Friday, December 31, 2021

Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy (69) 2020 - Clouds and mists will finally dissipate

 


The characters in the artwork above

1, 二: Two or 2. It is clerical script alike.

2, 〇:Zero, or 0

3, Cloud (big seal script)

4, Open (big seal script)
5, Mists (big seal script)
6, Dissipate (big seal script)
7, Finally (small seal script)
I modified this one to big seal script alike because big seal script has not been found.

8, Have (big seal script)
9, Time (big seal script)
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There are too many characters involved in the artwork, however, only the top line is important, which has only two characters: Two, and Zero. So if you understand the first line, it is enough. Don't worry the second and third lines right now. The title explains the meaning: Clouds and mists will finally dissipate. 



Tuesday, November 30, 2021

Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy (68) The water that bears the boat is the same that swallows it up - 水能载舟,亦能覆舟





"The water that bears the boat is the same that swallows it up - 水能载舟,亦能覆舟" is famous Chinese proverb. It means that something or someone may help you to success, but they may destroy you if the condition changes.

The characters in the artwork:

1, Boat - Shell bone script
2, Water - Small seal script





 

Monday, October 11, 2021

Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy (67) Flying Waterfall, or Silver River? - 读李白《望庐山瀑布》有感

The post has been collected in the book "Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy" published on Amazon as Paper book (Hardcover, and Paperback), and eBook. You could click the following link to get the information on Amazon,


Or you could search "Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy" on Amazon to find the book.

Thursday, September 30, 2021

Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy (66) Golden Autumn - 金秋

 


Characters in the artwork

1, Golden or Gold


which is small seal script of the character.

The top a cover and a short - means "contain", the bottom two vertical short line are actually two dots in any other scripts. Because small seal script has no dot, all dots are replaced by short lines. the rest part means Soil. The character means that the soil contains or has gold (the two dots are gold particles found in soil).

2, Autumn


The left is character Rice Crop, the top is ear of the rice in autumn. The right it character Fire, two dots are  flame, and the center is firewood.

Chinese believe that autumn is golden because the ripe grains are yellow, the clouds are red just like fire. So Chinese call autumn as golden autumn. 

I repeated the character Rich Crop, and Fire to form a three dimentional wild field, let audience feel the visual impact of Golden Autumn.

Friday, September 3, 2021

Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy (65) Mountain Trip - 山行

The post has been collected in the book "Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy" published on Amazon as Paper book (Hardcover, and Paperback), and eBook. You could click the following link to get the information on Amazon,


Or you could search "Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy" on Amazon to find the book.

Friday, August 6, 2021

Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy (64) Rain Drops to the Banana Leaf - 雨打芭蕉

 


The characters in the artwork

1, 

Rain - Big seal script 

2, 

A fragrant plant

3, 

Any of several broadleaf plants

芭蕉 normally means Banana.

Rain drops to the banana leaf is famous Chinese traditional music, you can listen the music by clicking the  link below.



Thursday, July 29, 2021

Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy (62) Ten thousand horses galloping ahead - 万马奔腾 (萬馬奔騰)




 万马奔腾 (萬馬奔騰)is a famous Chinese proverb, means "Ten Thousand horses gallop forward".

Explanation for the characters in the artwork from top to bottom.

1,  

 Small seal script of character Ten Thousand, which is a scorpion with many feet. Experts believe that there were too many scorpions in the ancient time, so use it to be a big number. 

2,

 
Small seal script of character Horse

3, 



Big seal script of character Rush or Running. 

The top is a person who is running, the bottom are three feet. Why three not two? Because when something is moving very fast, you could not see it clearly, such as the steel bars on bicycle wheels, you only see the blur of them. Ancient Chinese use three feet to represent the person is running too fast to see his feet clearly.

4, 


Big seal script of character Soar. 

The left is a boat, the right top is fire (torch), the middle are two hands holding the torch, the bottom is a horse. Actually, the boat + torch + hands form a character of King, who is riding a horse gallops ahead, leading a big army forward.



Tuesday, June 29, 2021

Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy (61) Walk Horse and Watch Flowers - 走马观花

The post has been collected in the book "Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy" published on Amazon as Paper book (Hardcover, and Paperback), and eBook. You could click the following link to get the information on Amazon,


Or you could search "Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy" on Amazon to find the book.

Monday, June 21, 2021

Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy (60) Flying Sand and Walking Stones - 飞沙走石

 


"Flying sand and walking stone" is a famous Chinese proverb, which describes how a powerful storm could be like.

Characters are in the artwork.

1, Fly or Flying, big seal script

which is a flying bird.

2, Sand, big seal script

The left is character Water

the middle is river, the four dots are water drops. ancient Chinese got water from the river, so river + water drops = character water. 

other four dots are sand, which means that the sand is located near the river (on the beach). I added much more sand in the air.

3, Walk or Walking, bronze script

the top is a person who is walking, the bottom is a foot.

4, Stone, big seal script

 厂 means the cliff, the   口 is the stone, which is quarried from a cliff of mountain. I added many more rolling stones


Tuesday, June 1, 2021

Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy (60) Fantastic Dream - 梦幻

 


The characters in the artwork.

1, Fantastic or Fantasy (Bronze script)


A spider web or part of spider web hangs on a branch. After raining, the spider web got wet, which could be a riot of color under sunshine, a dreamlike world

2, Dream (Shell bone script)

The left is a person, the right one is a bed. A person is sleeping and dreaming on a bed.
The character is vertical because, in shell bone time (3000+ years ago), people didn't have paper, they wrote or drew the characters on bamboo slips, which are very narrow, difficult to write horizontally. People had to write or draw many characters vertically, the character Dream is one of them.



Saturday, May 8, 2021

Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy (59) Forward, Match! - 齐步走!

The post has been collected in the book "Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy" published on Amazon as Paper book (Hardcover, and Paperback), and eBook. You could click the following link to get the information on Amazon,


Or you could search "Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy" on Amazon to find the book.

Thursday, February 18, 2021

Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy (58) The Rains - 雨水

About 2200 years ago in Han Dynast, Chinese created "The 24 solar terms" to divide the year to 24 periods according to the earth revolving around the sun, each term is about 15 days. About the same time, Han Dynast, Chinese create Lunar Year which follows the moon revolving around the earth. Most people knew or heard Lunar Year, but few knew The 24 Solar Terms, but Chinese has engaged in agricultural production according to 24 solar terms for more than 2200 years. 

The first term is Spring beginning around February 6,  the second term is The Rains around February 21 , ....... The Rains of 2021 is February 18 - people expect spring rains getting more. It is the weather in ancient time, not the same as nowadays. So we may not see spring rains during and after The Rains term.

Today is The day of The Rain, I created a new calligraphy artwork:"The Rains":


There are two characters in the artwork.

1, Rain - 雨, big seal script.


2, Water - 水,shell bone script



Saturday, February 13, 2021

Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy (57) Lower Mountain could be more famous if there is immortal - 山不在高,有仙则名

 


A famous Chinese poet says "山不在高,有仙则名“,meaning "Lower Mountain could be more famous if there is immortal".

The Chinese characters in the above artwork:

1, Mountain - shell bone script

2, Cloud - shell bone script 


3, Immortal - small seal script.
    
    Immortal in song typeface: 仙. 
    The left is Person radical, the right is Mountain, meaning that the immortal is the person who lives in the mountain.
    The original small seal script is very complicated. Based on the song typeface and the typical small seal script strokes, I created the new small seal script as the one in the top right in the artwork. The left is the person who is facing left, and the right is the mountain.



Sunday, January 31, 2021

Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy (56) Water Cube - 水立方


The character (s) in this artwork is 水 - water (small seal script).

Water Cube is the facility constructed to host the aquatics competitions at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. 

Another famous facility for 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics is Nest-type Beijing Olympic Stadium. I created "Bird's Nest - 鸟巢” work in the previous post, which is the Chinese name of Nest-type Beijing Olympic Stadium. 

Water Cuber in Chinese is 水立方:水 - water,立方 - cube。

I use only one character Water (small seal script)


to form the artwork.

The big Water - 水 on the top, and many small Water characters form the edges of the cube: Water Cube.

The small seal script of water is like a swimmer who is swimming, especially when it is in horizontal position, which is exactly the facility used for. 

 


Sunday, January 24, 2021

Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy (55) Bird's Nest - 鸟巢

 The big seal script of character Bird is


The big seal script of character Nest is

The facility for 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics is called Nest-type Beijing Olympic Stadium. "Bird's Nest - 鸟巢” is the Chinese name of Nest-type Beijing Olympic Stadium, which is one of the two major facilities for 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. The another one is called Water Cube (水立方), I ceated an artwork "Water Cube", you can see it in the next post.



Monday, January 11, 2021

Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy (54) We are easy to see each other but difficult to talk - 咱们见过面吗容易,拉话话难

 


There are 2 characters in the artwork:

1, the shell bone script of character Mountain


 2, the big seal script of character Meet

There is famous Chinese folk love song, singing a couple of loving young boy and girl in a mountain area, one song lyric sings: " is "We are easy to see each other, but difficult to talk" because they are separated by  the mountain.

Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy (80) Thinking Elephant - 想象

There were elephants living in Yellow River region about millions years ago. The weather changed, the forest disappeared, and elephants vani...