Art of Chinese Brush Painting. Caroline Self

white plum blossoms or chrysanthemum blossoms, you can use paper tinted light to medium brown with a tea wash. Use strongly-brewed black tea or instant tea mixed with water to make a dark brown color. With a large, flat, soft wash brush, paint long strokes across the rice paper to produce an even dark background. As an alternative, soak the paper in a tea solution in a large pan or basin. Wait for the paper to dry before applying white watercolor paint or ink. Of the colored rice papers available, the tea color paper is most authentic, as it looks like old silk that has turned brown with age.

      Rice Papers— In most cases, thin papers are used for ink painting. Such papers are called “rice papers,” although they do not contain rice fibers, which are very short and do not make good papers. They are probably called rice papers because people associate rice with the Oriental cultures and the term identifies the papers with Oriental painting. The papers are actually made from long strands of vegetable fibers, like grasses and fibers from mulberry plants left after the silk worms eat the leaves.

      Practice Rolls— As a beginner, you will probably want to use a roll of inexpensive practice paper made with mechanically pressed pulp. Practice rolls come in various widths and surfaces, with typical widths of 12, 15, and 18 inches. The paper is thin and white and almost like tissue paper. Usually, it has a slick side and a more absorbent, rougher side. A white felt cloth put beneath the paper absorbs any excess ink that may bleed through the paper. As the ink dries, the paper tends to pucker. Almost all oriental papers require backing. Beginners should have their paintings professionally backed. It is difficult to handle the paste and paper to prevent lumps and wrinkles, and it’s easy to ruin good paintings.

      Relative Absorbency of Paper