Demonstration Art

This week's lesson highlights a brush stroke called teitōsobibyō (釘頭鼠尾描). It literally means nail head (teitō -- 釘頭) and mouse tail (sobi -- 鼠尾) brushstroke (byō -- 描). It begins with a strong touch like that of a nail head and then trails away like the tail of a mouse. It is used for shunran leaves.

Referring to the shunran blossom illustrations below, petal strokes of the shunran blossom are painted from the outside to the calyx, the point at which all the petals join. Use chūboku (medium sumi) for petals and tanboku (light sumi) for the stems. Finish by adding the stamen with nōnboku (dark sumi).

The stamen is the heart of the flower, and is painted with shin ten (heart or spirit dots) (心点), so called because the dots vaguely resemble the script version of the kanji character for heart (kokoro -- 心). It looks like this: . Three or four dots should do it.

Here is my demonstration painting.