Capture the essence of animals like never before! Using Chinese and watercolor techniques and materials, you can create animals with elegance and grace. Let award-winning artist Lian Quan Zhan show you how with his clear and basic step-by-step instructions. Artists at all levels will benefit from Lian's deep understanding of both art forms. He guides you through the process by beginning with the basic properties of Chinese materials such as rice paper and ink, and leading to more advanced techniques such as loading a brush with multiple colors. He also teaches watercolor pouring techniques so you can create vibrant animals and beautiful backgrounds. So much of Chinese painting stems from observation and interpretation of nature. Apply these principles by painting cats, birds, tigers, and many other animals in seventeen step-by-step demonstrations. Find your inspiration within the animals of this book, and breathe the spirit of the East and West into your own art.

Capture the beauty and vitality of Chinese painting in your watercolors! Using a few brushes, some rice paper and a small number of inks and paints, you can explore new realms of artistic expression in your watercolors. Author and artist Lian Quan Zhen shows you how, providing you with the clear, practical instruction you need to master every element of this intriguing style - from holding a bamboo brush to applying Chinese composition techniques. Zhen makes learning easy with step-by-step instructions that enable you to apply brushstrokes with strength and confidence - a skill that will carry over into your everyday watercolor work. And you'll find inspiration in Zhen's own works of art - ranging from egrets in flight to gracefully swimming koi - as you discover the best techniques of the East and West. He'll show you that the beauty of fine art crosses every border and that your artistic journey has no limits.

"How-to" manual provides all levels of students with detailed methods for painting such simple subjects as bamboo and plum blossoms as well as more ambitious motifs. 150 illustrations, including 82 in full color.

"Chinese ink painting is one of the oldest continually practiced art forms in the world. It first appeared in China in the fifth century, and soon traveled to Korea and then to Japan. As old and deeply rooted in East Asian aesthetics and meditation as it is, ink painting is credited with influencing the development of Western modern art. Its minimalist approach to painting continues to have enormous appeal. Artist and teacher Sungsook Setton, who learned the techniques with Chinese and Korean masters in her native South Korea, brings new excitement to this age-old art. While teaching the traditional disciplines for holding and using the brush, she shows students how to turn the techniques and inner meditation toward interpreting their own world: city views, music, and the essence of contemporary life"--

Anyone interested in traditional Chinese painting will find these four volumes useful for self-study. Each of the four volumes teach amateur brush painters to execute the intricacies of Chinese brush painting. Beginning with the separate parts and then progressing to the composition, these volumes feature exquisite illustrations that will enable the learner to pick up the basics as if in a classroom setting.

This fascinating easy-to-follow guide captures all the freshness, beauty and spontaneity of Chinese brush painting. Using step-by-step photographs and his own evocative pictures, the author explains all the techniques, bringing to life animals, birds, fish and insects, creating atmosphere in landscapes and transforming flowers and plants into wonderful works of art--Cover.

Minimum stroke - maximum effect Learn how to make each brushstroke count when painting classically beautiful landscapes using a combination of traditional and modern watercolor techniques. Master artist and teacher Lian Quan Zhen shows how to blend Eastern and Western art theories, materials and techniques to create landscapes with graceful simplicity. Chinese Landscape Painting Techniques for Watercolor includes 27 start-to-finish demonstrations, which show how to capture the spirit and mood of the landscape in all types of weather and in all four seasons. It also features a wide variety of landscape subjects from America and around the world.