The way of
using brush in paintings is called Bone Method and this referes not only to the
texture and brush stroke but to the close link between handwriting and
personality. In addition, the art of calligraphy was inseparable from painting.
Ever since painting had become an art and the process or result become more
complexed and some are developed that was associated with the gentry class as
one of their main artistic pastimes in the Southern and Northern dynasties and
the others being calligraphy and poetry. Hence, in the earliest paintings were
not made too influencial or likeness but ornamental and just consisted of
patterns or designs rather than pictures. Since then, Bone Method became one of
the elements in defining a painting established by Xie He who considered 6
points when judging a painting.
