The Comparison Between Chinese and Western Painting

The comparison between Chinese and Western painting

List of contents

Outline 2

Introduction of Chinese paintings 3

Introduction of Western paintings 3

The Philosophy of Chinese paintings and Western paintings 4

The material of Chinese paintings and Western Paintings 5

The Techniques of Chinese paintings and Western paintings 5

Compare the use of color between Chinese painting and Western paintings6

The perspective of Chinese painting and Western paintings 7

The similarities of Chinese and western paintings 9

Conclusion 10

Reference 11

Figure 1 8

Figure 2 9

outline

Painting plays a significant role for people’s life, an excellent painting may influence people’s mind. There are two types dominant painting available in the world – which is traditional Chinese Painting and Western oil painting. Although the painting may illustrates their own meaning, the painting and painter under different background and culture would have different way of thinking. The purpose of this essay is to compare the difference between Chinese and Western Paintings in General. To be more exact, the essay will explain the difference between Chinese and Western paintings in philosophy, color, techniques, material techniques and perspective or any other relevant

Chinese paintings Western Paintings

Philosophy Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism Christian

Color Simple – Black and white Colorful

Material Brush, Xuan paper and Ink linseed oil, poppy oil, walnut oil. Etc,

cardboard or board.

Techniques Lift the brush from the paper at the end of each to achieve a pointed shape. Break the line of the leaf, rather than overlap the strokes.

Use lines and strokes.

Techniques expression – “Hold” and “Guests” Use brush

Create the realistic scene

the painters would objectively depict the color, appearance, shade and light to make the audience engage the painting’s environment

Perspective Diffused Perspective flattened perspective

Introduction of Chinese paintings

Traditional Chinese painting also called brush painting. There are three pillars in Chinese painting which includes bird and flower painting, figure painting and landscape painting. Exactly, Chinese painting also can be divided two types which is Monochrome abbreviated ink work and Chinese realistic painting. Chinese landscape painting not only present the appearance of nature, but also represent the emotions and how painter’s feel to the landscape and life (Shaw 1988). Landscape painting is most popular and major theme of Chinese painting in the world. Painter use brush, ink, ink stone, ink stick water and rice paper to paint the Chinese painting. Even nowadays, more and more traditional Chinese painter would like to use brush and ink to produce the painting, which also produce their feeling, mood and emotions.

Introduction of Western paintings

Western painting original from ancient Greece and Rome. The development of painting was contemporaneous other art forms such as sculpture, dance and music. To compare with traditional Chinese painting, the contents of Western painting more focus on people’s daily life. The dominant painting in Western countries which is Oil painting, which painters use cloth, board, thick paper and canvas with oily pigments. Oil painting is more colorful than Chinese water and ink painting, which has stronger artistic expression and presents the realistic sense of painter’s purpose. Additionally, painters from western country they painting would more authenticity and aesthetics, they may focus on light, proportion, shade, perspective, anatomy and chroma of the painting to make sure they can achieve a real art effect. Traditional Chinese painting and Western Painting are all influenced by local culture, politics and religion, every painting has their own meaning and aesthetic (Jinhui, Guoming & Qunsheng n.d., p.1).

The Philosophy of Chinese paintings and Western paintings

Traditional Chinese painting aesthetic are affect by Buddhism and Taoist and Confucian ideas, which all main factors is mentalism. In Chinese water and ink paintings, painters pay more attention to represent their personal feelings and emotions into the painting, rather than paint the nature appearance and objective details, which means audience could see a lot of white spaces and broad strokes on Chinese painting. White space and white area in the painting could be find in lots of traditional Chinese painting, which are finished. The white area is not “really” empty which are some integral parts of whole painting. The white area could lead and motivate the audience to think and image the painting (Da, 1990). The combination of void and solid creating artic conception of space.

In contrast, western paintings are influenced by the faith of Christianism (MacGregor 2000). Most western people believes that god is the creator of the beauty and god create everything. Western painters are always attracted by the details of nature environment. Exactly, most painters believe expression of the realistic nature and details of the nature is a kind of way to praises the god. When painters praises the God and do some contribution to God they may much more closer to the God. For example, according to the figure 2, as you can see that the painting is present the appearance of nature, the paintings express the real life quite well.

The material of Chinese paintings and Western Paintings

The materials used and the influence on artistic forms is also important for Chinese painting. Although the brush in Chinese Painting is

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