Ox

For information on Ox personality traits, take a look at the Chinese Zodiac Ox page on the Travel China site.

The last Year of the Ox was 2021-22 which had the element Metal to accompany it. In Oriental cultures there is a great tradition of painting the 'Ox and boy'. It has a strong place in the cultural heritage of the East, not least because it led to the famous 'Ox herding' pictures, more of which later...

I started thinking about a picture of the Ox and boy when I taught Oxen to a group some years back. I started with something of an outline of an Ox which I completed and added a boy as per a Chinese contemporary artist’s work. I decided to take a photo of the piece so that you can see the first stage of this painting in case you wanted to have a go with an outline of the same subject or one of the elements:

Ox and boy 1 - outline - Paul Maslowski 2018

What you are looking for in the outline, ideally, is as many calligraphic strokes as possible and with a variety of thicknesses as well as variation in wet and dry.

Having placed the outline of the image, I added levels of grey until the shading was as I wanted it for the painting.

Once this was completed I added various colours without ‘colouring in’. It is important that Chinese brush paintings include spontaneous strokes even when the outline is well defined. It is also important that the outline be disregarded on occasion as the energy of the painting asserts itself. In other words, do not worry if the wash spreads beyond the line. Again, ideally, we are actually looking for this to occur in a skilful way:

Ox and boy 2 - coloured - Paul Maslowski 2018

12th February 2021 Chinese New Year update:

I wanted to make the Ox and boy into a complete composition. I decided to place them in a suitable landscape where we can see the journey of them both as they labour toward market:

Ox and boy 3 - Paul Maslowski 2018 and 2021

Should you choose to take up the challenge please do let me know as I would love to see what you do next…

8th July 2020 update:

Janice of the East Midlands CBP group was inspired by this page and produced the painting on the left below. She then went further and produced the lovely work on the right which has a real narrative to it. What do you think is being thought..?

Ox and boy by Janice Biscoe 2020

Spring Ox and boy by Janice Biscoe 2020

You may wish to include the Calligraphy for Ox (niú) in your painting. This can be found on our Zodiac Animals pages.

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