My sculpture began 20 years ago. I carved a dragon on the rubber with a pencil sharpener, and I also carved dragons and phoenixes on the pen with patent leather. The real carving is to buy the cheapest carving knife and a piece of Qingtian stone from 2 yuan in 2000. I didn't learn from anyone, nor did I read any materials. I think I just carved it myself and began to teach myself two years later. Buy basic seal cutting books, seal cutting dictionaries, storytelling and word interpretation, Wu Changshuo carving knives, rice paper, a large number of papyrus, white steel knives of various specifications, download videos, blank prints, Baibalin stone, fossil, Shoushan stone, Helan stone, black jade and Liaoning stone. Saw blades, dozens of sandpapers (800 mesh, 1500 mesh, 2000 mesh, 360 mesh, 120 mesh) ... but I found that what I like best is the "blind engraving" of seals before I officially studied seal cutting, which is fresh, natural, arbitrary and very creative (.
I later learned that seal cutting pays attention to seal cutting, composition and knife cutting, that is, how to write words, how to arrange words on the printing surface and how to carve knives. I am left-handed. I write with my right hand and carve with my left.
As can be seen from the above, any calligraphy can be eclectic, and it is not necessary to have a small seal or a Miao seal. A person's signature can also be engraved on his face.
If the composition is pure words, you should pay attention to it, generally from right to left and from top to bottom (if you have to leave patterns, it's not bad, the ancient seals in the pre-Qin period are all kinds of styles). Just engrave the words down, which is called negative engraving or white writing (the words printed on paper are white). Carve the blank space and leave the words out as Yang engraving or Zhu writing. Learn sculpture from the beginning, and don't pay attention to Deng Sanmu and Zhu Wen.
Knife, pay attention to punching knife and cutting knife, that is, holding a knife is always called punching knife, and bit by bit "pecking" is called cutting knife, which is often a combination of the two. The average person holds a stone in his left hand and a meat cleaver in his right, just like holding a brush. Sometimes, when using a large carving knife to carve rough characters on a large printing surface, they can also hold the knife completely to keep it stable.
According to the smoothness of the printed surface, it can be divided into two categories: smooth and damaged (erosion) (this is what I said, I don't remember the original words). Fluency is often the practice of beginners or people who pursue fluency all the way, such as Huang Mufu and Wang Guan. They think that Qin Xi's Chinese seal is mottled and damaged now, but its original appearance is smooth, so modern people don't need to imitate it; However, most people carve metal surfaces by imitating the damaged and incomplete effects after being buried for thousands of years. They think it was created by nature at any time inadvertently, but it shows rare richness and ancient meaning. Many famous artists, such as Wu Changshuo and Wen Peng, carved it on purpose, and even struck it with various things, resulting in injuries.
Carving your own seal is mostly for entertainment, so don't care too much. Just carve the words neatly, or write, draw and carve something personalized. Now design them on paper, and then write them on the printed surface with a pencil (you can also write them with a brush after you are skilled).
To prepare things, I suggest pencils, erasers, white paper, rice paper, waste newspapers (for wiping the printed surface), carving knives, inkpad (cinnabar, for painting and calligraphy), sandpaper with a mesh of more than 800 mesh (not available in shops on the street), and seal materials (ordinary Qingtian stone can be bought without cracks and sand, or it can be bought in boxes, and higher-grade ones can be bought when the grade is improved). I remember it after playing for a few weeks, but now I forget most of it. The focus is on learning traditional regular script. This is easy to learn. Traditional Chinese characters differ from simplified Chinese characters only by 1/3. Remembering rules and reading more books are much easier to remember than English.
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Read more popular books or surf the Internet, play more, don't mess with the basic rules, and you can play the rest casually, OK! ?