure on the paper the same so the strokes will be even.
Make a row of dots gradually moving down the page. Paint the strokes to each dot. The strokes will overlap slightly as the wheels slope to the right and downward.
Plan where the dots will go to make the next diagonal line under the top row. This should make a cluster sloping downward.
Clusters at the bottom of the tree are larger and have more wheels. The ones towards the top of the tree are smaller.
Practice making the wheels slope left and right.
7. To the left and slightly below the wheel, make a dot for the next wheel. Make strokes toward the dot. They should overlap slightly as they go diagonally toward the left and downward.
8. Do five of these wheels, as shown.

    Painting the Full Pine Tree
    Now that you have tried out three ways to make pine tree trunks, choose one that you want to use to paint a weather-beaten tree.

1. Load the brush as described for the trunk method you want to use.
2. Start at the left bottom of the page and paint the trunk upward as in the example, using your chosen method. The trunk should move a longer distance to the right, then shorter to the left, then even shorter to the right, and end with a very narrow stroke to the left. This makes a more interesting tree than a straight, vertical one.
3. Add the darker bark scales.
4. Plan the placement of clusters of needles:
Cluster 1. A cluster sloping to the right and downward low down on the right side of the trunk.

Cluster 2. A cluster going downward and to the left higher on the trunk on the left side. These two large clusters are the main green parts of the tree.

Cluster 3. A cluster sloping to the left and downward.

Cluster 4. A cluster that will cover the top of the tree, then slope to the right and downward.

Cluster 5. A small cluster at the bend in the trunk.

5. Paint in the clusters you have planned as you did in the wheels exercise.
6. Observe where the branches might connect from the bottom of each cluster to the tree trunk. The connections are made by using the press-and-lift stroke.
7. To paint the branches, load a small brush with dark paint. Make a press stroke on the trunk, lift slightly, drag, and press, lifting to trail off in a thin stroke under the bottom of the cluster. Where the branch connects to the trunk, the press stroke is heavy. Near the top of the tree, the branch stroke is smaller, but it still makes a thin line under the cluster.

8. To finish off the tree, use light paint on the small brush and stroke a half circle of paint like a gray cloud around each