OAS Newsletter Spring 2020

Spring 2020 April-June

In this Issue:

Chinese Painting Mastery Step 2: Master the Moisture
Moisture Control Bootcamp Papers
Spring and Summer are Seasons for Orchid and Bamboo
Orchid and Bamboo Painting Instruction
New Medium Deer Wolf Brush
Vintage Single Shuen
Stay Connected via the OAS Email List
Building a Brush Collection Around a Solid Core - OAS Brush Sets
ABC of Chinese Painting by Ning Yeh
Lotus in Gong-bi Style Lesson
Colored Shuen Paper
Mood Seal: Commitment
Free Butterfly Lesson with Purchase

Chinese Brush Painting Mastery Steps

by Evan Yeh

We’ve put together these steps as a road map or pattern that anyone can follow to experience more enjoyment with Chinese Brush Painting. In the last newsletter we talked about Step 1: Confidence with the brush. We talked about how using tools like over-sized magic paper and the OAS Practice Roll, anyone could increase their feeling of confidence and freedom whenever they paint with their brush.

Step 2: Master the Moisture

As much as ink or color, as a Chinese Brush Painter you are painting with water. Water is the Yin to the Yang of the brush. Your brush confidently cuts a path through rice paper and the water on the brush fills and expands the stroke, expressing and finishing it sometimes in unexpected ways. One of the most surprising things that new painters encounter is the experience of how water reacts with rice paper. It is this reaction that makes Chinese Brush Painting remarkably appealing on one hand and on the other, at times, confoundingly frustrating. So how do we go about mastering the moisture? First, decide that the water or moisture on the brush is your friend. Tell yourself that water is your ultimate assistant. Understand that although it is powerful and expressive, it only finishes what you start with your brush. Learn to take credit for what happens with the moisture on rice paper because even if you were unaware of how water would finish your stroke, it only followed the command of your brush.

Different Moisture for Different Strokes

Realize that different strokes require different levels of moisture. For example, the stroke for a bamboo leaf should have almost a sopping wet brush. A stroke for the outline of a mountain should be much drier. A stroke for a leaf or a flower petal will be somewhere in between.

Don’t Forget to Reset the Brush

Some moisture mistakes come from not drying the brush after rinsing color or ink off. When you rinse the brush to change color, the brush will be sopping wet. It is important to dry the brush before loading a new color. Dry the brush by stroking it repeatedly on some folded paper towels. Then reload just water about 1/3 of the way up from the tip of your brush. From here you can load your other colors from lightest to dark.

A Great Exercise

Try this exercise for getting more comfortable with controlling the moisture in your brush. Choose a stroke that you will practice and make note of the preferred moisture level for that stroke. For example: bamboo leaf (very wet), z-shaped leaf stroke (medium moisture), bone stroke (low moisture). Then load your brush with just water to what you think is the appropriate amount. On a sheet of raw shuen paper (single shuen, practice shuen, moon palace or practice roll), paint the stroke. If the stroke is too dry, reload the brush and try again. If the stroke is too wet, continue painting the stroke without reloading the brush until you paint the stroke with the appropriate level of moisture. Focus on this level of moisture, reload the brush and try again.

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Moisture Control Bootcamp Papers

These three papers are great to use together for practicing moisture discipline and working up to final compositions. The Moon Palace Roll, Practice Shuen and the brand new Vintage Single Shuen all handle moisture similarly. Practice strokes on Moon Palace, practice compositions on Practice Shuen and paint masterpieces on the Vintage Single Shuen!

P03M: Moon Palace Roll $12.00
18” x 50’ continuous roll more info


P03B: Practice Shuen $9.50
48 Cut Sheets (9.25” x 14.25”)  more info


Vintage Single Shuen
Cut Sheets (9.25” x 14.25”) more info
P36B-10: 10 Cut Sheets $7.00
P36B-50: 50 Cut Sheets $28.00
P36B-100: 100 Cut Sheets $49.00

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Spring and Summer are Seasons for Orchid and Bamboo

The four basic subjects in Chinese Brush Painting are referred to as the Four Gentlemen. They are: Bamboo, Plum, Orchid and Mum. Each subject has been chosen to help you perfect essential Chinese Brush Painting strokes. Orchid is the symbol of spring. Bamboo ushers in the summer. The two also pair in spirits in a lovely Yin and Yang way. Orchid is the essence of delicate beauty and grace. Bamboo is the perfect gentleman, strong yet flexible.

Brush Up on Your Orchid and Bamboo Techniques with Lesson Booklets

Go Beyond the Basics with these Color Videos on DVD

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New Medium Deer Wolf Brush

We found a limited supply of these versatile brushes. Smaller than the Small Orchid Bamboo brush and bouncier than an Idea brush, this Medium Deer Wolf Brush is useful for the line strokes in subjects like grass orchid, bamboo, plum blossom, and chrysanthemum. more info

H4A: $16
tip dimensions: 1/4” x 1”

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Vintage Single Shuen

We have a batch of 25 year-old pre-cut Single Shuen Paper. Paper like this is now impossible to find as the raw materials are no longer available. This paper handles moisture more gracefully than modern single Shuen while showing and blending color flawlessly. The paper has an incredibly velvety smooth texture.

Pairs well with practice papers like the Moon Palace Roll and Practice Shuen. All of these papers handle moisture similarly so they work together well to encourage the type of moisture discipline required to work with single thickness raw Shuen paper. more info

Vintage Single Shuen

Cut Sheets (9 1/4” x 14 1/4”)
P36B-10: 10 Cut Sheets $7.00
P36B-50: 50 Cut Sheets $28.00
P36B-100: 100 Cut Sheets $49.00

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Stay Connected with OAS

We love producing this quarterly newsletter but we are renewing our commitment to keep in touch with you, our OAS extended family in multiple different ways.

One of the most important is our email list. We are sending out emails at least once a week with useful information, free videos, and product highlights.

Make sure we have your most up- to-date email address by signing up at the very bottom of any page on our website.

Also make sure to check your SPAM folder to see if your email provider is filtering our emails into that folder.

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Building Brush Collection Around a Solid Core

We have a wonderful collection of treasured brushes at OAS. For those of you who are new to Asian brush arts or new to OAS, we want to identify a core collection of brushes that everyone should have. Building a brush collection around a solid core of useful, quality brushes is a smart way to invest your money in tools for painting. Once you have this solid core, you can feel more free to add specialty brushes to enhance your collection.

Premium Artist Brush Set

PBSET01: $65 reg. $79

This set contains four of our most iconic artist-quality brushes: Happy Dot (H1C), Orchid Bamboo Medium (H2C), Flow (C2C), Large Flow (C2D). more info

Pre Series Brush Set

HCPRE: $35 reg. $44

This set contains four quality brushes that are priced accessibly for new artists: PRE Happy Dot (H1PR), PRE Orchid Bamboo (H2PRC), PRE Flow (C2PRC), PRE Large Flow (C2PRD). more info

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Colored Shuen for Spring

One major advantage of improving your skill with moisture control is that it opens up a whole new world of papers with which you can feel confident. We are featuring some wonderful colored shuen paper that by themselves give you a sense of the season and also give a fresh new look to spring and summer subjects.

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FREE Gift with $50+ purchase: The Butterfly Gift Lesson

One of our most popular gift lessons of all time. Two beautiful and accessible compositions in two styles. A perfect subject for this time between Spring and Summer. more info

GLS011: $6.95 or FREE with $50 or more purchase

To receive a free gift lesson place a qualifying order of $50 and request your free lesson while placing your phone order otherwise use discount code ‘glsfree’ when checking out online.

Make sure to add the gift lesson to your online shopping cart and upon entering the code, the cost of the lesson will be deducted from your order.

Already Have This or Want to Choose Another Lesson

We have more than 45 different lessons to choose from. With a qualifying purchase of 50+ or more you can choose any free lesson from our library of gift lessons.

DON'T FORGET TO CHECKOUT USING DISCOUNT CODE 'glsfree' AND THE COST OF YOUR CHOSEN LESSON WILL BE DEDUCTED FROM YOUR TOTAL

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