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Welcome to the magpie & plum blossom freehand (Xie Yi) brush painting course.
The Chinese name of magpie is 喜鹊, literally meaning the happiness or fortune bird. According to the ancient record this name was given based on the fact that people considered it sentient, and thus it could bring auspicious events. The plum blossom, 梅, is a cultural icon in the oriental world. The plum blossom takes the lead in the four gentleman plants, it announces the arrival of Spring, and contains great cultural meanings since ancient times. In China they have been cultivated for over 3,000 years.
Welcome to the magpie & plum blossom freehand (Xie Yi) brush painting course.
The Chinese name of magpie is 喜鹊, literally meaning the happiness or fortune bird. According to the ancient record this name was given based on the fact that people considered it sentient, and thus it could bring auspicious events. The plum blossom, 梅, is a cultural icon in the oriental world. The plum blossom takes the lead in the four gentleman plants, it announces the arrival of Spring, and contains great cultural meanings since ancient times. In China they have been cultivated for over 3,000 years.
Together these flowers and birds tell you a blessing in code - come find out what the code says ;)
Course Objective
In this course you will learn to paint one of the most fascinating combinations in the oriental art world - the magpie birds and the plum blossoms. Each of these subjects are absolute cultural icons in the Eastern societies, and we will also discuss their cultural significance besides learning to paint each one of them. There will be a small composition of only flowers on trees before finally putting the flower and birds together in a complete painting of your own.
The course overview is covered in the introduction video, make sure you take 10 minutes to watch it.
Course Structure
Overview: magpie & plum blossoms in oriental art, culture & history
Materials
Painting Theory
Magpie breakdown
Plum blossom painting techniques
4. Painting Practice
Course Material
You will need to prepare a few oriental painting brushes (very important) of all sizes, raw/half-raw xuan rice paper (also very important), painting colors (watercolor or guache colors could temporarily work), oriental ink (very important), felt, and 1-2 white plates.
In this lecture you will learn about the cultural background of our painting subjects, and the materials required.
In this section we will dive into the theoretical aspects of the magpie bird and the plum blossoms.
In this lecture you will learn to paint a magpie directly using a brush.
In this lecture you will learn about the plum blossom flower painting.
In this lecture you will learn to put the flowers and branches together into a complete painting.
In this lecture you will learn to paint a complete plum blossom composition.
Finally you will put all you have learnt and make a complete painting!
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