Chinese Painting Supplies
— Pigments, Brushes & Xuan Paper
Authentic guohua (国画) materials made by Paul Rubens Shop: classical Gucai (古彩) pigments, mineral stone colors, Antique Han Series bottled inks, and rice-paper calligraphy practice books — shipped from our US warehouse with verified buyer reviews.
Hand-blended pigments · US Fulfillment · 24/48 color sets · Since 1998
What is Chinese Painting (Guohua)?
Chinese painting — known as guohua (国画), literally “national painting” — is a 2,000-year-old visual tradition that uses water-based mineral and plant pigments, soft animal-hair brushes, and absorbent rice paper or silk. Unlike Western watercolour, guohua treats the brush stroke itself as the subject: a single ink line carries weight, speed, moisture, and intent.
There are two principal styles. Gongbi (工笔) is “meticulous brush” — fine outlines and layered washes, often used for court paintings of birds, flowers, and figures. Xieyi (写意) is “writing meaning” — spontaneous, expressive ink work in the literati tradition, where one bamboo branch can take a lifetime to master. Both styles share the same four core tools and the same insistence on water, absorbent ground, and the discipline of the unforgiving line.
The tradition is layered. The Tang dynasty (618-907) gave us the great court paintings of Wang Wei and the codified ink landscape. The Song dynasty (960-1279) refined the monochrome ink tradition into its highest form under masters such as Fan Kuan and Guo Xi. The Ming and Qing dynasties carried mineral-color flower-and-bird painting and literati ink work forward into the modern era — and the Four Treasures of the Study (writing brush, ink stick, paper, inkstone) have remained essentially unchanged since the Han dynasty almost two thousand years ago.
Note on chinese watercolour painting: in Western markets the same supplies are often labeled “chinese watercolour” — the medium is identical, the cultural framing differs.
Gongbi vs Xieyi: Choosing Your Style
Most beginners ask the same question first: should I start with gongbi or xieyi? The honest answer is that the choice usually picks you. Gongbi (工笔) rewards patience. You sketch, transfer the drawing to processed (alum-sized) paper, and lay layered washes of stone color over a sealed line. A single peony branch can take twenty hours and thirty wash passes. The reward is precision — every petal is decided, every vein is intentional, the color sits cleanly on the paper as if it were enamel.
Xieyi (写意) rewards commitment. You load the brush, you breathe, you put the stroke down on raw xuan paper and the bleed begins before you lift the brush. There is no correction. A bamboo branch is one movement. The reward is presence — a finished xieyi work carries the tempo of the moment it was made, the way a calligraphic line carries the calligrapher’s breath.
Most working guohua artists eventually do both. Gongbi trains your eye and your patience; xieyi trains your hand and your nerve. If you are coming from Western watercolour, gongbi will feel familiar (it is essentially layered glazing on a sized ground); xieyi will feel like learning a new language. Try a small piece in each style before committing your first sheet of full-weight xuan paper.
The Four Treasures of the Study
Every guohua studio rests on the Four Treasures of the Study (文房四宝, wénfáng sìbǎo): brush, ink, paper, inkstone. These four tools have been the canonical kit since at least the Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE), and the order in which they appear is not accidental — the brush leads, the ink follows, the paper receives, the inkstone holds the work.
1. Bi (笔) — The Chinese Brush
Traditional Chinese brushes are bound with goat hair, weasel (huang lang), wolf, or rabbit hair around a bamboo or wooden shaft. Soft brushes (ruan hao) hold more water and are used for washes; stiff brushes (ying hao) snap back and are used for line work. We sell hand-bound synthetic and natural-hair brushes through our Artist Brushes page — round, flat, fan, and long-tail liner shapes for both Western watercolour and guohua line work.
2. Mo (墨) — Ink Stick and Bottled Ink
Traditional Chinese ink (mo) is a stick of compressed pine soot or oil soot, ground on the inkstone with water. Modern artists often use bottled liquid ink for convenience — our Antique Han Series 30ml bottled pigment is a single-color liquid ink ready to dip directly with a brush. The classical method — grinding ink fresh — gives the artist control over concentration, which directly governs the famous “Five Shades of Black”.
3. Zhi (纸) — Xuan Paper
Xuan paper (xuanzhi, 宣纸) is the premier ground for guohua. Made from sandalwood bark and rice straw, it absorbs ink unevenly on purpose — the bleed becomes part of the painting. There are two main types: raw xuan (sheng xuan), which absorbs aggressively and is used for xieyi; and processed xuan (shu xuan), sized with alum to slow the bleed for gongbi detail work. For Western papers compatible with mineral pigment, see our Watercolor Paper page.
4. Yan (砚) — The Inkstone
The inkstone (yan) is a flat, slightly hollowed slab of slate or She stone where the ink stick is ground with a few drops of water. A good inkstone is tight-grained enough not to abrade the stick, smooth enough to release ink evenly, and cool enough to keep the ink from drying as you work. While we do not sell inkstones directly, every Chinese painter we know keeps at least one stone within arm’s reach of the desk.
Five Shades of Black (墨分五色)
Mo fen wu se — “ink divides into five colors” — is the cornerstone of monochrome ink painting. From a single stick of black ink, the artist controls water content to produce five distinct values, each with its own emotional register:
- Jiao (焦) — burnt: nearly dry, almost black, used for the darkest accents in rocks, eyes, and the heaviest tree trunks.
- Nong (浓) — concentrated: rich saturated black, used for primary outlines and bold xieyi strokes.
- Zhong (重) — heavy: deep gray, used for mid-tone modeling and form-defining washes.
- Dan (淡) — light: pale gray, used for atmospheric distance and soft skin tones.
- Qing (清) — clear: barely tinted water, used to soften edges and lay an under-wash before pigment goes down.
Mastering the five shades is the entry to literati painting. Even when full color is added later via stone and plant pigments, the structure of the work lives in the ink layer underneath. In practice, a landscape might use jiao for the silhouette of a single pine on the foreground rock, nong for the boldest tree branches, zhong for the body of the mountain mass, dan for the distant peaks fading into mist, and qing for the under-wash that softens the entire sky. Five values from one ink stick — and only after the ink structure is right does any color get added.
Stone Colors and Mineral Pigments
Where the West reaches for tube watercolours, classical Chinese painters reach for ground rock. Stone Colors (石色, shi se) are mineral pigments — azurite, malachite, cinnabar, ochre — ground from raw stones into fine powder, suspended in animal-hide glue, and applied in thin layered washes.
Stone Colors — The Classical Mineral Palette
Six minerals form the spine of the traditional palette: shiqing (石青) from azurite gives a deep cool blue; shilv (石绿) from malachite gives a soft mineral green; zhusha (朱砂) — cinnabar — gives the iconic red used in every collector’s seal; shihuang (石黄) from orpiment gives a warm earthy yellow; baifen (白粉) from lead white or shell white gives covering whites; and tihuang from yellow ochre gives a transparent earth tone. Mineral pigments are opaque, particulate, and lightfast — they age beautifully on rice paper and silk.
Plant Pigments — The Transparent Layer
Plant pigments (植物色, zhiwu se) are extracted from indigo leaves, gardenia, gamboge resin, and rouge — the same dye plants used in imperial textile work. Plant pigments are translucent and stain quickly, which is why classical Chinese painters layer plant under stone: a wash of indigo first, then mineral azurite on top. Our Antique Pearl 36-Color Set and Gucai 48 Solid Cakes blend both families — mineral pigment for body, plant pigment for transparency.
The order matters. Plant pigments lay down first because they stain the fibers and cannot be lifted. Once the under-color is set, the artist floats mineral pigment on top — the particle size of the mineral catches the light at a different angle than the plant stain underneath, producing the layered, slightly metallic depth that distinguishes a real guohua from a Western watercolour copy.
How Are Traditional Chinese Pigments Made?
Mineral pigments start as raw stone — azurite, malachite, cinnabar — crushed, decanted in water to separate particle sizes, dried, and finally bound with hide glue. The grade of a mineral pigment is set by particle size: coarser grinds give deeper, more textural color; finer grinds give translucent washes. Plant pigments are infused or fermented from leaves and resins, then concentrated. Our Gucai (古彩) line follows the classical process and pre-binds both families into ready-to-use solid cakes — the convenience of a Western half-pan with the body of a stone color.
Featured Chinese Painting Sets
Eight sets we recommend most for guohua, gongbi, and chinese watercolour practice. All ship from our US warehouse and carry verified buyer reviews. For questions, email paulrubensshop@gmail.com.
Browse the full range on our watercolor collection or read our buyer’s guide on the Best Watercolors blog.
Xuan Paper, Ink Sticks & Inkstones
Choosing your ground is half the painting. Sheng xuan paper (raw, unsized) is the default for xieyi — its aggressive bleed makes the brush honest. Shu xuan (processed, alum-sized) is the default for gongbi — the alum holds the line until you decide to wash. Beginners often start on thin practice paper before committing to full-weight xuan.
If you are coming from Western watercolour and want a heavyweight cotton paper that handles both Western washes and Chinese mineral pigment, our 100% cotton hot-pressed and cold-pressed Watercolor Paper is the closest Western equivalent — the cotton fiber accepts stone color without buckling, and the hot-pressed surface keeps the line crisp the way shu xuan does.
Calligraphy & Line Drawing Practice
Calligraphy is the foundation. Before guohua, students copy classical models — line drills, character grids, brush pressure exercises. Our Traditional Chinese Calligraphy Practice Book uses thin rice paper bound into a 60-page notebook with printed grids for line and character work. Pair it with a long-tail liner brush from our Artist Brushes page — the same brush families used for both calligraphy and fine ink lines in painting.
Why Paul Rubens Shop
Paul Rubens Shop is the official authorized online store of the Paul Rubens Gucai (古彩) and Antique Han Series pigment lines. Every set is hand-blended, lab-checked for lightfastness, and bound in hide glue or modern non-yellowing binders before solid-cake compression. Sets ship from our US Fulfillment warehouse — typical 2-3 business day delivery to US customers, with verified buyer reviews covering every set since 2022.
We also work directly with serious students. If you are studying guohua in a US, UK, or Australian university program and want a sample card with swatches of Gucai, Antique Han, and Antique Pearl before committing to a full set, email paulrubensshop@gmail.com with your program and shipping address — we send the sample card free of charge. The same offer extends to studio teachers and museum education programs.
Chinese Painting FAQ
｜What is Guohua (国画)?
｜What are stone colors (石色) in Chinese painting?
｜What is the difference between Gucai and modern watercolour?
｜Do you make Xuan paper?
｜What are the Five Shades of Black (墨分五色)?
｜What brushes do I need to start Chinese painting?
｜Are your pigments toxic? Are they safe for children?
｜How do I order from outside the US?
Questions? Email paulrubensshop@gmail.com · Paul Rubens Shop · paulrubensshop.com