Look closely at the two tiger paintings on this page. The tiger sits in almost the same spot. There is a pine tree and there are magpies. But the two tigers have very different faces.
The first one was painted on silk in the 1700s. The second was painted on paper in the 1800s. Different hands made them, many years apart.
Sharing a drawing guide
Minhwa painters often used a bon, a drawing guide passed from painter to painter. So the same picture could be painted again and again.
Most of these painters never signed their work. Their names are lost, but their hands are still there, in every line and every color.
In minhwa, copying was not cheating. It was how painters learned and how the tradition was handed down.
From the Artist
— Jieun Ro
For me, a painting becomes “mine” not when I start adding color, but when I study the original and redraw my own guide.
With a peony or lotus painting, this is easier. But with something like a peach-and-crane screen, full of twisting rocks and thick leaves, the old original is often faded and damaged by time. I search through many references to understand its shapes.
After studying the blurry original deeply, I raise a new black-and-white line drawing with my own understanding and my own hand. In that moment I feel, “This is already becoming my painting.”
Traditional painting reaches true creation only after faithful copying and thoughtful reinterpretation. As someone who did not major in painting, I hold one rule: never stop training to make the lines behind the guide truly my own.
Try This
Play “spot the difference” with the two tigers. Look at the eyes, the stripes, and the tail. How many differences can you find?
Image credits & sources
This story is part of an ongoing series. More stories are on the way.
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