The Chinese Brush Painting Bible: Over 200 Motifs with Step by Step Illustrated Instructions (Volume 17) (Artist's Bibles, 17) Hardcover – July 31, 2011

I wanted this book to paint chinoiserie murals with people, buildings, landscapes and animals. This book has them all and more. Small enough to carry around. Easy to follow, great find.

This book starts out with an introduction of the art with some interesting historical information. It then proceeds to introduce the reader to the various materials and tools used in Chinese brush painting and then offers instruction on how to hold and load the brush . It continues with illustrating how to make certain types of strokes that are important in order to reproduce the subjects found in the book. It offers information using Chinese colors and how to load a brush to produce certain effects. It also offers some limited information on styles, washes, calligraphy, seals, backing and framing. It then continues to the "Motif Directory" and selector. The selector is helpful in giving tiny pictures of the motifs and the page number in which to find them. It has a large selection of motifs with basic information on how to reproduce each one. I think the book can be useful to the beginner as well as the beginning-intermediate student wishing to expand their subject matter in their paintings.

More importantly, the author seems to not know what many of the motifs actually look like. The sunflower leaves have no stems and the general leaf shape is just wrong, the round leaves of nasturtiums just arent, etc. so to someone whose never seen these plants they may recognize the general big yellow petals of the sunflower as a sunflower. It looks like the author learned what they look like from a loose painting of a loose painting of a .... but never saw a live plant or even any photos. So they give you a picture of an idea but not the memories of having walked in nature. The sense of Sumi e is that you have spent much time walking in nature and then paint the features of the plant from memory. The author seems to have skipped this. I have had many of these plants growing on my property at one point or another and so I remember the long hairy stems of the sunflower with nodes at each leaf juncture, the tall smooth stems coming up in the center of the perfectly round nasturtium leaf with tiny black bugs on the underside late in the season. Painting loose should still be based on the actual plant and experiencing this. I fear without that frame of reference, art would look very confused. I suggest going into nature or a neighborhood where these plants exist and actually looking at them or at least look at photos on stock photo sites.

I have 2 of these books because I used the first one in an art calss and it was so loved that it became well loved and a bit frazzled, so I was delighted to find a source to get another. The colors are crisp and clear and even a novice can make the images. I had never "brush painted"before. I made several pieces from the easily interpreted instructions and they were so well done that I could sell tehm to make money to buy more supplies for my art class of teenagers at a local youth center. My friend had them professionally framed! I really was impressed thatteenagers loved this book so that they would come in daily just to draw a different animal, vegetable or flower in the "style". They enjoyed this more than the "tattoo" images they like so much. I have also applied the technique in my silk painting class. The ladies of all ages flocked to buy this book. I have many books on the Chinese Brush painting techniques and this is the most diverse, lovely and neccessary one I own. It is a true bargain. Artists in acrylic, oil and watecolr have also "HAD TO HAVE this book!

This book Really deserves a 5 Star rating and you'd probably think why I give only 3 ? Let me explain. I am an amateur hobby artist and Chinese/ Japanese drawing/paintings took my fancy. I bought few items from the web and found this book. The Delivery prompt, Quality of printing and content are excellent. Well packaged and the Author has really taken pains to put research in easily understandable form for us enthusiasts. It is worth every penny I spent and perhaps for the first time the Courier charges as well:So why I rate it 3 Star. I am amused at the title 'Bible' and after thorough reading of the book I do not find anything Biblical or anywhere equivalent. No. I am not a Christian so not referring to Religion. To me Geeta, Ramayan, Quran and Bible are teachings of God which help us to realise God within us. I saw the Full Definition of BIBLEa : the sacred scriptures of Christians comprising the Old Testament and the New Testamentb : the sacred scriptures of some other religion (as Judaism)2 obsolete : book3 capitalized : a copy or an edition of the Bible4: a publication that is preeminent especially in authoritativeness or wide readership <the fisherman's bible> <the bible of the entertainment industry> The 4th definition may perhaps come closest for this book yet I wish the Publishers and Author had put some thought before choosing this title.I also wish to give you a free advice. Do sell the book as a Combo with the minimums that a beginner, art enthusiast would like to try on for e.g. 4 Gentlemen samples for which you could charge.The real reason I would have given you 5 Star is : Your book creates a Hunger / a Curiosity to know more, Learn more and that is what pleased me most. Thank you.

Wow !, What a lovely book. This is one of the best Art books I have purchased.I have only been painting 5 years, so still not very good, but I thought about Chinese Brush Painting to loosen up My style.The book has something for everybody, Birds, Trees, Mammals, Insects, Flowers, Fruit, Veg, people and landscapes.The strokes of the brush are shown in good detail, easy to see how you build up the object. Thanks Jane for a great book !Would highly recommend.Paul.

I was quite disappointed with this book as it is only A5 in sizewhich made the pictures too small! I Should of noted the size of the bookhidden in the pictures as it was not in the written description!Also I think the content & quality of pictures could of been better!The advice is also too brief.I'm positive there are better books out there on this subject,for what the book cost I wasn't very impressed either, expected better for the price!The book was not newyou could tell from some ones paint on one page!Would of sent it back but missed the timeline.

Love this book. I have been so keen so start some Chinese Brush painting work and had to cancel 4 workshops earlier in the year due to Covid restrictions etc. So my daughter kindly bought me this book to get me going and I am now quite addicted. It has hundreds of different one page projects on all topics of nature and I find I have time to try a new out every day which is ideal as I fit it in around my other responsibilities. Very simple to use with clear instructions - all one needs to add is practise, practise, practise to achieve some stunning results!

Such a shame the books is so small.Useful birds, frogs, flowers etc which could be used to decorate various items. I intend to paint stones for magazine 'paperweights' for the garden and donate some to charity shops.Also to paint some rather boring garden containers and add some interest and colour. I will sit outside and paint these and enjoy some fresh air and relaxation.I am sure a child, or person without painting experience could paint some easy subjects I particularly liked the frog and bluetit.

I already had one book on Chinese painting and had done a one-day workshop so I was looking for something more that would give me additional material to work with. I found this title on the Amazon website and bought it on the strength of the reviews. I am relieved to say I was not disappointed.There are a number of aspects that make this book outstanding: it is beautifully presented with a good introduction on materials and techniques; there are several ways of locating the subject matter you might be looking for including an index and a motif chart at the front; each motif page is clearly set out showing you what colours to use, with a step-by-step approach including direction of brush strokes to the final image; being spiral-bound you can have the book open on the table beside you as you work.Best of all, though, the pictures are inspirational and you can quickly produce some very delicate and impressive works of your own based on these. Although it recommends Chinese materials, it does not insist on them and gives information on how you can produce similar results with western watercolours and papers, explaining in what way they will be different.Quite simply this book has transformed the way I approach working in watercolours. If you long for a looser, freer style, this method will undoubtedly help you towards that goal.