I was 6 when I started painting. It was my father’s influence, not my own initiative. When I was six, I was in my first year at school. One day, in my school art class, I drew a horse but when I took it home my father told me it wasn’t right, horse’s hooves are not like long feet. I then discovered painting was so absorbing, after my father corrected my painting, I realised my father enlightened me rather than any teacher. I was at that time I really started to be very interested in painting.
When I was in my third year at school, there was a drawing teacher in my town. He also teaches Chinese. He is very good at drawing. From this time on, I spent my daytime studying at school, and nighttime learning drawing with this teacher. He taught me about basic drawing skills and knowledge about Chinese painting. Little by little, I became a career of being a professional painter.
Later, I entered high school. At that time, my family is too poor to afford me drawing because the brushes, inks, and papers were not cheap. What could I do? I started to make the most of everything I could get to draw, such as colored pens, pencils, etc. When I grew older and was able to make money, I used all the money I could make on painting materials. I still remember clearly that at that time I would go to a very far shop on bicycle to buy a sheet of Xuan paper. Of course, if I got enough money, I would buy Xuan paper, otherwise, I would buy grass paper – a kind of cheap paper and not as good as Xuan paper, or worse and cheaper papers. In those years, I used up all the paper I could get at home. I drew at any blank places at home.
Read more about Huang Guohong, please visit Inkston's interview with Huang Guohong on Chinese GongBi Detail Painting.
