General principles and comments on the fine details in writing each type of stroke:

When the stroke turns or changes, we do so slowly.

When we need to turn sharply, we slow down even more. Just like driving.

ex1. Moon character, ending hook: This is a sharp turn, so we slow down as we finish the downstroke, with a little bit of repeated dabbing at the end of the down stroke, then we raise the pen to make the hook by starting a little higher than the lowest part of the downstroke.

ex2. Vertical downstroke with sharp point: after 2/3 of the downstroke, we slow down, and slowly lifeup. This can be seen as a series of 4-5 repeated (mostly overlapping) short downstrokes, each time lifing up a little bit, and progressing a little further down.

ex3. Right “La4” stroke of the character “Eight”: As we move toward the major turning point, we push down on the brush, and then slow down for the major turn, and then slowly lift up. The key thing here is slow, to give the weight of the turning part. Make sure the ending stroke is mostly horizontal, to give balance to the character.

ex4. Moon character. At the first turn (horizontal then turning to vertical downstroke: Make sure the verticle stroke starts not too high from the horizontal ending, to make the two strokes seem continuous. My verticle strokes started separately and way too high. Just start the vertical part right where the horizontal ends, by pressing down right there. The weight of the pen will create the extruding starting point slightly above the horizonal end naturally.

Principle on character balance, and the combination of different strokes:

Each character needs to display balance and proportion. Draw imaginary lines around your character to see if it is architecturally stable and graceful.

ex1. The left “pie3” stroke of “Moon”: don't turn too early, or too curved. Stay straight most of the way down, turning only near the end, so that it is not a trapezoid, but nearly a rectangle. Turning part should be slow.

e2. character for “Three”: equal thickness for uniformity. For proportion, make sure that if the character is big, the thickness of the strokes should be increased accordingly. The character should fill up the space of the imaginary boundary without excessive interior space.

Principles on ink:

The ink intensity can be varied, and we can experiment with different levels of blackness.

When we add excessive water to the ink (i.e. when the ink dries, and we add a few drops), it will be too diluted, causing the paper to warp. Don't add more than a drop of water each time. Adding water makes it difficult to know when the ink becomes uniform again.

If we add water, we should use ink-stone several rounds, to make sure that the ink has reach consistency again. Incidentally, ink-stone ink is natural, as opposed to the chemicals in bottled ink. It has better fragrance due to natural material.

My parents would use fine wine for ink-stone ink, since the fragrance is even better. Of course, the alcohol will evaporate much quicker, causing the ink to dry out fast. So we should use a cover on the ink when we are not writing. The quick drying properties of the alcohol makes it good for the written characters, since the paper would not warp as much due to the quick drying.

After we soak the brush, we should squeeze the water out, and hang the pen vertically to let it dry.

Final notes on strokes:

e1. horizontal: The starting point is like the motion of the letter L: rather than a slanted 45-deg initial pressing down, it is an almost 90-deg pressing down, only slightly to the right.

e2. Ending horizontal stroke: At the end, almost a clockwise circle motion rather than triangle, to round out the end of the stroke.

e3. vertical stroke with proper ending: counter-clockwise cirlcle

Recommendation:

experiment with different variations and parameters in how we start or end the strokes. Different masters create their style based exactly on how they decide on these variations. Everyone has a different natural style, and it is worth exploring our own.

However, in light of the limited time that we meet, I would recommend the following time-management ideas, so as to prioritize what we do in class:

We should spend at most 15 mins in the beginning of the class for HW discussion.

Then we move to the teacher's scheduled lesson and demonstration.

If we want more time for HW discussion, we should do so after the main part of the lesson.

To spend the initial 15 mins equally, we can use a 3-minute Egg-timer for each person's HW.

Hence, to maximize the value of those minutes spent on discussing your HW, I would suggest that we present only a few sheets that we want to discuss, starting with those characters that we have the most pressing questions. This means that we should take notes (with a fine point pen) alongside our characters, and perhaps to grade ourselves by indicating which character is good and which is bad, so as to save time, and to remind ourselves of our questions.

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