How to Understand Chinese Ink Wash Painting?

Five Basic Questions to Get You Started

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1. What Does Chinese Ink Wash Painting Paint?

Many people think Chinese ink wash painting paints landscapes, animals, or figures.

In reality, Chinese ink wash painting paints a kind of thought.

An excellent ink wash painter constantly thinks about the relationship between human beings and nature, the relationship between human beings and the universe, and the position of human beings within the vast universe.

Therefore, in China, anyone who paints ink wash painting well must understand philosophy.

We can see that the images in Chinese ink wash painting are usually very simple.

This simplicity does not mean it is easy. It is the result of decades of creation, during which the artist transforms frustration, loneliness, loss, and pain into observation and reflection on life, nature, and the world.

They must transform these emotions into a calmer and more powerful form of expression.

Because throughout a long creative life, every artist will experience frustration, loneliness, loss, and pain.

And art eventually leads the artist toward philosophy.

When art and philosophy become connected, the artist begins to understand pain, digest pain, and transform pain into a deeper understanding of the world.

They begin to face their own experiences, fate, and life with greater composure.

They realize that the individual is small, while the universe is vast.

That is why ink wash paintings often do not emphasize emotional explosion.

But this does not mean there is no thought inside the painting.

On the contrary, the artist’s thought is often hidden within an extremely restrained and subtle image.

Therefore, what Chinese ink wash painting usually expresses is not one specific object.

It is the creator’s understanding, observation, and reflection on the world.

It paints a kind of thought.

2. Why Doesn’t Chinese Ink Wash Painting Use Western Perspective?

Many people notice one thing when they first look at Chinese ink wash painting.

Why does it look different from Western painting?

Distant mountains do not become especially blurry, and nearby objects do not have the strong light and shadow relationships often seen in oil painting.

This is because Chinese ink wash painting studied a different direction from Western painting from the very beginning.

Western painting has long studied light, color, and visual effects, hoping to get as close as possible to the world seen by the human eye.

Chinese ink wash painting studies structure.

Because ink wash painting mainly uses brush, ink, and rice paper.

It does not have rich colors, and it is difficult to create complex highlights and shadows like oil painting.

So Chinese painters spent centuries studying another matter:

How to use only lines, ink, and blank space to create a sense of three-dimensional form.

This is extremely difficult.

So although Chinese ink wash painting looks simple, it demands an extremely high understanding of structure.

It is not that it cannot paint perspective.

It chose a completely different path.

3. Why Are the Colors So Simple?

Chinese ink wash painting chooses one of the most difficult ways to create art.

Black ink.

White paper.

This is almost one of the fewest color combinations in artistic creation.

The fewer the colors, the higher the demand placed on the artist.

Because the painter cannot rely on rich colors to attract the viewer.

Nor can the painter rely on strong color contrast to create visual impact.

The artist can only rely on observation, structural understanding, and brush-and-ink skill to complete the work.

Therefore, simple color does not mean simple creation.

On the contrary.

The simpler the tools, the more they test the artist’s ability.

For an excellent ink wash painter:

A drop of ink.

A blank space.

Even a single line.

All of these may decide whether the entire work finally succeeds.

4. Why Is Chinese Ink Wash Painting So Difficult?

Many people think Chinese ink wash painting looks simple.

But in reality, it may be one of the most difficult painting methods in the world to master.

Because the painter only has black ink and white paper.

There are no rich colors to help shape the subject.

There is no complex light and shadow to help express three-dimensional form.

Therefore, an ink wash painter spends an entire lifetime studying one thing:

How to use only black and white to paint vitality.

For example, Qi Baishi, one of the greatest modern Chinese ink wash painters.

He spent his entire life observing shrimp.

He observed how shrimp swim, how they bend their bodies, how their joints connect, which parts of the body should rise, and which parts should be left blank.

Because for ink wash painting, blank space is not simply empty space.

Many times, that small area of blank space is the highlight of the object and the source of its three-dimensional feeling.

If the blank space is placed incorrectly, the entire shrimp loses its vitality.

So today, when we look at the shrimp painted by Qi Baishi, they seem to be made with only a few simple strokes.

But behind them are decades of observation, thinking, and practice.

Common subjects in ink wash painting include animals such as horses, birds, and fish.

Every animal requires long-term observation from the artist.

For example, when painting a bird.

The artist must not only know what it looks like.

They must also understand its posture when standing, the movement when it turns its head, the structure of its feathers, and the weight of its body.

For example, when painting a horse.

The artist must not only know the horse’s outer form.

They must also understand how its muscles work when running, how its body moves, and the sense of power created by different movements.

Because ink wash painting does not have rich colors to help the artist express these details.

The artist can only rely on black and white.

On lines.

On structure.

On blank space.

To express a plump little bird, a galloping horse, or a fish swimming through water.

This is extremely difficult.

That is why many great ink wash painters often spend decades repeatedly studying the same subject.

Because what they pursue is not resemblance.

They pursue life.

5. How Should You Appreciate an Ink Wash Painting?

Actually, you do not need to understand Chinese philosophy very deeply.

You do not need to have studied ink wash painting either.

There is one very simple way to judge whether an ink wash painting is good.

Look at whether it feels alive.

Look at the animal in the painting.

Do you feel as if it could move in the next second?

Look at the fish in the painting.

Do you feel as if it is swimming in the water?

Look at the horse in the painting.

Can you feel that it is running?

If a painting can make you feel this way.

Then the artist’s level is usually very high.

Because for ink wash painting.

The tools available to the painter are truly very limited.

There are no rich colors.

No complex light and shadow.

Often, there is only black ink and white paper.

To express vitality under such conditions is already an extremely difficult form of creation.

Therefore, what truly excellent ink wash painters ultimately pursue is often not making the subject more complicated.

But using the simplest image to express the most authentic vitality.

Chinese art masters such as Qi Baishi and Xu Beihong devoted their entire lives to this pursuit.

They observed, thought, and practiced again and again.

Only then could viewers see life itself within a few simple lines and ink marks.

So when appreciating an ink wash painting, you may first forget those complicated theories.

First ask yourself one question:

Does it feel alive?

If the answer is yes.

Then you have already understood the most important part of Chinese ink wash painting.

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