New Ink and Brush Styling Language, Urban Ink Painting and Other Contemporary Ink Painting Techniques

5.1.2.2.1 New Ink and Brush Styling Language

The new ink and brush styling language is based on tradition and incorporates special techniques such as splashing and printing, resulting in diverse forms of styling. It draws inspiration from Western painting styling, allowing for realistic, deformed, and abstract styling, emphasizing form and expressivity, and enabling greater artistic freedom. The language also blends ancient and modern elements, utilizing deconstruction and reconstruction techniques to enrich ink and brush styling, and expand the contemporary expression space of ink painting. The new ink and brush styling language is the best interpretation of 'the ink and brush should follow the times,' playing a decisive role in the transformation of contemporary ink painting and making significant contributions to its development.

Representative artists of the new ink and brush styling language include Zhou Jingxin, Li Shinan, and Jiang Yong'an. They creatively innovate ink and brush forms on the basis of traditional techniques, pioneering new ink and brush techniques. Some artists also break down ink and brush into basic elements such as dots, lines, and planes to express the image, while others use 'virtualization' to blur the contours of objects, weaken the contrast between them, or obscure brushstrokes.

5.1.2.2.2 Urban Ink Painting and Hard-Edge Language

Urban ink painting focuses on the impact of the urban landscape and urban life on modern people's thoughts and spirits. Artists attempt to interpret their understanding of urban culture and life in ink painting, reflecting the reality and the spirit of the times. The language of urban ink painting differs from traditional painting in that it incorporates more straight lines and hard edges, reflecting the industrial traces of urban life. The new subject matter brings new techniques, and the painting language of urban ink painting combines light and shadow, space, and color, as well as the comprehensive use of focal and scattered perspectives, while not excluding the influence of Western fragmented composition. Urban ink painting combines urban ink language with traditional ink expression aesthetics, integrating into the contemporary industrial aesthetic. The hard-edge painting language of urban ink painting, with its multicultural perspective and inclusive attitude, enriches the form of traditional painting language and expands a new aesthetic connotation in expression, creating a new aesthetic field for contemporary ink painting and forging the spiritual world of urban people. Representative artists of urban ink painting include Li Xiaoxuan, Liu Qinghe, Fang Xiang, Shao Ge, Huang Yihan, etc., all of whom demonstrate their talent and ability to express urban themes.

5.1.2.2.3 Two-Dimensional and Three-Dimensional, Light and Shadow Language

In traditional ink painting, the focus is on the flat representation, and there is little depiction of light and shadow. Traditional ink painting emphasizes the appearance of objects and does not depict the changes of light and shadow, instead focusing on the contrast between light and dark. However, contemporary ink painting breaks this tradition by incorporating light and shadow in two-dimensional or three-dimensional ways, enriching the visual effects and enhancing expressivity.

The depiction of two-dimensional and three-dimensional, light and shadow not only enriches the representation of objects but also serves as the main factor suggesting spatial relationships in the picture, adding new charm to the picture. First, the depiction of two-dimensional and three-dimensional, light and shadow is different from tradition, providing a kind of visual surprise, indicating a vividness inside and outside the picture. Second, the manifestation of light and shadow in the picture also suggests a certain degree of uncertainty or contingency, giving the picture a sense of rhythm and freedom. In the creation process, combining light and shadow with ink and brush styling, the overall abstract charm of the picture, and other factors make the overall picture conform to its atmosphere, which is an integration ability of ink and brush language and a conscious creation in terms of life significance. Representative artists include Tian Liming, Liu Qinghe, and Feng Bin, etc.

5.1.2.2.4 New Color Language

Traditional ink painting emphasizes ink as the main medium, and color as a secondary element. The picture is often given a light color or no color at all. The colors used are generally plant colors that are easy to blend with ink, emphasizing the lightness and transparency of colors, with less direct use of mineral colors on a large scale.

Contemporary ink painting features unprecedented richness in color, with many new styles combining ink and color. From a modern painting perspective, the experiment of combining ink and color can stimulate new images of color and ink integration. Overall, the exploration of color in contemporary ink painting can be divided into the following categories: ink as the main color, color as the main medium, the fusion of ink and color, splashing, collision, and dyeing, and the high-purity contrast of colors.

5.1.2.2.5 Composition and Fragmentation Language

Fragmentation and composition are important methods of modern art styling, mainly focused on the expression of abstract art. Ink and brush composition emphasizes the organic integration of styling units to form a whole, with a guided concept of overall composition, orderly arrangement and combination of composition language, making the picture structure geometrically abstract, and seeking a sense of abstract form beauty.

The study of composition and fragmentation styling language in ink and brush mainly includes two aspects: basic ink and brush styling language and spatial styling language. The basic ink and brush styling language is to combine different elements such as dots, lines, planes, volumes, and colors with materials according to the composition rules to form a complete artistic image. In the process of fragmentation and composition of the image, the complex natural forms are abstracted, geometricized, or symbolized, and the image is reconstructed and combined through changes in ink and color. Spatial composition styling refers to the translation and transformation of basic forms in space. It is not only a flat shaping in the length and width dimensions of the image but also a recreation in depth and space, requiring the author to have a strong ability of image abstraction organization and spatial imagination.

The composition of ink painting is to rationally analyze the styling rules of flat composition to form a picture that conforms to aesthetic structure. The content of composition includes contrast, approximation, gradient, repetition, texture, density, light and dark, transparency, and opacity, etc. By applying the rules of flat composition, the intuitive styling method of ink painting is transformed into a more rational analysis of the styling factors of the picture. The ink and brush composition language pursues a kind of order, rhythm, and melody that conforms to visual aesthetics, presenting a combination of abstract symbols and geometric shapes. Representative artists include Zhong Ruqian, Wang Yanping, etc.