Review: Chinese Brush Painting

Art is one of the subjects that has been very hit or miss around our house. It seems like we put the effort into doing the core subjects, but forget how much art and music need to be explored as well. Timberdoodle has us covered when it comes to art. We recently were sent Chinese Brush Painting to review. I'll be honest that I hadn't really heard of this before, but was excited to try it out.  The set arrived in a very pretty and sturdy box.  It included the instruction book with 10 painting projects, a pad of paper, Chinese brushes, watercolor paints and more! This set is recommended for ages 9 and up. My son, almost 13, and I worked on these projects together.

We first sat down with the instruction booklet and went over all our materials.  There were two brushes included, one called a white cloud brush and the other a vine brush. The white cloud brush was for larger strokes and the vine brush for thinner.  Everything we needed was included in the kit other than water, a dish and a towel. I like when I can open the box and get started.  This technique is all about the layering of the colors and how the brush strokes are made.

We decided that we'd follow the book's recommendations by first doing the ladybug.  We struggled with the technique of layering the colors on the brush, but I think it's a skill that needs to be developed. The more we work on it the better it will be. It's definitely a skill to paint this way. The layering is what makes these paintings so beautiful and unique.  Everyone is going to layer colors slightly different and therefore that is what makes them unique.

** Issac's ladybug

** My lady bug 

**The example in the book

After the ladybug we decided to just pick items we wanted to paint and work on our techniques while we worked. The item I thought was the COOLEST out of the kit was the ink stone and stick. We were given a black stone in which we were to put a few drops of water. Then you take the stick and grind it around the stone and it gives you a black color. The stick is dried-up powder that has been compressed. I find these two items just fascinating!

We've really had a lot of fun with this kit. There has been trial and error in our technique, but like I mentioned before it's a skill that needs to be learned. I'm not quite sure we have the technique down yet, but we still had a great time trying.  I'm very thankful for Timberdoodle for providing such quality art products such as this Chinese Brush Painting set.