This is a book by painter Jeong Jong-mi, who has broadened the horizons of Korean art by creating a modern form of the formative language of murals, Buddhist paintings, and folk paintings in our art and by using unique coloring techniques using traditional materials.
『Materials and Techniques of Korean Painting』 introduces the microscopic analysis of pigments and the characteristics, functions, and usage methods of each type of paint according to the colorant, based on materials science research on traditional painting.


The author says that knowing the identity of our aesthetic sensibility is “knowing ourselves,” and that this is “the path to opening the future of Korean art.”
He also says that the controversies and conflicts between Eastern and Western painting, or between color and ink, can only “advance to the integrated dimension of painting” when they are overcome through “material studies.”
The author's profound insight into Korean art invites us into a world of colorful paintings.
This book is recommended to general readers and researchers interested in Korean painting or those who wish to establish basic concepts in materials science, as well as those who wish to experience the traditional aesthetics and emotions of Korean art in a three-dimensional way.

Unlike music and literature, art is an expression through materials and physical properties.
Therefore, art can only be complete through the various expressive techniques of material properties.
If music expresses emotions through sound waves and literature through language, art communicates through materials such as pigments and colorants.
Since each genre of painting has its own unique capturing method, color, and finishing materials within a series of organic relationships, material techniques become the main elements that determine the style.
There are many questions, such as why Joseon portraits were made of silk, why the West used oil paintings while the East used gyo-hwa, and why the West did not use ink.
Chinese ink painting is a good example of how materials determine style, based on the discovery of ink.
The history of art cannot be considered complete if the basis and development of material techniques are excluded.

---"preface

Regardless of whether it is Eastern or Western painting, traditional paintings have a creative element in which the artist creates his own colors by directly adjusting the concentration and amount of pigments, colorants, and water.
Because the process of creating pigments was very cumbersome, a training process of handling the materials and refining the techniques was absolutely necessary.
However, after the Industrial Revolution, most people started using newly created tube paints, which brought convenience, but also limitations in terms of expressiveness, preservation, and aesthetics.

---Chapter 1 Pigment

In the philosophy of the Five Elements, blue corresponds to the east in terms of direction, wood in terms of the Five Elements, and spring in terms of season.
The word youth also originates here.
Natural pigments that produce blue include inorganic pigments such as stone blue and ultramarine, and organic pigments such as indigo.
In addition to natural mineral pigments such as stone blue and ultramarine blue, there are also smalt, Maya blue, and Egyptian blue, but these are ancient pigments and are rarely used today.
It is a natural plant pigment extracted from the remaining parts and has been widely used since ancient times.
There are also Seokcheong and Guncheong in Shinseokchae, but there may be confusion in the names, so they will be called Shinseokcheong (新石靑) and Shinguncheong (新群靑).

---From Chapter 1 Pigment

If you can freely change the base and color of the painting as needed and choose freely, there is no need to maintain the boundary between Eastern and Western painting.
As long as you have a precise understanding and mastery of the materials, integration and expansion into a pictorial dimension will not be difficult.
The plate on the side was painted with a color technique using blue and yellow powder on the paper, and then colored again with red powder.
And the red color inside was colored only with water, excluding the glue.
That is, it is a technique of reduction.
Traditional teaching is a very functional painting that creates various spaces just by the presence or absence of teaching.
I believe that it is not respectful to ourselves to only consider imported products as good and ignore or discard our own strengths.
We must make good use of the strengths of these traditions to create our own unique horizon of creative painting.

---From Chapter 1 Pigment

Ink is a very important material in traditional painting, possessing the properties of both pigment and dye, and is closely related to calligraphy as well as dyeing.
Since ink is a special material that exists only in the East and not in the West, understanding it will allow you to naturally accept the differences in worldviews and aesthetics between the East and the West.
In addition to its simple physical function as a material, ink itself possessed a high level of spiritual meaning, creating an extremely metaphysical painting style called 'sumuk (水墨)'.
However, as these tendencies become excessively absolutized and biased, the most basic physical properties of food tend to be overlooked.
Trying to understand everything about ink with only a high level of spirituality, without understanding the ultrafine nature of carbon, the basic unit of ink, or the glue that coagulates and disperses carbon, will not be the condition for a balanced and true ink painting.
This obsession with losing balance has led many modern artists to use low-quality materials such as acrylic paints or liquid ink, such as 'synthetic resin + carbon black', and yet they call it 'ink painting' and claim the supremacy of ink. This has even led to the contradiction of these artists.
Ink painting, along with color painting, is a form of glue painting.
It is natural that neither ink nor color has its own identity, except for the color of the painting.
Just as oil becomes an emulsion when used as a vehicle, acrylic resin becomes an acrylic when used as a vehicle.
This is another form of conversation that is completely different from teaching.
If you use synthetic resin paints such as acrylic, you will never achieve ink painting; it will only be a 'black and white painting' or 'monochromatic painting'.
'Ink and ink supremacy', which does not take into account the physical properties of the material called food, can be considered a very dangerous idea.
Only when the concept of ink painting begins with this most fundamental understanding and affirmation can ink painting be reborn as a healthy art form of our time, rather than a shadow of tradition.

---From Chapter 2, Food

The three countries of Korea, China, and Japan have shared a food culture while also developing their own unique characteristics.
Goryeo's paper and ink were so excellent that even Su Shi (1037-1101), a writer and calligrapher of the Northern Song Dynasty, praised them, and their reputation was so high in China that it is no exaggeration to say that our current ink culture is shameful compared to our glorious past.
Even in this superficial age, it is absolutely necessary to properly understand food and establish a new food culture.
Food culture, which holds the core of well-being and healing, has long played a significant role as a tool of expression and communication within us. Even in our modern society, where communication is lacking, it remains an essential emotion, and therefore must be revived to elevate our lives.

---From Chapter 2, Food

This aspect of Mibul as a materials expert was largely unknown to us.
In this regard, we must realize that there is a major blind spot in our perspective on art, and we must also urge reflection on our art education.
Now, we should not only pay attention to the philosophical artistry of the late literati painter, but also pay tribute to his experimental research on the knowledge and use of such materials.
Here, we come to realize that truly true art is created when the subject and object are deeply immersed in an impartial encounter.
As an artist who majored in Oriental painting, you should learn the attitude of innovating while respecting the past through this attitude of not paying attention.

---From Chapter 2, Food

The brush is a very meaningful tool that has made it possible to pass down traditions through records in human history.
It is a recording tool of a slightly different dimension from modern writing instruments, so through long-term practice and acquisition, it became a part of the body of writers and painters and was loved as the most suitable tool for conveying the language of their hearts.
In particular, Oriental brushes, unlike Western brushes, are unique tools that possess high density of expressiveness and excellent flexibility, allowing for a variety of expressions on multiple levels.
The fact that a single brush can express ten thousand different things is a difference from Western brushes, but the most powerful difference is that the brush is not a simple tool, but is embodied/incarnated as a part of the artist's body, revealing his thoughts and energy.
This is easily understandable when we consider that calligraphy and paintings of the Four Gentlemen are arts that attempt to expand expression through the ‘vibration of energy.’

---From Chapter 2, Food

Paint is a combination of pigment and colorant, and all paintings use the same pigments, with the only difference being that the pigments are high-quality and low-quality.
Therefore, the genre of a painting is determined by the color scheme.
Before examining the basic color medium of Korean painting, we will learn about the materials commonly used in painting, such as binder, medium, and varnish. Representative genres of painting include murals, glue paintings, oil paintings, tempera, watercolors, crayon paintings, and acrylic paintings.
There are wet and dry murals, and wet murals are the only painting style that does not use any colorants.
In the case of dry murals, local coloring agents such as oil, glue, and egg yolk were used.
The colorant for ink paintings and color paintings is glue, for oil paintings it is drying oil, for tempera it is egg yolk, for watercolors it is gum arabic, for crayons, pastels it is wax, and for acrylics it is acrylic resin.
Among these, the most commonly used painting genres throughout history are probably oil painting and calligraphy.
Along with this, other genres such as tempera and watercolor have also been verified as paintings.
Acrylic painting is the only genre of painting that has not yet been verified as having been created after the Industrial Revolution.

---From Chapter 3, Teachings

The base of a painting must be surface treated before painting.
If the absorbency of the base material such as paper or cloth (silk/cotton) is too strong, it is difficult to apply the pigment properly.
So, it is necessary to create an intermediate layer called a ground by applying glue or filling in small holes.
This is to settle the color layer that follows.
The process of creating these intermediate layers is called sizing or binding.
In other words, a catcher can be said to be a method of converting a base that cannot be painted into a base on which a picture can be painted.
That is, without a catcher, no background can become the basis for a conversation.
As such, the catcher plays an important role in conversation.
In the case of architecture, it is very important to solidify the foundation, such as by digging the ground and covering it with gravel, in order to build a sturdy and stable building.
Painting is like architecture; the better the foundation, the more solid the painting becomes and the better it can be preserved.
In order to create a painting with a solid foundation, you must be able to properly start with the capturing process that solidifies the foundation.

---From Chapter 3, Teachings

Any screen can be used as a base for a painting if it is processed as a catcher, so you can draw on it. However, no matter what base you draw on, the genre of the painting must be determined by the color theme.
For example, if you draw on jeans, if you draw on the pants and then paint with pigment and oil, it will be an oil painting, and if you draw on jeans and glue, it will be a colored painting.
Now, it is right to classify conversations by their names based on the colorants (materials).
In other words, if oil is used, it should be called oil painting, not Western painting, and if it uses teachings, it should be called teachings.
Color painting and ink painting are just specific names for Gyohwa, and it seems more reasonable to call them Gyohwa, which is the general term.
By increasing our understanding of materials science, we can overcome the conceptual distinction between Eastern and Western painting and move toward an integrated dimension of painting.
However, Korean painting, which is a style that continues the tradition of traditional painting, should be considered as a separate field in order to secure and foster its own identity and independence.
To achieve this, research and education on traditional Eastern and Western painting techniques must be conducted in parallel.

---From Chapter 3, Teachings