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Back in time, are you still a beauty?

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Your guide to mindful life | InkDifferent Studio | April 25, 2022

Fiona Sheng

Our appreciation of what is “beautiful” has evolved over time – “evolve” may be inaccurate – it surely has changed. A common knowledge of the Han Dynasty was that there was once a magnificent dancer who was slim and elegant, and she captured the heart of the emperor, so civilians started to starve themselves in order to be beautiful just like her; In the Tang Dynasty, people enjoyed the wealthy and luxurious life, and therefore being full-figured became the measurement of beauty. It seems that girls have long been conscious about our curves. But what about men? Throughout the Oriental history there have been two major considerations of beauty amongst men: eyebrows and beard. The international sentiments towards keeping beard is profound, so this time let us only focus on the oriental tradition.

In fact, there may have been more practical reasons for keeping a moustache or a beard, most likely to keep warm and perhaps to show off masculinity. These facial hairs may even serve to intimidate enemies during battles. It is believed that in the Qin Dynasty people believed so, which is why on the faces of the Terracotta warriors beards are often present.

The word for beard or moustache in Chinese used to be “须”, “髭”, or “髯”. The distinctive three parallel strokes consistently present in each character represented the drawing of facial hair. Depending on the location of such facial hair, the names are different. It seems the most important one has been over the lips, “髭”, which determines whether a person is beautiful. The presence of facial hair was also crucial for emperors, in which case, they are called the dragon hair, “龙须”. Today, we can still find noodles named the “dragon hair” to represent their fine quality.

In the beginning, images of Buddha has beard too!

In order to maintain high quality facial hair, men in the older days did quite a lot. In the book of an ancient pharmacist named Sun Si Miao from the Tang Dynasty, there were quite a few recipes on how to maintain dark and quality facial hair, and then about how to dye the hair dark, perhaps as a desperate final resort. People also worked hard at pulling out the white hairs, so that the moustache or beard always looked neat. Good facial hair was a sign of intelligence, making the bearer trustworthy and capable. The dates dedicated to maintaining the facial hair has to be carefully selected, the remaining facial hair cannot be too much or too little, because ladies would pass judgements on them, sometimes a male may be deemed unfit as the marriage material due to their facial hair. This is quite serious indeed!

Han Dynasty Emperor, Han Wudi (156BC-87BC)

Tang Dynasty, Tang Tai Zong (598-649)

So there are three kinds of facial hair that matters, the kind between the nose and the upper lip, the kind on the chin, and the sideburns. Exactly how the combinations worked changed over time, but in general, one notable change was that the upward facing hairs above the lips went downwards, you can see the trend by comparing the illustrations of the various emperors.

Qing Dynasty, Qian Long (1711-1799)

There were some historical discontinuation on the long love for facial hairs, before the Han Dynasty, people generally considered facial hairs came from parents, and therefore shall not be harmed, so there was no shaving at all; In the North Kingdom (386-581), some young men shaved it all off and even used face powder, but they were quickly despised by the following generations; The Buddhism followers after the Song Dynasty generally shaved all the hair on the head, believing that it was the way to cut all ties with the mundane life, without such ties, they could focus on what really matters in the spiritual world. Perhaps moustache and beard also have this function, to create links with our world, and if that is the case, perhaps they are not so bad? But do you find facial attractive?

Enjoy such cultural discussions? Have comments? I look forward to hearing from you!

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What Animal Lives on Your Roof?

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Your guide to mindful life | InkDifferent Studio | April 22, 2022

Fiona Sheng

What animals have you got on your roof? Have you got stray kitties? Various birdies? What about mosquitoes? Well, let’s hope that you do not have the last one. In the ancient Oriental land, the emperors have quite some interesting animals on their roofs, did you know about them? So today let’s talk about these special cultural icons, the ridge animals. They are the permanent residents of the rooftop of some magnificent buildings in China, they replaced the regular tiles, adding aesthetic and function to these architectures.

If you have visited some oriental buildings from China, Japan, Korea, etc., you may have seen some rather curious shapes on the rooftops, they resemble animals, and sometimes people. These are very unique decorations that exists in the Eastern world, and they not only secure the structure of the roof, functions as lighting rods in some situations, but also demonstrate the level of authority in this very building.

This illustration describes the roof of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, Forbidden City, Beijing

There are usually odd numbers 3, 5, 7 or 9 animals on the each side of the ridges, the higher the level, the more animals there are. The fairy riding phoenix at the front only appears on high-level buildings. The Hall of Supreme Harmony is the only one in existence that has 10 animals.

Have you ever wondered what these animals are? Let’s take a look one by one.

Fairy riding phoenix

This marks the beginning of the ridge animals, legend says that the phoenix saved the life of an emperor in the Qi Dynasty, and since then this tradition was kept to seek blessing, protection and fortune.

Dragon

The dragon is an ancient magical creature, it controls rainfall and brings great fortune.

Phoenix

The creature of virtue, bringer of harmony and happiness.

Lion

The symbol of authority, justice, and bravery.

Sky Horse

Capable of chasing the sun, can bring light to the earth.

Ocean Horse

Can turn a situation into an auspicious one, together the sky horse, they demonstrate the virtue and authority of the emperor can reach the heaven and the ocean.

Suan Ni

Magical creature, can eat tigers and lions, leader of all animals. It has a dragon head, love fire.

Xia Yu

Magical ocean creature, bringer of water, protects structures from fire damage.

Xie Zhi

Magical Unicorn, known to come from the Northeast, very loyal, strong, and just.

Ox (Dou Niu)

One type of dragon, ox head with scales. They are known to control water, they also create clouds when it rains.

Xing Shi

Unique to the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the image resembles that of the god of thunder in China, with the bird beak and wings. Perhaps it protects the building from thunder strikes.

Now you have great trivia knowledge, if you win the next pub game, remember to give me a thank 😉

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Capping Ceremony: The Chinese Coming of Age

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Your guide to mindful life | InkDifferent Studio | April 20, 2022

Fiona Sheng

If you have never heard of the Chinese Coming of Age Ceremony, you are definitely not ignorant – the ceremony that elaborates the entrance into adulthood in China is not longer in practice in the general sense – but everything about this tradition is totally worth a visit!

It all started in the beginning of the Chinese civilization, marked by these slavery states named Xia, Shang, and Zhou Dynasties, roughly between 2070 BC and 256 BC. The very early Xia and Shang Dynasties involved quite a lot of myths, so let us begin our discussion starting from the Zhou Dynasty. At that time, the empire was established upon the principles of rites and harmony, and more concretely expressed would be the governing system, the ceremony system and even the clothing system. Our story begins from such clothing system, and more specifically, the capping system. You may find this funny, but throughout the oriental history, wearing decent and appropriate hats trumps outstanding clothes, which can be seen from the character that means hat, cap, or crown, “冠”. This character has a top, which means coverage; On the bottom left there is a character “元”, which means origin or head; The bottom right side has “寸”, in here it suggests obeying a law, a principle. Therefore, the capping ceremony was a priority, it marks the entrance of adulthood for boys, it means from this moment on, the boy is a man. This ceremony normally arrives at the age of 20, and after which, the young man can get married and even rule the country.

This is a ceremony that has been performed until the end of the empirical China, with variations, sometimes an emperor-to-be can receive this ceremony earlier in order to ascend to the throne sooner; And sometimes a young man receives this ceremony a few days before his marriage. But overall, the coming to age has always been between 15 and 20. The girls also receive a coming of age ceremony at the age of 15, but it has more to do with new hair-dos than wearing a hat. The more prominent periods of time for such tradition had been the Han ruling periods, including these prosperous times of Tang, Song and Ming. In the Yuan and Qing Dynasty due to the minority ruling and the subsequent cultural identity disparity, this tradition eventually was disregarded and forgotten. What came after the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) was a long period of Westernization and radical social change, such tradition therefore never had another opportunity to be revived.

So, what kind of hats are involved? Do people from all social classes wear similar head-wears? In fact there is a difference between what type of headwear one can put on, only the governmental official were allowed to wear hats, civilians could only wear head cloth. Since we had this tradition for the past few thousand of years, there were quite some fun development around hats – let’s go find out!

a person holding hat

Live your life, do your work, then take your hat.

– Valentina Tereshkova

When you see the old oriental illustrations of people, it is quite clear who has the more important role and who is only supportive simply by comparing their physical sizes, and the same principle applies somewhat to their hats – the more important people also wears bigger head-wears. The emperors since Zhou Dynasty always wore very large crowns with a flat top and lots of dangling beads (A). Some officials at that time also wore hats similar to these crowns, but with fewer strings of beads or none at all. Throughout the Chinese history, there is a distinction between the civil servants and the military attache in terms of their clothing requirements. In the illustration below, which shows some of the distinctive styles of head-wears throughout history, B and F usually belong to the civil servants, whereas E with the feather on top is meant for military attache. The C can be seen more often over the head of judges, and the D is meant for regular scholars.

Selected head-wear styles from ancient Chinese history

Illustration by Fiona Sheng

In the later empirical time, especially represented by the Tang, Song and Ming Dynasties, the Han majority ethnic group was in power, and the clothing and capping style followed that of the ancient times, and the head-wear style is similar to the above described types with developments. More notably the hats of the governmental officials started to take on a rather “special” look, as shown in the illustration below. The top left one had “bunny ears”, which later in the Ming Dynasty was changed into these oval or long “ears”, and they would shake at the slightest head movements, thus allowing the emperor to spot immediately who is not paying attention during their morning gatherings. The bottom 2 on the left side are typical in the Qing Dynasty, there are summer and winter versions, with very distinctive long “tail” decorations made from feathers. The best performing officials can also receive additional feather (with circular patterns) to attach to this “tail”, ranging from 1-3 of such additions. The one marked with the red circle is from the Yuan Dynasty, and during this time, the head-wears clearly display a cross between the traditional Han and Mongolian cultures.

Selected head-wear styles for officials

Illustration by Fiona Sheng

In the civilian life, no exact hats are allowed, but head clothes shall be used instead. There are many styles of head cloth one can wear, and caps were developed from such head clothes. There are some simple ones including those on the head of the Terracotta worriers, and others that are more elaborate, such as the bottom few of the illustration below. According to historical records, caps were very useful in providing protection during war times, unfortunately though not enough record remained to show us how the early ones exactly looked like. Since Han Dynasty, the head cloth became a trend amongst social elites and scholars, so you may also see officials wearing head cloths instead of their proper hats in unofficial situations. The circled one from the illustration below is a great example of such head-wear.

Selected head-wear styles for civilians

Illustration by Fiona Sheng

Have you experienced the Coming of Age Ceremony of some kind? Do you feel attached to some hats or head-wears? Do share with us!

Enjoy such cultural discussions? Have comments? I look forward to hearing from you!

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Hainan Chicken Healthy & Easy Recipe

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Your guide to mindful life | InkDifferent Studio | April 18, 2022

Fiona Sheng

Hainan Chicken Ingredient

  • Full chicken
  • Rice
  • Ginger
  • Spring Onion
  • Garlic
  • Bayleaf (dried aromatic leaf of laurel)
  • Spicy pepper (Sichuan pepper for example)
  • Coriander
  • Seasonal Vegetables, such as cucumber
  • Cooking wine
  • Light Soy sauce (I never found the dark one useful, other than adding color only)
  • Oyster sauce
  • Sesame oil
  • Sugar

I can be rather lazy when it comes to cooking, and I can be quite picky with my food – not a great combination in fact. However, sometimes laziness can inspire us to make shortcuts in our lives, and I believe lots of our daily conveniences are invented thanks to our laziness. When I was living and working in China, there was no need to set foot into the chicken, and as a matter of fact, I never did. Here in Europe, take outs are so much more expensive, so I started to explore the world of cooking, and started to really liking it! Now it is Easter holiday, and if you want to try a new recipe, I proudly present you a simple yet very tasty version of Hainan chicken.

My kitchen is not exactly presentable, so I did not take too many pictures, but I am confident that you will understand this recipe quite easily!

Step 1. Wash & Soak Rice

  • Rinse 3 times will be sufficient
  • Soak rice in water for 30 min
  • Do this step first for better time management!

Step 2. Boil Water & Prep Chicken

  • As the rice soaks, you need to take out a pot big enough to immerse the entire chicken. Boil enough water inside that can submerge the full chicken;
  • Cut up 2-3 slices of ginger, 1 spring onion

Step 3. Make Chicken

  • Add the ginger slices and spring onion in the water
  • Add a bit of cooking wine
  • Add the chicken into the boiling water
  • Set a timer for 15 min (for bigger chicken add 1 min or 2)
  • Adjust the heat to medium-low
  • After the boiling, leave the chicken as is for another 10 min
  • Keep the lid closed over the pot the entire time
  • After the 25 min is up, transfer the chicken to another container, use cold water to soak the entire chicken until chill – this step makes the chicken tender, add ice if necessary
  • After chilled, dry it, and can apply some sesame oil over the skin for taste – I do not like the skin very much, so I skip this part

Step 4. Prep Sauce & Vegetable

  • Sauce
    • Cut up ginger, spring onion, spicy pepper, garlic and coriander into small pieces and place in the same bowl;
    • Add soy sauce, some oyster sauce (not key ingredient), a few drops of sesame oil, and a pinch of brown sugar (more or less cover all the previous cut ingredient) and mix
  • Prepare cucumber slices and leave on the side

Step 5. Prep Rice

  • Drain the water that has been soaking the rice completely
  • Heat some oil in a pan/wok, add garlic (large pieces) and 2 bayleaves when the oil is hot, stir until you can smell the garlic’s fragrance, then add the soaked rice
  • Stir fry for a min or 2, until the rice starts to look a little golden
  • Turn off fire and transfer the rice into rice cooker – I suppose you can continue cooking in this pan/wok if you do not have a rice cooker
  • Add several spoons of the chicken broth to submerge the rice and cook until ready

Step 6. Ready to Eat

  • Cut the chicken, add some vegetables and rice on the side
  • Dip sauce when eating

Bon appetite! This seemingly long recipe is in fact quite easy to manage, the result is also great! Before setting off to eat however, I would like to point out that the Hainan chicken has nothing to do with the province Hainan, in case the name fooled you 😉 Enjoy your meal, keep on with the healthy life!

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A Zebra in Me

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Your guide to mindful life | InkDifferent Studio | April 13, 2022

Fiona Sheng

Zebra – Oriental Ink Brush Painting

Rice Paper, 40cm x 40cm

By Fiona Sheng

@InkDifferent Studio | Brussels

The zebras are funny creatures, they look like horses and run like horses, but they are far from being horses. They have these pretty stripes that distinguish them from many other animals, and they have this notorious temper that renders them impossible to keep close. I cannot imagine the very first time the zebras were introduced to the metropolitan world, they must have caused such a sensation! They inevitably became the icon of the fashion world, and their skin pattern was taken to be used as such too. To me, however, I find myself relating to zebras on many levels, the disguise, the temper and perhaps more.

In the early days, people found the domesticated horses wonderful animals – they can carry heavy loads, run hundreds of miles, and even fight bravely bearing people on their backs – zebras must be useful in similar ways too, they thought. How wrong were these people! After hard work around zebras, people realised that these animals may obey orders in closed up environments, but as soon as they leave this particular space, they no longer listen. The domestication process of zebras had occasional success, but these nervous creatures that jump at the slightest noise gave people too much headache to be worth the trouble. Study say that the zebras enjoy living in a group, and that is indeed what we see the most, zebra after zebra moving together, we cannot tell where one starts where one ends, because of the too many blinding stripes they have. But after careful analysis, experts point out that these creatures also are rather independent, even though they live in a close group environment. The group would then be chaotic once one startles, causing panic amongst all. So, point is, the zebras are too wild to be domesticated, they are too unpredictable.

zebra on grassland grayscale photography

“I asked the Zebra, ‘Are you black with white stripes? Or white with black stripes?’ And the zebra asked me, ‘Are you good with bad habits? Or are you bad with good habits?’”

– Shel Silverstein

I have often thought about myself when studying animal behaviour – am I much different? I believe one of my deepest desires is to be free, be wild, follow my heart and create my own dreams. I also must place myself in the social environment, try to blend in, make my own stripes blindingly invisible in certain situations for better self-protection. But I know myself, my stripes will not only serve as “blinding” mechanism, these beautiful patterns shall also make me stand out, as they are unique, just like me.

The truth is, from the perspective of another species, I may only be just a zebra with zebra stripes – who hasn’t gotten these? During the streaming of this painting, one question was raised about self-acceptance. I find it a question of such significance that renders me speechless. In retrospect however, I think we can see this question in a different light, even though some of us have noticeable defects on our faces, undermining our confidence and self-esteem, making us too self-conscious to behave normally, we shall still see the fact that we are all but zebras with very similar looking stripes, the so-called differences that we care about so much may not matter to anyone else. I personally believe that sometimes not considering ourselves anything special may also solve some of our self-acceptance issues, perhaps it works better than the other way around. Accept that you and I are just zebras, be silly and be happy.

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Wisdom & Suffering of a Cheetah

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Your guide to mindful life | InkDifferent Studio | April 10, 2022

Fiona Sheng

Cheetah – Oriental Ink Brush Painting

Rice Paper, 40cm x 40cm

By Fiona Sheng

@InkDifferent Studio | Brussels

The fastest land animal, what a cheetah had to trade for such glory? To understand this, I believe the Chinese has an ancient word, “舍得” (shě de), which can be very useful in analysing a cheetah. Let me attempt to explain the meaning of this word first – this may be a rather difficult task. This is a word filled with philosophical wisdom, the meaning is multifold, it can mean to give up something, be willing to part with or make a trade-off with someone or something. I am certainly unsatisfied with such an explanation, so let’s break it down to take a closer look.

“舍” means to let go of, be charitable; “得” refers to a gain, an acquisition. This word is composed of these opposing concepts in this order, which is exactly where the philosophy lies – only pain leads to gain, no pain no gain, big pain has big gain and small pain leads to small gain. This is a life wisdom. This word teaches us to take an objective stance when treating the people and events around us, weigh the matters by heart, see the actual value of importance in our lives. For instance, when faced with robbery, would our 20 dollars mean more than our lives? Would the spilling of harmful words be worthwhile towards our loved ones in an heated argument? Would we regret not telling them words of love instead in retrospect? Should I get over my laziness and finish my meaningful project right now, even though I am happy and satisfied as it is? Such decisions are everywhere, confronting us everyday. All these emotions and the weighing between the loss and the gain, the generosity and stinginess, the good and the bad, the to do and not to do, everything altogether is included in the concept of “舍得”. It is an art, harmony is achieved in the delicate balancing of each pain and each gain. Today, let us look at the cheetah’s pains and gains.

cheetah on rock

“Have the will of a tiger, the speed of a cheetah, and the heart of a lion.”

– Kevin McCarty

The cheetah is a machine made for speed. A cheetah has enlarged nasal cavity, letting in more oxygen during high-speed chases; Its lung and heart are connected with the circulatory system and are equipped with strong artery and adrenal glands, allowing for efficient transmission of oxygen via blood circulation. The cheetah has a long spine and legs, paired with a streamlined body, it is quite light weight; Its spine is springy, allowing for the maximised acceleration; Its claws not retractable, acting like spiked shoes in a race, can firmly grab the ground during the run; It has a long and fluffy tail, maintaining the body balance in sharp turns; Without the restriction of the collarbones, its shoulder blades can gain the most optimised action space, wonderful for running.

But all these advantages at what cost? The enlarged nasal cavity squeezed away the mouth space, leading to smaller teeth than those of other large cats. This can be a big disadvantage in any fights; The circulation system can only sustain the cheetah to run at a speed of over 100 km/h for 3-5 minutes, anything beyond may lead to death from overheat. After each chase, a cheetah has to take 10 minutes to recover, and during which time, it is at an extremely vulnerable state – unable to guard its newly acquired food, and unable to defend itself. It cannot even take the food up in a tree for safe keeping, because the claws are too short and blunt to allow much climbing; Its lack of collarbone also renders a cheetah weak in physical combat.

In summary, strength and weakness come hand in hand in this graceful fragile yet mighty creature. The “舍” and the “得” has such clear demonstration in the cheetah. Is it worthwhile? I cannot say, but if I were to choose as a cheetah, I may very well make the same decisions.

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Lions in the Oriental Art

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Your guide to mindful painting | InkDifferent Studio | April 7, 2022

Fiona Sheng

Lion – Oriental Ink Brush Painting

Rice Paper, 40cm x 40cm

By Fiona Sheng

@InkDifferent Studio | Brussels

The Asian lions are mostly from India, so for the most of Chinese people, they are exotic and mystical. They are also representatives of bravery and power, so just like tigers, the lions are also depicted and their images are wide spread, ranging from buildings to statues and paintings. The meaning of the lion image also shares the auspicious blessing, just like that of a tiger.

For those who are familiar with the Chinese lion paintings, it may be quite apparent that the artists may never have seen lions in reality. For a long time in the Chinese artistic creation of lions, the most typical lion are seated, their heads large and very round, large mouths, giant eyes and the mane somewhat curly. So even though this look is quite removed from their original appearance, this style of lion creation remained quite stable in China that lasted hundreds of years.

wildlife photography of brown lion

“Always be fearless. Walk like lion, talk like pigeons, live like elephants and love like an infant child.”

When lions were first brought into China via the silk road over 2,000 years ago, these creatures quickly aroused the affection from the emperors of the Han Dynasty. The early craftsman created animals that resembled the actual lions well, leading the historians to believe that some craftsman may have actually seen lions before. Paintings of lion were also close to the realistic look of a lion until at least Tang Dynasty, because the lion paintings that are found in tombs from Tang Dynasty showcases detailed and quite realistic lions. During the long duration of the Chinese social development however, it became more clear that the artists who have witnessed a lion is few in number, one very apparent example would be the stone lions that are created to protecting certain homes.

bird people art street

Stone Lion Statue

The vast majority of such guardians are made to shield the home owner from demons or bad luck, and the vast majority of the artists who crafted them have no idea how the lions appear, they only learn from their masters. They are more puppy like in my opinion, not exactly lion looking in fact.

Lion Plate

Tang Dynasty, Chinese National Museum

This artistic plate provides a great example of the lion art in the traditional oriental art world. The shape of the body, the atmosphere, the precision in the muscle lines, and every single body part all indicate the hight of the lion art creation of the ancient oriental world.

Later in the Chinese lion painting field the creation seemed to have stagnated, and the quality of the paintings vary drastically. However, in general, the Ming Dynasty was a relatively prosperous period and for a long while the international trade via the ocean brought in exotic animals again, including the lions, until the full closure of the boarders by sea.

Lion Painting

Zhou Quan, Ming Dynasty, Tokyo National Museum

This piece is a decent description of the lion from the Ming Dynasty works of art. The rather faithful depiction of the animal remains scarce in the traditional Oriental artworks.

Since the Ming Dynasty however, the last empirical time Qing Dynasty only received a lion once, which passed away after merely 3 months. This lead to a decline in the construction of the lion shape until the 1900s.

Lion Painting

Zhang Wei Bang, Qing Dynasty, Taipei Forbidden City Museum

Compared with the above Ming production, this lion created in the Qing Dynasty lack accuracy in too many aspects. This may be due to the artistic skills of the painting, but it is not fair to conclude based on this single factor. The society most likely lacked the live samples from which an artist can study.

The lion art in summary, went through an interesting path in China, basically starting realistic, continuing with creative innovation, and then back to relatively faithful depiction again. Even in the stone statue making, there are 2 main types, the traditional big headed ones and the rather accurate ones, especially in the cities where there is more international interaction.

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How to Ink an Elephant

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Your guide to mindful painting | InkDifferent Studio | April 5, 2022

Fiona Sheng

Elephant – Oriental Ink Brush Painting

Rice Paper, 50cm x 50cm

By Fiona Sheng

@InkDifferent Studio | Brussels

Elephants are smart creatures that are socially adapted, even though some believe that they are huge and scary. These intelligent beings are indeed the largest land animals, but they also display human traits that put some human to shame. These creatures have been through millions of years of evolution before looking like the way they do today. These creatures are not exactly the most popular subjects in the Oriental Brush Art world, but today let’s attempt to combine the ink and water with these magnificent beings!

wildlife photography of elephant during golden hour

“If anyone wants to know what elephants are like, they are like people only more so.”

– Peter Corneille

1. Preparation

The materials involved are simple, there will mainly be:

  • ink
  • oriental paint brush
  • rice paper

The ink can be liquid or blocks, but note that the quality of either makes a difference in the final result! I will use raw rice paper for the creation of this piece, because I want the automatic ink bleed effect to appear in places.

Need art supplies? Get help here.

2. Design

Normally the design phase takes the longest in any painting process, however, for an elephant painting, I believe there are several possible considerations: the type that shows their magnificence, which usually features one elephant; the motherly love that involve both an adult and a baby elephant; the herd of elephants, which obviously will have many individuals. For this piece, I would like to pull focus on only one elephant, with simple yet meaningful background.

We also have to know about our subjects before painting, such as in the elephant world, there are African or Asian species that have quite some distinctive differences. This part I will leave for you to find out – not going to take all the fun from you – but for mine, I would like to paint an African elephant.

To recap, the design will be simple, only one elephant and simple background.

The draft process normally takes place in my head, but I am adding it for you to understand!

Now with our digital painting possibilities, it is also a great idea to use the digital means for the conception process.

3. Painting

The painting process after all the discussion above, is a very enjoyable experience. Because you are familiar with your materials, you also have a plan, now, you only need to realise that plan! The thing I love about the oriental brush painting using ink is its flexibility. In the painting process, my brain is still active, reconstructing the image according to the plan, and my advice is not to dismiss the sparks during the painting time! There may be moments that crazy ideas jump into your head, and these ideas during the creation process may very well be your most valuable inspiration – channel it if possible, and use it well. Not all shall be taken in, but the point is to stay flexible enjoy during the actual creation process.

Be bold in the brush lines, but be cautious in details!

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