We create a special category for brushes that are suitable for Gongbi painting – also known as fineline painting or meticulous painting. The main characteristic of this painting style is the focus on details and precision when painting an object and to depict the reality as closely as possible – opposed to the more creative and expressive sketching styles. Due to the importance of precision and intricacy of details it is important to have the right brushes. In this category we introduce Chinese paint brushes that have fine small tips with a certain degree of stiffness that allow to draw very thing lines or apply color in small areas. Normally the hair uses for these brushes is weasel or wolf hair or – if combination hair brushes – these stiffer hair types are at least one component of the hair that makes the tip.
These high-precision brushes used in Gongbi paintings are required for both – the initial creation of the outline of the object and later when filling the contour step by step with small details and patterns like often seen on the surface of plants or the skin or fur of animals with detailed and intricate textures.
With these small tips you can paint small objects like flower petals, leave or twigs with brush strokes that small and elaborate that from a distance the individual strokes are not discernable anymore so that the object painting looks very natural like on a photo.
Brushes that we recommend for Gongbi usage are the
Moods of Mimosa, the Ye Jin or the
Dots and Speckle Brush. Together with the sized papers used on most of our Shikishi Boards you can create stunning fineline artworks.
