ELEMENTARY TECHNIQUES
Chinese brush skills have been tempered, tested and improved from generation to generation until they have reached a stage of near-perfection. the student is advised to think and plan carefully before taking up the brush. As a rule, when painting a land scape, the nearer objects should be done first and the trees before the rocks. All these should be done in ink, to which colour may be added later. However, if the scene is satisfactory in ink alone colour is not necessary. Flower-and-bird paintings can also be executed in ink alone or in both ink and colour; or they can be done in colour alone without any ink.
The standareds still generally used to judge the quality of paintings and guide the student are the six principles formulated by Xie he (Hsieh Ho) of the Southern Dynasties(420-589 AD): 1,spiritual and rhythmic vitality 2,disciplined brush work 3,proper representation of objedects 4, true colouring 5,good composition 6, copying old masters.
In my opinion, having learnt how to handle the brush,you should begin by copying old masters ,from which you can learn 'disciplined brush work' and traditional techniques. It is better to copy simple paintings first and processd gradually to more intricate ones, to copy parts of paintings before attempting whole works, and to copy paintings of the realistic(gongbi) school before learning other styles. If you begin with paintings in bold, impressionistic style or in splashed ink, which may seem easier because they tend t ignore details, you may acquire some general knowledge of painting but will not have a chance to study its finer points. For you must learn thoroughly how to do a proper representation of objects and be versed in the many forms of 'disciplined brushwork'. Inadequate training in these areas will be a great handicap later on. To sum up, I suggest you start by working hard at making copies.
After some time, while continuing to copy the old master, begin dong sketches from nature. One the one hand ,you should make bold 'transplants',assimilating into your work the good points you have learnt from the old masters. One the other and ,you should give full play to your own creative ability, and learn the art of 'good composition', which means the proper arrangement and positioning of objects in a painting. Your first sketches may not look right, but you must persevere in the spirit of a pioneer. Otherwise you will only know how to make copies and your ability to create will be stunted.
Soem pelple say that student should learn form only on e school of painting. I do not see any harm in learning from more than one school; this allows you to assimilate the best of each and , in time ,cultivate your own style. If someone asks, 'Are there any tricks of the trade.' my answer is that the only trick is to practise hard and constantly review what you have learnt.