Generally speaking, ivory carving art is divided into four categories: figures, animals, flowers and landscapes.
Among them, the main themes of ivory carvings are mainly derived from ancient myths and legends and historical celebrities. In terms of categories, they can be divided into ladies, Arhats, Buddhists, warriors and historical figures, etc.
Character drawings generally use line drawing techniques to show the characters' facial expressions, body postures, shapes of clothing, etc. If there is a provenance, they should also focus on depicting the characters' identity characteristics to achieve perfect artistic effects.
Ivory flower carvings generally focus on flowers, with birds, butterflies, dragonflies, frogs, etc. as foils. The carvings include peonies, roses, chrysanthemums, magnolias, peach, pine, bamboo, plums, etc. The overall shape of the support includes flower baskets, vases,
Bamboo tubes, folding fans, rockeries, etc. play a good role in matching the protagonist and the foil.
The main animal themes of ivory carvings include tigers roaring in the forest, lions roaring in deep valleys, roosters crowing, fish jumping in lotus ponds, etc. Among them, the twelve zodiac animals occupy a certain position in the art of ivory carving.
The landscape themes in ivory carvings generally represent mountains and rivers, islands, and the sun, moon, wind and clouds. Rugged rocks, mottled sea rocks, and rolling and changing clouds are the tools that ivory carving artists particularly like to use.
The Qing Chen Mei Yue Man Qing You Picture Album is a rare picture scroll that can combine the four major categories of characters, animals, flowers and landscapes.
Qing Dynasty Chen Meiyueman Qingyou Picture Album was created by the Qing Dynasty painter Chen Mei. The album depicts the palace life of the concubines for 12 months a year. Through these vivid pictures, it reflects the close connection between palace life and folk life.
Correlation, with the monthly climate changes as the background, depicts the palace maids’ activities with their mistresses in and outside the courtyard.
In terms of the aesthetic orientation of character creation, it is different from the plump concubine images painted by Zhang Xuan and Zhou Zhen in the Tang Dynasty. Instead, the aesthetic standards are based on the paintings of ladies painted by Tang Yin and Qiu Ying in the Ming Dynasty, pursuing graceful and elegant emotions.
The painter used fine and smooth lines and bright and vivid colors to depict the concubines as slender, light and "feminine and weak against the wind".
In terms of technique, the characters painted in this picture are vivid and accurate in shape, and the brushwork is meticulous and rigorous, which originated from the courtyard painting style of the Song Dynasty.
The buildings on the terraces and rooms in the picture are drawn using the Western focus perspective method. According to the changes in the slope of the perspective lines in the picture, the specific location of the vanishing point can be accurately deduced, thereby enhancing the three-dimensional and depth effects of the flat picture.
Expand infinite space on a limited picture.
Therefore, "Yueman Qingyou" is very suitable for carving on ivory. Although its content is simple, the skill requirements are higher. For Han Peacock, this is definitely a challenge.
Throughout the twelve months of the year, there is no shortage of characters, scenery, flowers, and animals, which absolutely meets the requirements of the Korean Peacock.
For example, walking in the snow in search of poetry in January: In the middle of the twelfth lunar month, when the weather is freezing, ladies gather in a warm hall, making tea, watching the snow, reciting poems and having fun. Sometimes there are female companions in fur coats and mink hats, walking in the snow.
Bring your friends and come to join in the fun.
Looking for Plum Blossoms on a Cold Night in February: In the first month of the year, on the night of the Lantern Festival, the lanterns are full of color, the silver moon is like a plate, the plum blossoms are in bloom, and the ladies in the palace go on a night tour together.
Chess game in the March Pavilion: Two or three partners play chess in the hall, and the spectators remain silent.
A thousand swings in the pond in April: Spring is here, and the ladies come out of their boudoirs to enjoy and play with each other on the grassy grassland. Willows dance in the spring breeze, apricot blossoms reflect in the spring water, and on the swing, the ladies' figures are as light as swallows.
Viewing flowers in the courtyard in May: beautiful and beautiful, in the spring season, the garden is filled with colorful purples and reds and fragrance.
Fish watching in the pond pavilion in June: In midsummer, the weather is hot, the bamboo forest beside the pond is rustling, and in response to the cool breeze, the ladies from the palace gather in the pond pavilion to enjoy fish and spend their leisure time.
Lotus Collecting in the Lotus Pond in July: The soft breeze sweeps across the lake, the scent of lotus blooms, and the beauties in the palace go boating to collect lotus, adding a bit of fun to the rigid palace life.
August Tongyin Begging for Skills: This depicts the scene of ladies in the capital "begging for skills" on the seventh day of July. On the night of the Chinese Valentine's Day, women put bowls of water in the courtyard and then scattered bunches of needles among them. People rushed to watch.
It is said that the more beautiful the pattern is in the water, the more dexterous the hand of the person placing the needle will be.
Moon Appreciation on Qiongtai in September: Describes the scene of ladies gathering on a high platform on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, reciting poems and appreciating the moon.
Appreciating Chrysanthemums in Late Autumn in October: It depicts the scene of noble ladies appreciating chrysanthemums in the palace in the golden autumn of October. In traditional Chinese culture, chrysanthemums are a symbol of nobility and purity, and are also endowed with meanings of good luck and longevity.
November Wenge Embroidery: In early winter, under the warm sunshine, the ladies in the palace carefully embroidered and admired their favorite patterns.
December Fireside Bogu: It is midwinter and the weather is getting colder. This painting depicts a scene in a Chinese house, beside the fireplace, where the ladies of the family gather together to enjoy the ancient courtyard and study.
Therefore, if Han Peacock is willing, he can even improvise on the spot, increasing or decreasing in December. In this way, it can not only retain the essence of Yueman Qingyou's picture, but also reflect Han Peacock's skills. It can be said that it kills two birds with one stone.
have to.
Now that the subject has been chosen and the case is known, the next step is to prepare the ivory.
Ivory is different from ordinary teeth in that its surface is not covered with enamel and is very acid-resistant. Strong acid can corrode it, and weak acid can also soften it.
For example, soaking ivory in acetic acid can soften it, and then use a knife or other tools to carve it, which often gets twice the result with half the effort.
As for the material of mammoth ivory, there are many benefits, but also many frustrations. The material is cracked and changeable, and the loss is great, making it more difficult to make than ivory. This is why it is slowly becoming more popular now.
Of course, there are many benefits to playing with mammoth tusks. As for the advantages of mammoth, there are many now. First of all, the material of ice material is very close to ivory. It is not illegal and does not kill animals, so it is very suitable for some caring friends.
And it is not limited to ice, but also soil, frozen soil, molars, and even now some people are starting to tinker with mammoth bones, so those who like tooth carving can pay more attention to mammoths, which is good.
alternatives.
Each toy material has its own characteristics. In addition to ice material being the best substitute for ivory, mammoth also has some unique characteristics, namely skin color, changeable materials and a sense of vicissitudes. Ivory skin is cheap.
Mammoth skin is expensive, that's why.
There are many types of mammoth ivory, so it is necessary to carefully select the materials. So far, Han Kongque and the others have found very little ice materials, mostly frozen soil materials and earth materials, among which earth materials are the most common.
These three materials must be sorted out, because he wants to carve a set of exquisite products, so he naturally needs the best ivory. However, good ivory will be gone when it is consumed, so Han Peacock needs to find some spare parts, and even some
For practice, let him think about the layout, especially the scenery and character arrangements.
Of course, this can be drawn in advance, but there is absolutely no harm in doing some rough carving, so Han Peacock still needs some soil materials to practice.
It is very easy to choose good materials, because Han Kongque does not have much in his hands. Fortunately, in the past few days, Han Kongque and the others also found some ice materials in places with abundant groundwater, so Han Kongque did not have no ice at all.
Even Han Peacock found two ice blue sticks, and the others were also the top level 3.
When talking about Mammoth's top ingredients, we have to talk about ice ingredients. The grades of ice ingredients are very finely divided. It does not mean that ice ingredients are necessarily top ingredients.
Generally, you may be familiar with level 3 ice material. Of course, there are better ones, such as blue ice. This level of material is more suitable for high-quality or large pieces such as carved circles. It has no cracks or spots. This
There are relatively few species, and the price of materials is very high. It is not suitable for making some ordinary small parts, and the finished products are also very expensive.
Later, it was divided into 2, grade, grade, etc., which are all subdivided according to the moistness and cracks of the material. As the grade decreases, the loss and production difficulty will become greater and greater.
Some people may see that the price per gram of Mammoth's materials is very low and think it's cheap. But if you actually take the materials and make them, after you cut the materials that can be used and weigh them, you will find that the actual price of the materials is very high.
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Because the cheaper it means, the greater the loss, especially for segmented materials. You don’t know what will happen when you cut the materials.
Therefore, the raw materials of mammoth are very risky. This depends on personal vision and luck. Remember, don’t be greedy for cheap!
Except for a small amount of ice materials, Han Peacock mostly has frozen soil materials. This level of materials is much inferior to ice materials. The better ones are close to low-grade ice materials, but they are the same as soil materials.
, the changes are very rich, and the moistness and cleanliness are much better than ordinary soil materials.
This is also the favorite material of many tooth carvers. Although it is cracked, it is rich in changes. Every time you get the material, the things you make will behave differently.
These frozen soil materials can only be used as alternatives, not consumables. After all, frozen soil materials are also very rare.
Apart from ice materials and frozen soil materials, Han Kongque had the most abundant remaining soil materials, and the consumables were naturally the worst among them.
Generally speaking, earthenware is a material that many people don't want to touch. Although it is more crude, it will make you want to cut people when cutting and making it.
It doesn't matter if you throw away the scraps, or if you don't throw them away, it will make you feel like Cao Cao used to chop Yang Xiu with a useless piece of paper.
There are too many waste materials, there are basically a lot of calcified parts, and the moistness is also poor, but the price is also the lowest among these materials, it is difficult to produce large pieces, but it is the most rustic and vicissitudes of life.
Han Kongque selected the ones that performed better and had less severe calcification. These were not allowed to be wasted. Only the ones that were easily broken were the ones he practiced on.
So, don’t look at the large amount of soil material. In fact, it is really useless, because most of it will be broken into pieces as long as you dare to touch it.
In this way, although the soil materials are not very valuable and there are many materials, you must be more careful when handling them.
Therefore, if you really want to practice your skills, there are actually better options. For example, Han Peacock made the molars of the knife handle earlier. To be continued.