Thanks ryuhebi13, glad you enjoy it. :)

@Chess.

I am preparing myself for Buddhist sutra copying, so I bought a blue paper and silver ink. Naturally I could not help having a bit of fun with those. Below are few works from yesterday.

雲 a cloud (pictographic seal script)





月光　moonlight

oh piotr loving them all.


you add calmness to my life.

buddhist sutra will enlighten yours also i hope.

Thanks Dogsbody. Indeed, sutra copying is very mind soothing, though really difficult. Characters are extremely small (1-2 cm) and also they need to be perfectly aligned.

Here is one more in silver ink. I gave a size reference to a Polish coin (17,5mm in diameter). This calligraphy is written with a small brush made of weasel hair (highly responsive tip), with hanging arm technique (entire arm lifted) and kana script brush grip (by the end of the brush axis) for maximum freedom of movement. It is also written in one continuous brush stroke. The signature characters are smaller than 1cm.

飛龍 flying dragon

that looks so complicated and intricate. take much practice. my broken arm is painful just now---so think i'll leave the practice to you piotr:mtongue:


i truly admire your dedication.

your arm is broken :eek: actually the arm doesn't move, just hangs in the air and its bleeding heavy, the movement comes from the wrist.

Name of one of my Chinese friends

趙書聞 Zhao (surname) Shu Wen (first name)
reading: top right then down and top left.

seal script


clerical script


semi-cursive mixed with cursive


cursive script

風林火山　fast as wind, calm as forest, daring as fire, immovable as mountain.

鮮　fresh

It's the feather brush used here also? Seems like the strokes are similar to the one posted a few days back.

No, this work was written with 羊毛筆 i.e. wool brush (goat hair). it's a very soft brush and it also produces streaks of white (kasure) though the line is more consistent than the one done by a feathyer brush.

does anyone else cannot see pictures linked from the image shack or is it me? It seems that all links went down (I am running latest v. of Firefox on win7).

鳴　　cry (of an animal)

Forgot to answer yesterday, the links where in working order. Maybe there was some downtime of your country's link to USA (where Imageshack servers are located, if I remember well).

Yeah, I have checked with my friends in Japan and we all had the same issue. Seems to be fine now. Thanks Protheus.

気楽 at ease, comfortable

I feel a bit on the downside, I'm trying to guess the script used in the last one, I tend towards bone script, but I still feel like I'm wrong about it. It's something like, I can see it, but I can't really pin it.

this is seal script. in fact its aiming at small seal script, which was a creation of Qin dynasty when in 221BC Priminister Li Si unified great seal script. In fact, oracle bone script is considered a part of seal script family in a broad sense, as kanji　篆 in the word seal script (篆書) means to engrave. Since oracle bone script was incised (though not in all periods), and exsisted parallelly with kinbun (金文, lit text on metal / i.e. bronze ware) one could say that both of these go under the great seal script family.

small seal script was more unified, characters were still oblong, but the lines more refined and of regular thickness. Intervals between the lines were more or less even. Small seal script has round endings of lines and is written with a "hiding of the brush tip" technique, whcih entraps the energy flow within the lines. This is where it gets its dignified looks from.

To ahcieve the above, the brush must be hold at 90 degrees to the paper at all times, to make sure that that brush tip runs in the center of the line. Doing so, it does not matter which direction the brush turns, the tip is always concealed. It is also to be written very slowly. Seal scrip is very difficult and requires deep knowledge of character etymology. So before I write anything I do a research, dig dictionaries for calligraphy scripts etc.

Here is a fragment of the tablet written by Li Si



Oracle bone script was carved on hard surfaces of bones and plastrons. You will notice that all ends of the lines are sharp, just like splinters, and curves are sometimes made of multiple short straight cuts. In small seal the curves are smooth, lines relaxed and flowing, yet upright and proud.

Another difference is that oracle bone is much more pictographic, while small seal is more abstract. To be honest, I prefer the great seal script as it gives more freedom for improvisation and artistic madness, but again, the knowledge required to freely apply this in writing is immense.

鵞　goose

Goose was a favourite pet of calligraphy sage Wang Xizhi (王羲之) from Jin dynasy (4th century CE). It is said that he kept them on his yard and built a pond for that purpose. Also, it is from geese that he learned how to twist his wrist while writing, through observing how they move their necks. Xizhi was also famous for the one stroke 鵞 (goose) character. Here is my try at one stroke goose.

走　run

大悟 great knowledge

功　success

This long stroke reminds me about the "fluid" shape of the Turkish sword, kilij ( Kilij - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ).

Extended sweeps like this are characteristic for early stage reisho (clerical script), especially when written on long bamboo slips (木簡). Sweep stroke is actually called "goose tail" as it resembles a wild goose tail, while the start of the stroke (round part) is known as "silk worm head".

鳳龍　phoenix and dragon

The combination of phoenix and dragon is similar to that of a yin and yang, symbolizing the union of opposites.

柔 soft

狼 wolf

触　touch

(calligraphy of the traditional form of the character, which is 觸)


seal script



semi-cursive script

愛華 Aika, name of a newly born daughter of my friends from Tokyo.

I thought you may find this interesting. Here is my teacher signing a box for storing a hanging scrolls (掛け軸). He is writing with a hanging arm technique, using the very tip of large brush to put down small characters. Also, if you look at the last picture, you will realise how perfectly he has fitted the whole text. It was done without planing, with my brush and ink that I have prepered. Japanese Buddhist monk Kuukai (空海) from 8/9th century C.E. said that a skilled calligrapher does not choose his brush (i.e. can write with anything). Here you have pictures that prove this.

Impresive! could you make my name into caligraphy? i was told that it is posible to take an american name and re define it with caligraphy.

My name is James Nguyen

Appreciate it. It is possible, but much easier done in Chinese, Especially with "Ng" consonant cluster in your name. Japanese pronunciation is rather limited. Putting down a foreign name in random kanji is not a problem, but making it meaningful requires a bit of thought. Feel free to end me a PM if you have any questions about it.

These three works were written by me the day before the earthquake that hit Japan. Since then, I could not find inner peace to write. Finally I am ready to go back to my every day calligraphy studies. I am therefore posting my latest works.

Great Buddhist monk Kuukai (空海) who lived in 9th century C.E. once said that calligrapher should be able to write with any brush. Following his philosophy I have tried to write with papaer tissues. I suffer from severe hayfever thus i price tissues higher than water, especially in March and April when the cedar trees try to kill me. When I was studying calligraphy last time, I had to put my brush aside and grab a tissue every minute, so I got tired with it and switched to writing with tissues. I think the final effect is quite interesting.


水 water



道 path



雲 cloud

It would appear that one of my works has won a silver prize on the 62-nd nationwide contest (全国書初大会), organised by the All Japan Calligraphy Art and Literature Association (全日本書芸文化院). I must say that it was a pleasant surprise. :).

certificate


work that I have submitted

congratulations piotr. you must feel chuffed.

Thanks, Dogsbody. More surprised than chuffed, haha.

飛龍 flying dragon

awesome thread, quick question: what do your hanko(s) say? (i'm horrible at reading that style) :confused: just curious :D

Cheers Kenmei, glad you like it.

Yeah, I have a very long way ahead of me to be able to read seal scrip fluently, too. Basically the study of it is endless.

The 引首印 (top right) says 無心

The 姓名印 (first on the left in intaglio) says　品天 (think Buddhism here) and it's a phonetic transcription of the first part of my surname - "Ponte".

The 雅号印 (the bottom one on the left in relief) says 龍涙, as in 精神(龍)の墨(涙).

Here is a better picture of them

風雲　wind and clouds, elements (of nature)

鳳, Feng - male Chinese firebird

i am not any specialist or something, but it is really beautiful:)

nice thread dude. you must be doing something right if you are winning awards :)

i have some kanji i was thinking of having tatooed but i need advice of what font to use. I really like the neat and formal looking characters used in the award sheet you posted. Could you help me out?