Learn to Write Chinese Characters, Numeric 1-to-10

Learn to write Chinese characters for numeric 1-10 is not as difficult as many has thought. Doesn’t require you to have any prerequisite knowledge, not even calligraphy paintings. No brush and black water ink color. All you need to use is just a marker pen or any basic writing stationary you use daily in office, home, or school. There are easy to learn and any Chinese will recognize what you want to message them by writing with a pen on a white piece of paper.

There are some basic rules; always get the basic stroke and directions correct. Generally, directions of basic strokes to make Chinese words are:-

  • Left to right, top to bottom, sometime end with a vertical hook.
  • Dash-dot in the directions from top to rightward or leftward.
  • Descending strokes from top to diagonally left with a straight ending. And
  • Trailing strokes from top to diagonally right with a slight curve ending.

Okay, straight to the point to learn how to write Chinese characters 1 to 10.

Learn to write Chinese Character 1 (One). The simplest of all. Consist of a horizontal strokes from left to right.

Chinese Character 1, One

Chinese Character 1, One

Learn to write Chinese Character 2 (Two). A short and a longer strokes at the bottom. Both left to right direction.

Chinese Character, Two, 2

Chinese Character, Two, 2

Learn to write Chinese Character 3 (Three). Quiet similar to Chinese character 2, but with a short middle strokes horizontally.

Chinese Character, Three, 3

Chinese Character, Three, 3

Learn to write Chinese Character 4 (Four). Looks like a small square, and within consist of 2 dash-dots in opposite direction. Total five strokes to make a word.

Chinese Character, Four, 4

Chinese Character, Four, 4

Learn to write Chinese Character 5 (Five). Try to maintain the horizontal strokes to be straight, and stroke with vertical direction to slightly lean towards right.

Chinese Character, Five, 5

Chinese Character, Five, 5

Learn to write Chinese Character 6 (Six). Keep the dash strokes to be short.

Chinese Character, Six, 6

Chinese Character, Six, 6

Learn to write Chinese Character 7 (Seven). There are only 2 strokes to make this word. Below is recognized as the simplified way of writing “seven”. To be precise, the horizontal stroke is written slanted slightly up, and the “L” strokes consist of a small hook at the lower ending.

Chinese Character, Seven, 7

Chinese Character, Seven, 7

Learn to write Chinese Character 8 (Eight). This is easy and the most auspicious character in Chinese culture. Quite similar to the 2 inner strokes in Chinese character four. This character word is more bold, bigger and widely spread out. Consist of 2 strokes writing in opposite directions; left stroke is shorter that the right.

Chinese Character, Eight, 8

Chinese Character, Eight, 8

Learn to write Chinese Character 9 (Nine). Only consist of 2 strokes. Second strokes has a right-angle bent and end with a hook in right direction.

Chinese Character, Nine, 9

Chinese Character, Nine, 9

Learn to write Chinese Character 10 (Ten). This is as good as the mathematical symbol “+” (plus). Definitely not the cross use in religious symbol.

Chinese Character, Ten, 10

Chinese Character, Ten, 10

Additional learning to describe hundredth, thousandth, and tenth thousand.

Learn to write Chinese Character 100th (Hundredth). This is a bad writings, especially stroke #2 and #3. It is still recognize as a Chinese character “100th”, but in an unrefined manner. It consist of 6 strokes, with 2 faults you should not follow. Strokes #2 should not budge out to the third strokes. And strokes #3 should have a nicer right turn, instead of the crooked corner.

Chinese Character, Hundredth, 100

Chinese Character, Hundredth, 100th

Learn to write Chinese Character 1000th (Thousandth). This is easy. Seems like just an additional strokes on top of the Chinese character “ten”. If you look closely, the order of writings this 3 strokes is not the same.

Chinese Character, Thousandth, 1000th

Chinese Character, Thousandth, 1000th

Learn to write Chinese Character 10,000th (Tenth Thousand). This is very unique for the Chinese to name tenth thousand in just a single character. Compare 13 English alphabets with only 3 simple Chinese writing strokes. Do you see the beauty in this word?

Chinese Character, Tenth Thousand, 10000th

Chinese Character, Tenth Thousand, 10000th

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3 Basic Methods to Dry Oil Painting

As far as I have understand about oil paintings and other choices of color painting media, the duration to completely dry an oil painting is longer than one can expect. Unlike acrylic paint, it dry much faster. The slow drying process for oil color could be an advantage to allow artists to work on it for many sessions. On the other hand, it could be frustrating for the final wait of drying oil painting before you able to frame it up.

You would had been done your artwork with painstaking attention, yet drying is another pressing issues for beginners who uses oil color. Waiting time may take even weeks to dry. So what takes oil painting so long time to dry?

For simple fact that oil do not dry by evaporation. The drying of oils is the result of an oxidative reaction, chemically equivalent to slow, flameless combustion. The thicker the coat of paint, the longer the waiting time will be. Having said that, there are 3 basic methods to shorten drying process. Namely, paint with thin layers, use paints ground in linseed oil, and use drying additives.

  1. Painting thin layers allows oxidation to permeate into oil layers easier, than thick or multiple layers on top of one another. Thus, shorter time is achieved and it also an added advantage for painting more layers on dryer oil surface.
  2. Linseed oil is made from the seeds of the flax plant. It is available in refined and cold-pressed oil. Beside a better and faster drying oil, it also has adds gloss and transparency to paints. It dries very thoroughly, making it’s ideal for under-painting and initial layers in a painting.
  3. Cobalt Driers are extremely powerful oxidizing agent. The adverse effect of using this addictive may affect the color of mixtures. So it is advisable to use it sparely. If used in excess they can ruin a painting. Most experienced painters would agree that not more than 5 drops of cobalt drier should be used per each 2 1/2 fluid Oz of any given medium. Basically Cobalt Driers are diluted in the oil painting medium if you are using one. It is harder to control the amount of drier, if directly into the blobs of paint on the palette. In short, Cobalt Driers are used to improve and speed the drying rate of oil colors.

Whatever the methods to increase the rate of drying oil painting, I would say having good patience is still the key factor in learning any art disciplines.

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How To Add Text To Oil Painting?

Adding to last week topic on Chinese calligraphy painting, I thought it will be good idea to illustrate further about writing text on an oil painting artwork. I did some searching and hoping to compile a summary of what I have learn and share it on my blog. However, to what I have realized is not about the content, but about someone who has been an active contributor in Yahoo Answers. Her name appeared as “Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao” Member since April 07, 2007. In her profile, she mentioned that she is a professional acrylic artist and have 40 years of art painting experience under her belt. By her name, she is a Vietnamese artist. I would be interested to find out more about her work and perhaps invite her for a guest’s post.

Ok, back to the topic of the title today: how to add text to oil painting? You may be interested to read it here, which was also the answer by Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao. Or do you have a better answer than her?

Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao

Who is Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao?

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