target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="#fb3_img_img_46332cbf-41a3-5e12-9290-7a9fb56f012f.jpg" alt=""/> A large dish to hold a pale-to-medium mix
4. Paint-Testing Plate
A small white testing plate is useful to try out the color on the brush before making strokes or to mix other shades of gray. You could also use a folded paper towel to test the color, but a towel will soak up some of the water, which affects the stroke you are about to paint.
Tips for the Workspace
5. Brush-Washing Containers
You need the following containers for washing the brushes:
When you wash your brushes, swish them against the side of the jar so the hairs can separate and the water can clean them. Do not thump the brush up and down in the bottom of the jar! This will make the hairs break off from the handle.
Paint, brushes, and paper can be purchased at your local art store or from artist supply companies on the Internet.
6. Water Spoon
Use a teaspoon to spoon water into a paint-mixing dish.
7. Brushes
Bamboo brushes are best, but regular watercolor brushes made with natural hair also work well. Natural hair has an uneven surface that holds the paint. Synthetic brushes are smoother and do not hold as much paint. You will need a large brush (#12 size watercolor brush) and a smaller one (#6 size). The bamboo brushes should be about those same sizes. For fine lines, it is useful to have a brush with only a few hairs, or you can use a round wooden toothpick instead.
8. Paper
You will do a lot of practice paintings. For these, use a package of newsprint either 9 x 12 or 10 x 15 inches. For your finished exercises, get a practice roll of rice paper 14 inches wide.
9. Paper Towel
Use a paper towel folded two times as a pad for testing paint colors and for getting rid of excess water after washing the brush. Towels are also handy for cleaning paint spills.
10. Book Holder
A book holder is convenient for keeping the lesson instructions in front of you as you paint. The holder should be large enough to hold the book firmly upright.
11. Book
Chinese painters work with screens in front of them. These face screens can be decorated and very beautiful, but that is not why they are used. Screens help artists focus on their paintings. For you, the book works like a screen. It keeps you from looking beyond the table at other things, so you can focus on your painting. According to Chinese thought, evil and distracting spirits travel in straight lines. When you place something in front of your face, such as a face screen or book, the spirits cannot distract you while you are working.
12. Paper Weights
When you cut sheets off a roll of rice paper, the edges tend to curl. Flat stone or metal weights help to keep the corners flat as you paint.
13. Egg to Train Hand
Holding an egg in your palm can train your hand and wrist to stay relaxed while you are holding the brush and keep your fingers from touching your palm. You can use a real egg, an artificial egg, or a crumpled piece of paper. Make sure that it fits the size of your palm.
14. Flat Stone to Train Arm
A flat stone is used to train your arm to stay level when your wrist is bent upward to make a stroke.
Folder for Paintings
You will make many practice papers as you learn to use the brush. You don’t have to keep all of them, but it’s a good idea to keep the best paper from each exercise you do in this book as a record of your progress. You can safely store the good papers that you want to keep in a folder. It can be as simple as a folded piece of tagboard or two pieces of cardboard taped together.
Getting Ready to Paint
Set the Table
Cover the table with the felt pad or the cotton table cover and place a piece of newsprint on it. Anchor three corners of the paper with weights.
If you are right-handed, set up the items on the table as shown in the picture on page 12. If you are left-handed, move the water and mixing dishes to the left.
Prepare the Paint and Water
In 600 A.D., art schools in China tested the artist’s ability to mix sixteen different shades of gray ranging from black to clear water. We will only be using about eight shades of gray. You make the gray shades by taking black paint and diluting it. Dilute means “add water.”
Each time you get ready to paint, you need to prepare fresh paint and water.
1. Fill the water containers half full of water.
2. Into the smallest dish, pour a small amount of black paint. This will be used for mixing different shades of gray paint.
3. Using the teaspoon, put two teaspoons of water into each of the remaining three mixing dishes.
4. In a large dish, make a dark mix matching shade
2. Dip the tip of the brush into the dish of black paint to pick up paint. Transfer the brush to the mixing dish and swish the paint around well in
