The Right Hand “Sweeps”

The Next set of “Strokes”, is the “Right Hand Sweeps”. The First of these is the “Floating Goose”. This Stroke begins with the “Mother Dot”, and begins to move “Downward” with a slight “list” to the Left, As the stroke reaches the desired “vertical” distance, the brush is “lifted” slightly (to “thin” the stroke), and then “lowered” as the brush continues the “sideways” portion of the stroke. The “tip” of the brush begins on the Left edge, and as it nears the “turn”, moves to define the “top” edge of the stroke. After the “turn” is made, the brush is lowered (to provide “thickness” to the horizontal portion). The “top” edge of the Horizontal stroke is “curved”to the position where it goes “vertical”, then to the Left. The bottom edge, while “thickening” maintains an “arc” to it, and is pulled past the point where the tip has moved vertical. At this point the brush is “lifted”, as the tip motions to the Left (and upward) creating a “sweeping” point (that distinctively “points” to the Left, at a place “slightly” higher than the beginning position).

This Stroke is called the Long Wave (and it's “variant” the “Playing Fish”) are the most (“commonly”) incorrectly brushed strokes. It requires a lot of practice (for them to be brushed “correctly”). The “Playing Fish” variant, is usually located at the “bottom” of the numerous kanji that it is present in, and the Long Wave commonly dominates the Right side of a character. It should be noted, that the “body” of the brush does the majority of the strokes creation. The “tip” of the brush (after making the “Mother Dot”) Raises slightly, then “sweeps” to the Right, and “downward” (again “slightly). In the Playing Fish variant,Towards the last Quarter of the stroke, it raises again to (almost) the level of the bottom of the (“initial”) “Mother Dot”. The “Bottom” edge of the stroke (being brushed with the “body” of the brush) begins with a “sharp” initial rise, then is quickly angled downward to the Right. As it proceeds through the stroke, it will “thicken”(from a “lowering” of the brush) until it “stops”, and the body of the brush is quickly lifted until the “point” is created.In the Large Wave form, the stroke almost immediately begins to move downward to the right, with the body of the brush forming the Left-hand "corner", and easing pressure until the bottom and Right side form the ending "point" (of the stroke)

The “Playing Fish” (being the “other” stroke commonly “miss-brushed”) Begins as the previous did, the “Mother Dot” is brushed, and the tip is moved to the Right, and creates the “look” of a “shoulder”, with the “tip” creating a curved and downward “sweep”to the Right (all the way to the “point” of the end of the stroke). As in the previous stroke, the “body” of the brush is used to make the “body” of this stroke. Once the “Mother Dot” is completed, the “body” of the brush moves to the Right, then sweeps downward at the desired “angle” while maintaining a (mostly) “straight” edge while “getting” there. The bottom Left “corner”, is (often) most “easily” created, by the use of the “bounce” technique. As this “bounce” is done, the body of the brush is “rolled” while moving “sideways”, and is “lifted” as the bottom edge is created/brought to the ending “point” of the stroke.

Whew! Now that we're done with “those”, we'll go on to “simpler” strokes. The next one, is the “Golden Cone”. This stroke is began with the “Mother Dot”, and is “raised”(only a “little”) and the top edge (being made by the “tip” of the brush) is taken upward at an angle (approx. 45º). The top edge should maintain a “straight” line, the bottom edge of the stroke, should gradually be “thinned”(by raising the body of the brush) until the desired “point” is created.

The Next stroke is the “Bent Pagoda”. This stroke begins as a “vertical” stroke (“thinning” slightly from the top, to the level where it “changes”). It should be noted, that there are versions of this stroke that have “longer”, “Vertical” portions, than other's. Once the desired length has been made, the brush is then “lifted”, and (the “tip”) is moved to the Left, and downward then “reset” (which creates the “finished” corner which is evident). Once “set”, the brush should be motioned upward and to the Right with the body of the brush being lifted (to create the finishing “point”).

The Final (Three) versions of the “Right Hand Sweeps” are similar in execution, but mainly differ in the angle of the vertical portion of the stroke.

The First one, is the “Phoenix Wing”. This stroke begins with the “Mother Dot”, then moves to the Right, Raising at a slight angle. As this stroke reaches the position where the bottom of the stroke, reaches the same height as the top of the initial “Mother Dot” placement, the brush is “re-set” (commonly utilizing a “bounce” to do so) creates a “finished” corner, the stroke then continues (with a change in direction). The stroke (now) begins a downward motion(with the “tip” of the brush “now” following the Left side of the stroke), this downward “sweep” arc's to the Right until it is positioned to the Right and beyond the “turn” (made previously in the stroke). As the brush enter's the final portion of the downward stroke, the “tip” of the brush is moved to the “top” of the stroke and continues upward, the body of the brush will (commonly) utilize a “bounce” to create the “turn” where the brush is moved “upward” and is raised to gradually taper to the ending “point”.

The Final Two “sweeps”, are the “Flying Goose”, and the “Bamboo Crecent”. The “final” portion of the discription given for the “Phoenix Wing”, is identical to what is required for the brushing of these two Strokes. It's “my” opinion, that anyone (with any experience, even from the practice of only the previously shown/described “Strokes”) can determine the necessary motions to create these two strokes. If I'm wrong,....I will write some out. But until I am informed otherwise, I'm just going to provide the “visual” examples (and allow you to “practice” them).