Facing the Image: Teaching at the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University

Author: Liu Jude
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2007-01-01
Features: Facing an image, I enumerate a tree, a branch of a flower, a bird, a human figure, and a face. From all of them, I feel the undulating of colorful clouds, the surging of rivers, and the melodious tunes of a zither. They are like music, stirring my heart to dance, singing of the vitality and resilience of life, and murmuring of its withering and fragility. Without realizing it, my heart and hands move in unison, moving silently. Movement generates momentum, forming images that reveal rhythm and give birth to shapes. Thus, the image naturally emerges in sketches and quick drawings. I seem to be often carried by all things into the volume, rhythm, and rhyme of different life forms, dancing with them, stepping with them, rejoicing with them, and wandering with them. Sometimes fast, sometimes slow; sometimes light, sometimes heavy. My heart, hands, and eyes are like spinning tops, being pulled by the inner tension of a life, constantly spinning forward and backward. As the tension extends to the very tips of each line, a sketch is born. What is seen here is not important; what is important is the invisible surging of the heart and the subconscious harmony. A person is like a great nature, and the human body is a small universe. The ancients drew inspiration from distant objects and nearby bodies, learning from nature and purifying their hearts to paint. The aim is to use a single brush to imitate the vast void. I try to understand this through sketches and quick drawings. The author of this book is a professor at Tsinghua University of Arts and Design. With examples and demonstrations from his teaching, he targets specific painting techniques, making this book relevant for both college entrance exam preparation and art college teaching. Facing an image, I enumerate a tree, a branch of a flower, a bird, a human figure, and a face. From all of them, I feel the undulating of colorful clouds, the surging of rivers, and the melodious tunes of a zither. They are like music, stirring my heart to dance, singing of the vitality and resilience of life, and murmuring of its withering and fragility. Without realizing it, my heart and hands move in unison, moving silently. Movement generates momentum, forming images that reveal rhythm and give birth to shapes. Thus, the image naturally emerges in sketches and quick drawings. I seem to be often carried by all things into the volume, rhythm, and rhyme of different life forms, dancing with them, stepping with them, rejoicing with them, and wandering with them. Sometimes fast, sometimes slow; sometimes light, sometimes heavy. My heart, hands, and eyes are like spinning tops, being pulled by the inner tension of a life, constantly spinning forward and backward. As the tension extends to the very tips of each line, a sketch is born. What is seen here is not important; what is important is the invisible surging of the heart and the subconscious harmony. A person is like a great nature, and the human body is a small universe. The ancients drew inspiration from distant objects and nearby bodies, learning from nature and purifying their hearts to paint. The aim is to use a single brush to imitate the vast void. I try to understand this through sketches and quick drawings. The author of this book is a professor at Tsinghua University of Arts and Design. With examples and demonstrations from his teaching, he targets specific painting techniques, making this book relevant for both college entrance exam preparation and art college teaching.