Written in water

[gurdymonkey]

Written in water
Fragments of a name appear
And vanish like mist.



Well, it kinda sorta maybe looks like 西. The Buddha Board arrived in the mail this afternoon and the only reason I haven't noodled around with it more than I have is that I have a rather inconveniently positioned and still very raw blister that makes holding the brush awkward. (A pen is even worse.) It should be better tomorrow.  It's hard to see in this photo but the "inkstone" is notched so you can lay the pen across the top. There's a second set of notches set a little farther back so you can also use it as an easel. 

At least I won't be spilling ink on the carpet just yet....

Comments

[eleryth.livejournal.com]

The stroke order for the first kanji is different in Japanese (some of my Chinese classmates back in university would get in trouble for writing kanji the Chinese way - the teacher could tell based on the pencil lines, it was insane how she could do that). You can find the stroke order diagram on Jim Breen's kanji dictionary. I don't know if I can link it directly, but I'll try here. If it's not animated when you get the link (if it works), hit refresh and it should start over. Or, from this page, click on SOD after the kanji you're interested in and it'll take you to the stroke order diagram.

I'd suggest trying both stroke orders and seeing which works best for you. I'm not saying one is wrong and the other is right, just pointing out the difference. I personally find that making the box part of the character before the "legs" first helps me line up the "legs" easier.

I don't know if the SOD on Jim Breen's site is a modern way of writing or if it's how they wrote back then.

[didjiman.livejournal.com]

Yes, I gave her a revised version already :-)

It's one of those, when you do it slowly, you can't do it right type of thing :-) Try explaining how to walk to another person :-)

[eleryth.livejournal.com]

Yeah, understood! I don't remember many kanji, but those I can still write I don't think about anymore, and just write them. Though I don't do calligraphy, just write with pens/pencil.

It bet it's helpful to have someone to turn to who can explain kanji and stuff, and check on the writing and teach calligraphy.

[didjiman.livejournal.com]

Very nice. Today, the word for "West." Soon you can write the whole poems and stuff...

[erink.livejournal.com]

Yep, these boards are awesome for kanji practice. I need to get back into studying Japanese ... I've forgotten how to write anything.

Work on keeping the top stroke level, and don't worry about joining the last stroke - it looks cooler if there's a little gap, especially at the right side. I don't know why.

[moonflake1978.livejournal.com]

Very cool! Kanji is so beautiful!

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

When it's done right, it is. I feel like a first grader who needs the fat pencil and double ruled paper....

[cayswann.livejournal.com]

http://www.skritter.com/ --> the demo is free for two weeks. I like this site, and worked with it a bit back in beta. I haven't pursued my Chinese studies in years, but I keep these links in my back-pocket for possibly later investing time and energy.

The one note I can comment on --> square boxes tend to have a specific tilt to them when writing characters. If you look at your example from the writing sample, last one, top row, ... you'll see how the left vertical line tilts to the left, the top horizontal line slants up to the right, the right vertical line tilts in again from top right to bottom left-ish, and the bottom horizontal line tilts in parallel to the top horizontal line. You'll notice it everywhere now. It was the first "iconic look" that our Chinese instructor pointed out to us --> if our "boxes" looked like this, we would look like we knew what we were doing.

[cayswann.livejournal.com]

Oh, but I also meant to say: Very lovely photo post.