Su Demao: How to Perfect your Calligraphic Work 苏德茂：如何完善创作

Your have written your calligraphic piece, the next step is to continuously perfect and improve it.

1. Check the text to ensure that there are no wrongly written words

This is very important. The check is to find out whether the words are written wrongly by you or they are contained in the original source of the text.

It is not unusual to find wrong words in printed text. It is always better to use reliable text. Generally speaking, the books published by the Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House and Cultural Relics Publishing House in China are more reliable.

2. Mixing the Simplified script with the Traditional Scripts

The Simplified Chinese writing system has its role in popularizing the Chinese culture. However, it does not follow the scientific way of creating Chinese words and characters, and this has made it difficult for people to inherit traditional Chinese culture. Currently, the computing system of conversion between Simplified and traditional Chinese scripts is not working well, and it has caused unnecessary errors.

After thousand years of filtering, the writing scripts of Chinese calligraphy, namely the Official, Clerical, Regular, Zhang and Cursive scripts, have been meeting and fulfilling the aesthetic requirements. In principle, there is a need to accept tradition, as it is where the creativity originated. To be sure, we are not against new ideas and innovation, such as particular way of writing the cursive script.

In creating calligraphic work, the traditional scripts should be used as the first choice.

3. Continuously improve and make adjustments by taking the following points into consideration:

• The size of characters (mixture of big and small characters)
• The structure of words (upright or leaning structure)
• Brush techniques (centered-tip or slanted-tip)
• Harmony of ink effects: dark, light, moist, dried, penetrated, dull and bitter, flying white (threads of blank inline of ink)
• Exaggeration and reservation, stretching and contracting
• Brush techniques that produced flat or round effect on calligraphic lines
• Thick or thin lines: the use of pressing or lifting brush techniques
• The occupied and unoccupied spaces in cursive script writing: the solid or hollow (lingering) lines
• Varied arrangement of words and rows
• Joins and disjoins of lines
• Scatted or dense spacing
• Black (occupied) or white (unoccupied)
• Levelled or unlevelled footing
• Continuation of lines from end of one column to the beginning of another column
• Main characters (words) and strokes
• Adjustment of variations in word structure and shape
• The need for varied ways of writing the same character
• Natural and flawless composition: the spacing between strokes and words, the inscriptions and seal should be logically executed; the whole piece of calligraphic work should present the best visual effect.

苏德茂老师（中）与曾锦凯夫妇合影 Su Demao (Middle)

书法创作作品第一稿已经产生，接着如何去不断完善、改进？

 一：所写的内容是否有错字。

 此点很重要。查对是1。个人写错，2。原资料印错。

所依据原资料将字印错，是常有的事。查对中去查可信的版本。一般地说中国上海古籍出版社和文物出版社的版本可信程度高。

 二：繁简体的混淆。

 汉字简化为普及文化有意义，但简化却破坏了汉字造字的科学体系，而造成了混乱，为继承中华文化传统带来了不少麻烦。如今电脑的繁简互化功能的不完善，又产生不必要的错误。

书法中汉字的写法，篆、隶、真、章、草的书写，可以说经已过千、百年的筛选，符合审美的需要。为适合艺术创造的载体，原则上要继承。当然也不反对创造，如个别的草法，等等。

通用繁体字为书法创作中的首选。

 三：不断地完善、改进与调整。

大小

结字正、倚

正侧（中锋与侧锋的使用）

墨色和谐：浓淡枯润，涨墨与枯涩、飞白

夸张与含蓄，伸与缩

用笔的方、圆

笔画的粗细：用笔的重按与轻提

草书中的虚实：实连与虚连（牵丝）

字间、行间的错落

断连

疏密

黑白

字脚齐平与错落

隔行不断

主字与主笔

结体调整、字形的变化

重复字写法的变异

章法的完美自然：字、行、行间布白、款、印的合理、整幅作品黑、白块面的视觉效应等等。

苏德茂

2011.2.19