Sunny Spring 陽春 Happy Lunar New Year 2014

Today Thursday 30 Jan is the eve of Chinese Lunar New Year when Chinese families around the world have their reunion dinners. Happy Lunar New Year, my dearest friends! May your dreams take flight this 阳春 (Yang Chun) Sunny Spring in the Year of the Wood Horse! *smile* 陽春 is also the name of a famous guqin tune about spring time.

(Yes, just in case you wish to see a horse which I have doodled before, because it's the year of the Horse, please click here.)

 

 Presented below are some pictures of the "production" process of this doodle the night before on Wednesday 29 Jan 2014. *smile*

I was very inspired by Fushimi-san's playing of this guqin tune 陽春 with silk strings.

Guqin picture taken with vs. without camera flash

In April 2013, I ordered this ZhangYong-made banana-shaped guqin from Taobao. From the pictures on Taobao, it was brown. However, when the guqin arrived in Singapore, it was black. I thought that the Taobao had shipped me a different qin. I did not kick up any fuss, as my intention was to lend my support to a Sichuan-based guqin maker (it could be any Sichuan guqin maker) after the Sichuan earthqu...ake in April 2013. To my amazement, when I took a picture of this guqin with flash (in my Singapore home on 20 Jan 2014), the brown color of the guqin could be seen in the picture, proving that the Taobao seller *did* in fact send me the actual qin. It's just that the seller might have used a camera with flash to take pictures, which might have produced pictures of the guqin that looked very attractive. Haha. Lesson learned for me: pictures of guqins on Taobao.com may look dramatically different from the actual thing, even if the seller did sell and ship the exact same guqin to the customer. I should just totally trust the Taobao guqin seller. Haha

Photo taken with Flash On.

Photo taken without Flash.

Doodle of You Lan 幽蘭

Inspired by the guqin 古琴 tune 幽蘭 youlan, I doodled this in Shuang Gou 双钩 style (meaning: Chinese outline drawing without going over again a second time with ink to create thick and thin line variations) on a warm humid Singapore night. Haha

The characters 幽蘭 (pronounced as You Lan) can be translated as "Secluded Thoroughwort," and not as "Secluded Orchids" as I had previously wrongfully assumed. hahaha...Yes, they do look a bit like grass... they are more "low profile"; unlike the typically bigger and more colorful orchids that people are used to seeing in tropical Singapore. hahaha

 [ UPDATED on 15 Jan 2014: According to guqin maestro Muka Fushimi-san of Kyoto Japan, 幽蘭 can be regarded as a 蘭草, not 蘭花 (Orchids). Japanese name Fujibakama. English name Thoroughwort. Thanks for enriching my knowledge about 蘭草, Fushimi-san! ^_^ ]

 

 

 

The significance of this guqin tune 幽蘭 is that it is probably the oldest guqin tune from before 903AD. Here are two videos of the tune 幽蘭 played by two different guqin maestros. Enjoy!

 

 

Playing guqin at this perfect moment in space-time in our multiverse

It's fine Sunday night in Singapore. It had taken billions of years for all of us to get here. I am so happy to be playing guqin 古琴 at his perfect moment in space-time in our multiverse. As the famous scientist Dr. Carl Sagan said, we are all star dust.

Home practice - guqin tune 潇湘水云 Xiao xiang shui yun (stopped at end of section 4)

Saturday night 11th Jan 2014.Home practice in Singapore. Played from 9:15pm until 11:00pm the guqin tune 潇湘水云 Xiao xiang shui yun (Misty Clouds Over Xiao Xiao Rivers). Memorized until end of section 4. Total sections: 19 which means I need to work through and memorize 15 more sections. Hahaha... Enough for the night. I did not play any old tunes. Thai movie Ong Bak 3 was on TV. Haha

Doodle of snow laden bamboo

Inspired by the guqin 古琴 tune 白雪 Bai Xue (meaning: white snow), I doodled this: snow laden bamboo. Hang in there, people living in the Polar Vortex! You can make it! (It's warm and toasty in tropical Singapore where I am. Haha)

This is what Bai Xue sounds like played with silk strings on guqin:

Doodle of a Swan with Mabie Todd fountain pens

Friday night 10th Jan 2014. My first lousy attempt at doodling a Mabie Todd Swan (brand of the 3 fountain pens in the photos) in Chinese calligraphy style... Hahaha... (laughing at my silly self) Too much ink flowed onto its beak, so I was forced to spread out the ink and make the whole beak black. Hahaha... There was another ink slipup at its neck. Hahaha... But it was fun... *smile*

Video: Russians playing guqin and xiao

Russians playing guqin zither and qin xiao flute. Nice! *smile*
[special thanks to David Badagnani for sharing this in Facebook.]

Played my 张勇 ZhangYong-made banana-leaf shaped guqin on Thursday night

Enjoyed playing guqin 古琴 at home in Singapore on Thursday night even though I was very tired after a day of working... very therapeutic. Hahaha... Picture shows my 张勇 ZhangYong-made banana-leaf shaped guqin with Tobaya brand silk strings. Tuned to B-flat on thickest 1st string. I enjoyed looking at its slick curves as much as I enjoyed playing it. *smile*

Doodle of Qin Qi Shu Hua 琴棋书画

My doodle of a guqin 古琴 player playing while watching an exciting 围棋 weiqi chess game. Done with my fountain pen. Hahaha... Doodling helps me to relief stress. Therapeutic...

The Chinese words are Qin Qi Shu Hua 琴棋书画, which represent the 4 traditional arts that ancient Chinese scholars were required to learn: Qin (7 silk string guqin zither), Qi (wei qi chess), Shu (calligraphy), and Hua (painting).

My doodle of 梅梢月 mei shao yue

Sat by my window at home in Singapore and wrote Chinese words 梅梢月 mei shao yue, which means Moon At Tip of Plum Blossom (the name of an ancient guqin 古琴 tune). I can't decide if I should draw a crescent or a full moon, so I decided not to draw the moon and it'd just be left to your imagination. hahaha... yes, I'm just lazy...

Pencil outlines of drawing were drawn using my Montblanc Leonardo Da Vinci sketch pencil. Montblanc Pinocchio (writer Carlo Collodi 2010 edition) fountain pen was used to go over some parts of the drawing. Haha... doodling is fun and therapeutic. I love it.

I had learned the guqin tune  梅梢月 mei shao yue from Mr. John Thompson in May 2012. Click here to see a video recording of me playing  梅梢月 mei shao yue.

Click here to see a lady guqin maestro who played the same tune  梅梢月 mei shao yue with much greater dexterity. That's why I am a beginner and she is a maestro. Big difference in our playing even though it was the same tune  梅梢月 mei shao yue. She really made the tune come alive! *smile*

Pencil outline of plum blossoms and bird drawn with Montblanc Leonardo Da Vinci sketch pencil

Outline drawn with out-of-production Montblanc Leonardo Da Vinci sketch pencil which I bought in Singapore a few years ago as a future gift for my daughter who loves to draw very much. I plan to use a fountain pen flex nib to go over the pencil outline the next day. Too tired to continue. Haha. Drawings of plum blossoms and bird were copied from 2 different books and juxtapositioned together the best I could. hahaha... No, I can't draw original stuff. I'm just a hobbyist copying this for fun and laughter. Lol

Using 书法字典 Shu Fa Zi Dian to learn to write Chinese Calligraphy with fude nib fountain pen

Happy New Year! Thanks for visiting my blog! *smile*

In case anyone is wondering how I learned how to use a fude nib fountain pen to write Chinese calligraphy characters, here's how... I have been using this free online dictionary at http://www.shufazidian.com/ to first find out how each single character should look like. This very useful resource was recommended by my former NAFA Chinese calligraphy classmates JuLyn and Kenny.

Subsequently, I would copy that character onto paper with my fude bent nib fountain pen. Yes, it's that simple. Shu Fa Zi Dian rocks! It's very cool! No, I am only a beginner learner in Chinese calligraphy and I do not know how to write without any guide. hahaha *smile*

As you can see in the screenshot below, there is an option in the pull down menu to select "fountain pen" 钢笔. May you enjoy writing Chinese calligraphy too! *smile*

Maybe someone may ask, "What does this have anything to do with guqin?" Well, just in case you need to carve a Chinese poem or a calligraphic seal onto the bottom of your guqin, you may wish to consider checking out http://www.shufazidian.com/ since carving Chinese characters onto the bottom of a guqin has very little tolerance for margins of errors or permanently etched ugly writing. hahaha LOL