The basic techniques of flower and bird painting
Observation of flowers and birds: When learning to paint flowers and birds, in addition to observing and copying famous paintings from ancient and modern times, one must also closely observe and sketch the actual flowers to understand their growth and changes in seasons, such as their blooming and withering, as well as their responses to frost, rain, and sunshine. Here, we will briefly describe the structure and ecology of various parts of the flowers
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(1) Flowers: Flowers are usually the main theme of the painting. Generally, flowers consist of several parts such as petals, stamens, sepals, calyx, and pedicel. Petals can be single or double (repeated), and the shape can be either separate or united. Peonies, roses, and other flowers are double and repeated, while pear blossoms, jujube flowers, and others are single and separate. Morning glory, lily, and orchid are single and separate, while most flowers have different varieties of single and double petals. The stamens have differences in length and quantity. In plants with both male and female parts on the same plant, the large stamens and small pistils are together, while in plants with male and female parts on different plants, there is only a small pistil or only a large stamens. Some flower parts are more prominent, while others are more concealed. All of these require careful observation. The sepals also vary according to the type of flower, such as the five small petals of plum, apricot, and peach growing together, the five small petals of pear, plum, and weeping cherry growing on a long stem, the rose and rhododendron with long calyx tips, and the tea plant with an like fish scales.
(2) Leaves： When single-leaf plants grow leaves from branches or stems， the leaf arrangement can be alternate， opposite， whorled， or clustered. Some compound-leaf plants have a fan-shaped or bird-foot-shaped form， and some have two repeated leaves. The forms are more complex and must first understand their growth patterns to avoid errors in the complexity. Leaves have petioles and veins， with different sizes and proportions such as pointed， round， long， and short.
(3) Stems and branches： They can be classified as woody， herbaceous， vine， or trailing. Woody stems are firm and some are quite thick. Herbaceous stems are generally tender. Some become right- or left-rotating and spread out， while others have tendrils for climbing.
All kinds of flowers are fresher and more vibrant in the morning or in the early afternoon. These are excellent times for sketching. Sketching is for collecting materials for creation. If it is for detailed painting, then detailed descriptions must be made. Sometimes we need multiple flowers to gather together on the canvas. When collecting materials for sketching, we need to have frontal, reverse, side, and slanted perspectives; there should be complete flowers, as well as flowers partially covered by branches and leaves, and there should be small flower buds and blooming large flower buds. The same is true for leaves. Besides mature leaves, there should also be tender leaves and buds, and attention should be paid to the contrast of light and shade, size, and interlacing. Branches should also have main branches and secondary branches, as well as the posture and density on the canvas. All of these are the issues we should first pay attention to when collecting materials for sketching based on the purpose.
Although flower and bird paintings do not have the same mobility of viewpoint as landscape paintings, usually the viewpoint is relatively stable, but we can use the method of moving the viewpoint when observing, select the most beautiful angle for sketching, and pay attention to the size and proportion of flowers, branches, and leaves. When painting flowers, we can start from the flower bud and petal, usually first draw the most complete and front-facing petal, then expand outward, if the petals are too complex, they can be generalized, and attention should be paid to their aesthetic shape. When painting leaves, besides paying attention to the leaf sequence and structure, we should also pay attention to the changes of up, down, back and forth, density, and front and back leaves, and finally draw the branches. The main branch of the big tree should also be drawn with bark texture, such as the bark of plum blossoms should be old and slanting, the bark of small branches should be straight and powerful, the bark of peach branches should be horizontal, the bark of pine branches should be scaly, and the bark of lilac branches should be smooth and so on, depending on the characteristics of different types of branches.
The sketching of flowers should start with branch-broken flowers. Select one branch that is easy to be included in the painting, insert it into a vase, and observe in detail. Even if the flower bud is covered, it can be pulled apart to study the details and structure. After becoming familiar with simple branch-broken paintings, we can try to sketch a corner of the entire flower or the entire flower painting. Due to the complexity of the branches and leaves, an appropriate angle should be selected, and large-scale reduction or adjustment should be made. In summary, the sketching of flowers is not just drawing plant illustrations or explanatory pictures, it requires subjective selection and beautification, and emphasizes the expression of interest.
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