Subtle angle differences

Koi fish (carps) and autumn leaves

by Masami Shirai

LET’S TALK ABOUT HAN GUANG JUN’S FAVORITE INSTRUMENT, THE GUQIN (his qin is also aptly named Wang Ji lolol ugh I don’t know what do with you silly boy)

1. 鸥鹭忘机 Ou Lu Wang Ji

Did you know there is a famous guqin piece with LWJ’s name in it?

The title comes from a fable in the ancient text of LieZi. The story tells of a man who often played with seabirds and they would gather by him without fear.  One day, the man is asked by his father to catch some of those birds and take them home. The man tried to approach the birds next day, but the birds never flew near him again.

It hearkens back to the Taoist principle of harboring no ulterior motives, to not let yourself be carried away by worldly affairs, which is what his name reflects.

2. The Four Arts

Guqin is THE Chinese instrument when we talk about instruments that embody the history of China. Yeah I’m slightly biased because I play it, but I’ll leave you to read Wikipedia to get a sense of guqin’s long, extensive history that dates back centuries. The concept of the Four Arts - essentially, things Chinese scholars had to be accomplished at - goes, 琴棋书画, specifically the guqin, Go, calligraphy and painting. It is a symbol of culture, of self-cultivation and reflection - all of the things that LWJ excels at.

3. Guqin as a solo instrument

When it comes to playing, the guqin is not meant to be a loud instrument (a blessing for apartment dwellers hello) and there’s a saying that goes,

古琴悦己，古筝悦人

“The guqin is played to please oneself, the guzheng is played to please others“

(Incidentally the guzheng is a really cool instrument akdasjfl;awer I was so close to picking the guzheng over the guqin and even now I still think people look cooler playing it but I just love the sound of the guqin so that can’t be helped.)

The guqin is usually played alone, because it is easily overpowered by other louder instruments. Funnily enough, guess what one of the most common accompanying instruments is for the guqin in a duet? It’s a xiao 箫, a type of flute. It’s both a nod to LXC (who plays the xiao) and WWX (who plays a regular dizi).

 4. How guqin is played

Guqin pieces have a slow, meditative, somewhat sad quality to them. You’re not going to find Flight of the Bumblebee transcribed for the guqin - that’s just not really how the instrument is meant to be played. Guqin is all about the minute movements and timing - too early or too late, too much or too little glissando and you will never be able to produce the same feeling that the piece is trying to evoke, no matter how accurate your notes are. Technique for the guqin isn’t about how fast or complicated the notes are, it’s about that one split second when you know just how much pressure to exert on your left thumb to produce the perfect yin or nao.  Even so, the 7-string guqin is able to cover a full 4 octaves, just like its 21-string guzheng cousin. So playing it looks very easy, but like all instruments, achieving good results takes a lot of practice.

Thanks! Uhh it generally shifts based on the texture & shape I’m going for, but here’s my general process / rule of thumb:

Or if you lock layer transparency — or however its called in Photoshop — you can use a textured brush to quickly pepper in some highlights & shadow to add a gold-ish effect:

You can make shiny & glittery gold pretty easily when you use a dappled airbrush. It’s the same process as above, but with a spray of large-to-fine dots. It takes a little more time, but the result is cool.

The standard version of ClipStudo comes packaged with the saturated line tool, which generates sunburst effects. And so we wind up with something like this: