? Modern and contemporary calligraphers’ copybooks can be roughly divided into three categories: 1) Detailed explanations of stroke structure; 2) Collection of calligraphy; 3) Quotations and articles. Beginners can buy one copybook of each of the three types, those with a certain foundation can buy one copybook of the latter two types, and those with a solid foundation can buy the last type of copybook. My running script finalization test was launched on June 10, 2019, and was initially finalized on October 24, 2019. The copybooks used are Jing Xiaopeng's "Practical Running Script Copybook" (Picture 1) and "Lin Huiyin's Quotations in Running Script" (Picture 2). "Practical Xingkai Copybook" belongs to the collection type, and "Lin Huiyin's Quotations in Xingkai" belongs to the quotation article category.

There are a large number of excellent calligraphy scripts in contemporary writing, such as those by Wu Yusheng, Tian Yingzhang, Qian Peiyun and others. Wu Yusheng's regular script calligraphy: "How to write fast and standard Chinese characters well", "5500 Chinese characters for civil servants", "Guanwen Guanzhi", "Hard-pen calligraphy poems of Dream of Red Mansions", etc.; Tian Yingzhang's regular script calligraphy: "Practical Techniques of Fountain Pen Calligraphy" Copybook", "Quick Writing Skills of Beautiful Calligraphy (Ring Script)", "3500 Commonly Used Characters in Modern Chinese (Ring Script)", etc.; Qian Peiyun's running (regular script) copybooks: "Qian Peiyun's Hard Pen Calligraphy Techniques", "Qian Peiyun Teach you how to write cursive script" and so on. The choice of copybooks needs to be based on your own preferences, but you must also avoid lightning. When choosing copybooks, there are three options: do not choose folded and grooved copybooks; do not choose handwriting type copybooks; do not choose large-scale red drawing type copybooks.

? There are many types of practice papers, the common ones include return grid, rice grid, field grid, blank grid, horizontal line grid, vertical line grid, etc. The choice of exercise paper also needs to be based on your own preferences. Basics: Beginners should try to choose return grids, square meters, etc. with many auxiliary lines. As the stages change, the practice sheets should also be changed to reduce assistance and achieve the purpose of scientific practice.

In chronological order, this calligraphy practice test used rice-shaped grid paper, field-shaped grid paper, blank grid paper, horizontal line paper, vertical line paper, and white paper. One important point is: from leaving the rice-shaped grid to white paper, the entire process of practicing calligraphy goes through the consolidation practice of the field-shaped grid paper, and it is not a complete conversion state. In addition, there are several points that you can pay attention to: 1) When problems such as ink bleeding and high resistance occur when writing on paper without problems, it is recommended to change the paper. 2) Do not use paper with lines that are too small. Choose paper that feels natural and comfortable to write on. 3) Don’t deliberately pursue “good” paper. The practice of hard-pen and regular script has lower requirements on paper.

(1) Fountain pen

? The status of the pen is unshakable in hard-pen calligraphy practice, and its strong expressive power can reflect the effect of the brush. Regarding the choice of practice pens, we can follow the following principles: 1) Do not use art pens. The buff bonus of the art pen may blind your eyes and is not conducive to stable practice; 2) Do not use a pen that is uncomfortable for writing. For example, problems such as pen blockage, ink bleeding, excessive friction, etc. may occur; 3) Do not use expensive pens. The process of practicing calligraphy at a low cost is relatively pen-consuming, so try to control costs. Expensive pens will not be of much help to the calligraphy practice itself. (Except for local tycoons)

(2) Gel pen

? Gel pen has the advantages of stability, strong expressiveness, cheapness, convenience, and comfortable writing. It is a relatively perfect pen. Pen. In this regular script practice test, nearly 30 kinds of domestic 0.5 bullet gel pens were selected, and finally I chose True Color 550A, Baoke PC1828, Deli S01, Deli S30, Baoke 880D, Morning Light Q7, Baoke W5 (such as Figure 3) The whole process of regular script practice, among which Zhencai 550A and Baoke PC1828 are used the most. Since the base number of pens is not large, they are only used as a reference. The gel pens used in this calligraphy practice are limited to domestic 0.5 bullets for the following reasons: 1) To rectify the name of domestic pens, which are really cheap and easy to use; 2) In daily life, most people still use 0.5 gel pens. Prepare tools in advance for daily writing.

The selection of gel pens can follow the following principles: 1) Writing fluency. The brush strokes are smooth, the strokes are full, and the ink color is even; 2) The comfort of holding the pen. Writing for a long time will not cause obvious tiredness or pressure on the hands; 3) Ink drying speed. Just make sure it doesn't get blackened when writing; 4) The degree of ink accumulation and leakage. A trace amount is acceptable, just pay attention when folding the pen; in fact, there are a large number of domestically produced gel pen refills that are very good, so I would like to share them again.

(3) Other pens

? In addition to fountain pens and gel pens, other pens can be used for calligraphy practice. There are many types, the most common ones are pencils, ballpoint pens, etc. It’s not necessarily limited to a certain kind of pen. If you really have difficulty choosing, you can go into a stationery store or tb and buy the recommended gel pen directly.

The two postures are the sitting posture and the holding posture.

The recommended sitting posture is: head upright, shoulders flat, arms open, feet secure; eyes one foot high from the paper, hands one inch long from the pen tip, chest one fist away from the table. The recommended sitting posture is as shown in Figure 4; the recommended holding posture is: thumb, Hold the pen with your index finger, and hold the bottom of the pen with your middle finger; the remaining two fingers are tightly attached to each other, and the fingers are more than an inch away from the tip of the pen; the five fingers should work together, neither loose nor tight. The recommended holding position is shown in Figure 5. (Pictures 4 and 5 are from Wu Yusheng's "How to Write Quick and Standard Chinese Characters Well")

? Irregular sitting posture seems to be off the paper. Too close, tilted body, tilted head, crooked paper, etc. will have a large or small impact on the writing experience, writing sight, and the development of one's own bones. If the sitting posture is incorrect, it must be corrected in time. Regarding the holding position, most people have been accustomed to a certain holding position for many years. This is also the most comfortable state for holding the pen. If your grip allows you to write strokes easily, flexibly and stably without affecting your vision, your grip is feasible. However, if your grip causes problems such as unsmooth strokes and obstructed vision, then your grip needs to be corrected. Please refer to Figure 5 for the specific holding position.

From the perspective of appreciating a calligraphy work, you will at least interpret it from three aspects: composition, structure, and strokes (strokes). These three aspects are the content of calligraphy practice.

(1) Composition

? Composition is a method of arranging and arranging the correspondence and care between words and words and lines in the entire work. It focuses on the relationship between words and Coordination between words and between lines. The composition includes the size of the fonts, the distance between the characters, the correctness of the fonts, the black and white distribution, the signature seal, etc. These means can be used to make many single characters in a specific style to form a harmonious, stable, beautiful and interesting work.

(2) Structure

? Structure is the length, thickness, density, layout, etc. of each stroke in the word. Chinese characters are divided into two categories: single characters and combined characters. From the perspective of structural form, combined characters are divided into seven types, namely upper and lower structure, upper middle and lower structure, left and right structure, left middle and right structure, semi-enclosed structure, fully enclosed structure and pin-shaped structure. Cleverly organize the strokes to make the layout of the strokes reasonable, and the better the visual effect conveyed.

(3) Strokes (strokes)

? The word Yong reflects the eight basic strokes of "point, horizontal, vertical, left, back, lift, fold and hook". The traces of contact between the pen tip and the paper reflect the strength, angle, thickness, curvature, etc. of the strokes. Strokes, as the starting point for calligraphy practice, are the most basic and core, and must be paid more attention to.

? Copying from copybooks is the most effective way to practice calligraphy nowadays, but some people often ignore a prerequisite before copying: reading the copybooks. Break down the calligraphy practice method into three parts: reading, copying, and copying.

(1) Reading calligraphy

? Reading calligraphy requires analyzing the strokes, structure, and composition of the calligraphy model characters. Reading posts is a process of exerting subjective initiative. During the initial practice, you should pay more attention to the length, thickness, speed, and weight of the strokes, the pitch, back, clutch, and echo between the strokes, and the size, square, circle, height, width, and width of the characters. etc. Only by carefully understanding the stipple shape, frame structure, and charm of the copybook can you write accurately. For the same copybook, one should start with the stipples, observe how the strokes are started, drawn, and finished, as well as the small differences between strokes of the same type, etc., and then observe the frame structure, position layout and composition of each character, and finally It is to appreciate the charm, style and characteristics of the copybook, and to prepare for accurate writing. Different copybooks, such as more than two copybooks, often play a complementary role and make full preparations for understanding a font. After observation, I found that the Xingkai calligraphy used by more than 100 people is not as varied as the ancient calligraphy. It is easy to learn and master.

(2) Copying

? Most of the copybooks circulating in the market use sulfuric acid paper with high transparency to cover the copybook, and follow the shadow description (or red tracing). When you start using copying, you should also read the posts in detail to make sure you know what you are doing. During the copying process, try to be consistent with the pen used in the original post. Each word should be written in one go, and there should be no problems such as adding additional pens or filling in pens. Copying has advantages and disadvantages. Copying is suspected of reducing subjective initiative, so copying was not used in the entire calligraphy test process.

(3) Proposal

Proposal can be divided into facing, back and meaning based on different requirements.

1) Opposite. The copybook can be placed on the left or front side of the viewing angle for accurate observation. With the diversification of calligraphy practice forms, the temporary placement of copybooks can only be suitable for you. You can enlarge the scope of observation by cutting the copybooks without being rigidly formal. Based on the reading of the copybook, after writing, carefully compare and analyze what you wrote with the copybook, mark the deficiencies found, write again, and practice in cycles until the words are highly similar to the copybook. When writing, do not look at each stroke and write one by one.

2) Keep your back.

In the process of reading, copying, and copying, you should think, compare, and memorize the copybooks, memorize the copybooks, and copy them together, and test your proficiency by memorizing them. The method is like memorizing Chinese texts. As a means of checking, it also consolidates the practice of handwriting to form a memory model and achieve a state of immediacy of writing. Some practitioners can write very well according to the copybook, but once they leave the copybook, both the font shape and the structure will be degraded. This is because they have not used the back-facing technique well. The final goal of learning a font is to turn the font into a usable form. To achieve this goal, memorization is a necessary process. There are also two forms of back-facing: empty back-facing and heart-backing. Since these two methods do not require the use of tools, time, environment, etc., you can completely use fragmented time to practice and consolidate. You can use your fingers, wooden sticks and other tools to write in the air, on the ground or on your body, and compare it with the copybook from memory. On the back of your mind, you can trace the copybook in your mind and reproduce every stroke and every painting in your mind. This method is suitable for use before going to bed.

3) Impression. Injecting one's own subjective consciousness when copying is the only way to transition from copying to creation. Many beginners have a problem: they like to mix their own consciousness when practicing calligraphy. This is a normal phenomenon, but it is also necessary to face up to the problem as early as possible and only start to incorporate subjective thinking when they reach the stage of inspiration. Do not mix it too early. enter. The meaning can be divided into two types. The first one is based on the font style of the original post, using one's own brushwork or structural features to express it; the second one is based on one's own font style, using the original post's brushwork and structure features. Physical characteristics to adapt to one's own "meaning".

(4) Precautions

? Only by rational use of calligraphy practice methods can we achieve good efficiency in the process of calligraphy practice. We need to pay attention to the following points:

1) Copy more and copy less. Not only did not use copying during the more than four months of practice because it reduced subjective initiative. It is not necessarily a good method to organically combine copying and copying, and use copying as the main method and copying as a supplement to learn from each other's strengths.

2) Asymptotically. Generally speaking, from copying to copying, various practice methods should be effectively interspersed and serve as a supporting relationship to each other.

3) First major and then Ph.D. For example, there are more than two copybooks selected, first "Practical Xingkai Copybook" and then "Lin Huiyin Quotations Xingkai". Although the two copybooks are both written by Jing Xiaopeng, there are differences. First lay a good foundation and solve the stroke structure before entering into long exercises. At the same time, you can also find other copybooks from calligraphers for extensive absorption.

4) Point-to-surface combination. In the early stage of practice, the practice of strokes and structure is often combined. Since many modern copybook productions are generated by font libraries, the same characters do not change, which is very conducive to practice (it also has the disadvantage of not being flexible enough). In the middle and later stages of practice, strokes, structures, and compositions are interspersed with each other to practice, which can lead to a virtuous cycle of face to point and point to face.

5) Pay attention to practical results. Practicing calligraphy is not about copying calligraphy. You have to work hard to do something useful. Every stroke and every word needs to be refined, not quantity but quality. The pace of life today is too fast, and some people always want to rush for success when practicing. Practicing calligraphy is not something that happens overnight. While focusing on efficiency, you must also pay attention to persistence.

Comparison before and after Xingkai practice:

Other attempts: