Friday, December 21, 2007

Brush Pen from Ebay

Hey,
If you are still looking where to get the brush pen for your calligraphy practice check out these eBay items.

Chinese Calligraphy Lesson #1

Hi,
Finally I am coming up with something I promised: this is the first calligraphy lesson on this blog (hope it wouldn't be the last). Usually in learning how to write calligraphy you start with numbers. This lesson will show you how to write numbers one to six using brush pen (brush pens can come from different brands but essentially they are a brush with an attached ink reservoir like an ink pen).

Use plain copy (8"x11") paper for practicing. Look at the video how it is done by a master: lines-strokes should always be written from top to bottom and from left to right. Calligraphy usually is written at ones and never corrected. Do not worry if you cannot do well right away (almost nobody can do it right at first) but be consistent in practicing. Do not over do your practice - stop practicing if you feel like it is making you more tense instead of relaxed.

Try to relax while practicing calligraphy and calm down your thoughts or your hand will be shaky so and your brush pen. Some nice calm meditative music can be of help here. As the master often said a good (beautiful) calligraphy comes from a beautiful heart and a peaceful thought.

Most of the calligraphy masters agree that calligraphy learning and regular practicing not only helps anyone to become good at writing Chinese characters but it is beneficial to anyone's physical, spiritual and emotional health, and it brings longevity (many calligraphers being famous for living longer than usual).

This is it for now. Stay tuned for more lessons. If you'd like to share your thoughts, experiences of ask any questions concerning Chinese calligraphy feel free to drop me an e-mail at askme247@yahoo.com.

All the best!
Jzin Gu (It is my calligraphic name: about this latter)

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Coming Back after Graduation

Hey!
I just graduated this summer and moved to another state. Still living out of boxes, but have more extra time. So, it is a time to fulfill my promises and start posting those calligraphy video lessons. Stay tuned as I plan to post few of them before the year ends.

In the meantime check out some calligraphy supplies on the most visited online marketplace (ebay). For the initial calligraphy practice you will need a brush pen (preferably Japanese made) with a black ink. Such pen is very practical because it keeps mess to a minimum and lets you focus on the strokes writing.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

The first stroke

Let's begin
Hi. I am not a pro in calligraphy, but I have an experience learning it under a Japanese Master Reverend Ichiro Hayashi. Since this experience was meaningful to me in many ways I would like to share about what I learned with all of you. I hope that it will help you to understand the spirit and wisdom of the oriental culture as it did to me.

What we gonna do in this blog
Don't be intimidated by the lack of knowledge of Chinese characters - we will discover their meaning while learning to write them. I am planning to post video tutorials (of Master Hayashi) on writing several popular characters which will guide you through the basics of the regular (squarish) style technique.

Get ready for the lesson#1 in the next post!