#i took photos but my old lens was soooo bad so i don't have the specific ones i really liked but do check the link out <3 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ranilla-bean · 6 months

Text

culture tips for writing asian settings: calligraphy (pt i)

i love chinese calligraphy, to me it is just so gorgeous and i've dedicated a few scenes of my own fics to it, so here are just a few quick 'n' dirty calligraphy tips:

the calligraphy scene in sokka's master (illustrated by korean animators!) is a pretty good depiction tbh. you write using a brush (the brushes can be hung up on a stand too)—it can be jarring to see fics mention quills or parchment. one excellent detail from the show is that sokka, who seems left-handed, has to write with his right hand—the left hand holds the sleeve out of the way. the ink is not liquid/bottled, but is in a solid stick form and has to be ground on an inkstone mixed with water

traditionally, chinese text is written downwards, and goes from right to left across the page.

as with any other form of calligraphy, chinese calligraphy emphasises beauty of form over legibility—in the same way you wouldn't really consider times new roman font 'calligraphy'. there are different types of script in chinese, and for someone like piandao to master them is a reflection of his education and gentility. the semi-cursive below i see quite commonly in calligraphy:

then you might have something like the cursive below is quite technical but seriously hard to read

contrast that with something like this seal script, harking back to an older era of chinese script:

any calligrapher worth their salt will be putting their stamp on the work, quite literally! name seals, also called "chops", are carved out of stone; ink it up with cinnabar paste and stamp it onto your artwork to get that iconic red signature. (i got one made a couple of years ago and there's a trick to stamping: breathe on the stamp surface after dipping in the paste to warm up the pigment, and when stamping put some circular pressure on the stone to get the print to come out evenly)

i'm going to do a second part focusing a bit more on scripts from the atla world, so keep your eyes peeled...

check out:

some more calligraphy examples from singapore's national gallery

disclaimer | more tips

#atla #atla culture #atla meta #avatar the last airbender #piandao #sokka #asian culture tips #some of the most beautiful calligraphy i saw at singapore's national art gallery #a really cool contemporary twist on the form #i took photos but my old lens was soooo bad so i don't have the specific ones i really liked but do check the link out <3

661 notes · View notes