Calligraphy Creation Essentials for Clerical Script

Author: Cai Huiping
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-07
Features: From the content, the main text, inscriptions, and seals are the three major components that must be considered in composition. The black characters, white paper, and red seals contrast with each other, creating a chromatic contrast between black and white, a balance of warm and cool tones, varying sizes of color blocks, and a vivid, strong visual effect. This breaks the monotony, creates variations and responses, achieves integration and balance, and produces multiple forms of aesthetic enjoyment in the visual sense. Beginners should use a goat-hair brush to write clerical script. Goat-hair brushes are soft and lack sufficient elasticity, which helps in practicing brush control. The size and type of brush depend on the style of the writing. For works like Shimen Sòng and Cao Quanbei, which are unrestrained and elegant, long-tipped brushes are suitable for sweeping strokes. Using the same long-tipped brush, the characters for Shimen Sòng should be large, with bold strokes, and a mixed-hair brush can also be used to express the chisel marks of cliffside inscriptions. In contrast, for Cao Quanbei, the characters should be small, with a small brush, using a soft goat-hair brush to convey its grace and beauty. The brush selection for Fenglongshan Sòng is similar to that for Shimen Sòng, while for Liqi, it is the same as for Cao Quanbei. Compared to the coarser lines of Yingyingbei and Zhangqianbei, and the dense brushwork of Shichenbei, a brush with fuller hair is suitable for the former, while a brush with moderate hair is better for the latter. The brushwork for Hua Shanbei is the same as that for Shichenbei.