The 6 rules of Chinese Painting

The 6 rules of Chinese Painting, according to the 6th century Xie He, are as follows The Six Principles of Traditional Painting. “Spirit Resonance,” or vitality, and seems to translate to the nervous energy transmitted from the artist into the work. The overall energy of a work of art. Xie He said that without Spirit Resonance, there was no need to look further. “Bone Method,” or the way of using the brush. This refers not only to texture and brush stroke, but to the close link between handwriting and personality. In his day, the art of calligraphy was inseparable from painting. “Correspondence to the Object,” or the depicting of form, which would include shape and line. “Suitability to Type,” or the application of color, including layers, value and tone.

“Division and Planning,” or placing and arrangement, corresponding to composition, space and depth. “Transmission by Copying,” or the copying of models, not only from life but also the works of antiquity. Assignment Of all the ancient wisdom passed down from master painters of old, the concept of ‘learning by copying’ can be troubling to the western mind. It is so ‘not right’ to take the creative work of another and try to replicate it or worse yet, present the results as your own! Discuss this approach, in general. How do these differ from our approach to art? Look at #6, especially. In our age of personal expression and plagiarism concerns, can we benefit from “copying? Is it OK to copy someone’s art? Is creativity and copying opposites?

Further Guidelines

Write a post in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. This post should answer and discuss the questions given above. It’s funny when you think about it, but the art world is built on copying. Unlike plagiarism in journalism or literature, however, copying master drawings is something many artists, for centuries, have incorporated into their studies. So, what is the best way to learn? To copy or not to copy, that is the question.

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