你们给我的来信，让我谈谈我的创作技法以及作品的材质，如下：
　　材料：纸，我通常用的是安徽宣纸。笔，狼毫或羊毫毛笔。颜料，中国画颜料，通常用的是署红、胭脂、朱砂等颜色去混合中国墨汁，画晕点或笔路。
　　笔路的方法，刘骁纯博士的批评文章中已经较明确地阐述了，他谈的和我的画法很接近。我画“晕点”的步骤为：
　　1、用毛笔在生宣纸上先画了大小不同的圆点，让科技数码的点符合我要表达的内容和形态，画每个点时中锋用笔、力透纸背，用这样的感觉去画。通常这是第一层。
　　2、第二层通常是，用比较淡的颜色或淡墨在每一个点上重复地画上一次，（有的作品我还会用这样的方法画上三四次）而且必须在这些色点或墨点还未干的时候用清水在点的中间冲，使中间的淡墨或淡色破开点的边沿，冲出的淡颜色或淡墨色就会十分透明，实际上我用的是中国画的 “冲墨法”。
　　3、把色或墨冲开后，这时画面上的每一个点的四周形成了很自然的金石味的边沿线，也使每个点的感觉充分地体现了中国水墨画的特性。也含有了像黄宾虹先生所谈的“屋漏痕”的美学因素。
　　4、色冲开后，第一层画的点的形与冲开的颜色混合,二层的厚度有时还不够，为了增加画面上点的厚度，所以我又在点的中心再一次地中锋用笔，画上了比第一次的点小一圈的、更重一些颜色或墨色的点，在这些点未干的时候我又在点的中间用清水点一下，这时我不让水冲开点的边沿了，我只想让重颜色的点破开，目的是让重一些颜色或墨色的点不会僵硬，有的画面我用这样的方法又重复地画了好几次。这时我用的也就是中国画的“破墨法”。
　　5、在我的画室我有二个比较大的蓄色和蓄墨缸，我每次把未画完的颜色和墨色各倒入缸中存起来。这些颜色和墨在缸里时间特别长。通常我画最后一次点的时候就是用这种颜色去画每个点的最中心位置。这些渍点在点上又重迭了一次后，在原来点的中心自然地同时会出现二个晕圈，中间的晕圈就是渍墨的渣，这个点我画的时候很写意，我用的也就是中国水墨画中的 “渍墨法”。
　　6、每一个点重复地画上几次甚至十几次，这通常称为“积墨法”和“积色法”。传统上很少有人或是还没有人在同一个点上用淡色或淡墨积迭几次甚至十几次，使每个积点都达到可单独欣赏效果的人，因为淡颜色的积色、淡墨色的积墨很容易积死，宣纸也很容易破碎，在生宣纸上很难掌握和控制。积色、积墨要积得透明，就更是难上加难了。更何况一幅画面上有几万个点甚至几十万个点都要积迭许多次又要控制到画面需要的程度，让画面不失人的形态甚至是人物的表情。
　　7、以上的这些方法我常常混合运用，程序有的时候也可以颠倒，是看画面的效果去决定的。实际上我还有许多画你们没有看到，我用这些方法在一个点上甚至积迭上了十几次。因为我希望画面上每个点的本身都是一个“个体”，每一个点都有它本身存在的价值。希望让每一个点都有它自己的艺术气息。

　　8、单独的一个“晕点”作为一幅作品的时候，用以上的方法，我常常会积色或积墨、冲墨、破墨几十次（见我发给你们的一个红色晕点）,你们看看画面是否积得透明又有很强的水墨特性、又积得很厚、很丰富……。
　　我想挑战传统的和现有的中国水墨技法，达到一个新的极限。让我的作品的画面上也有一个全新的气息，在作品题材上也与传统中国画的大师们和同代的优秀画家们拉开距离，用我自己的思想去选择题材。我不想让题材去局限我的艺术，一辈子画一二个题材、一二个系列，那样就很容易成了一个商业性的画家，所以我常常是画了一个系列后，我又开始创作新的系列，我要让我的每个作品系列都与我的“晕点”和“笔路”的艺术探索相关联。我想一个好艺术家不但是在作品上有创造性、而且在技法上也要有很高的创造性。我常常以李可染先生为楷模。
　　注：这是南溪先生回复一位收藏家的信。
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　南溪
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　2008.4.27于北京宋庄
The “Nan’s Fainting Dot”
You wrote and wanted me to introduce my creative skills and materials in my works that I listed as follows:
Material: Paper, usually I choose rice paper produced in Anhui Province. Brush, wolf-hair brush or goat-hair brush. Pigment, traditional Chinese pigments, mostly Chinese ink-mixed aurora red, rouge red and cinnabar for the painting of fainting dots or brush marks.
The techniques of brush marks have been clearly elaborated in Liu Xiaochun’s review in which the content is close to my skills. The steps of drawing my “fainting dot” are:
1. Draw dots in different sizes with Chinese brush on raw rice paper, the dots are scientific and technical digital symbols that meet the content and form that I wanted; use the central tip of the brush with strength that can make the color soak through the paper. This is the usual first layer.
2. The second layer is, normally, draw another layer on the painted dots with lighter colors or ink, (I paint three or four times like this in some works) and wash the dots in their centers with brush dipped clear water pointed on before dry to break the edges of the dots, the broken-out light color or ink is very transparent, this is actually the “washed-ink technique” in Chinese painting.
3. After getting the color or ink washed, edge-lines look like metal stones naturally formed around every dot in the painting make them fully represent the characteristics of Chinese ink and wash, also contain the aesthetic factor of “roof-leaking mark” form brought forward by Huang Binhong (Great Chinese landscape painter).
4. After getting the color washed, the shape of dots painted in the first layer mix with washed colors, sometimes two layers are not thick enough, so I draw a smaller dot with darker color or ink in the middle of every dot with central tip of brush to make a thicker dot, and then point in the middle of the every dot with brush dipped with clear water before dry to make the darker color edge break, so it won’t look rigid. I reuse the technique in some works many times; this is known as the technique of “broken-ink” in traditional Chinese wash painting.
5. I have two big vats in my studio storing the remaining color and ink every time. They have been stored for a long time. Usually I use the colors or ink in vats for drawing in the middle of the last layer dot to form a stained dot which overlap on the existing one, and then the dreg of the stained ink, as the second fainting circle, will be naturally generated in the middle of the original dot. The dot is finished in a free status. What I use here is the “stained-ink” technique of Chinese wash painting.
6. Repeatedly drawing several or dozens of layers on every dot is called “accumulate-ink technique” and “accumulate-color technique”. There might be traditionally few or no one ever draw several or dozens of times on the same dot to make every accumulated dot can be appreciated alone, for the accumulation of light color and ink are apt to be dull and the rice paper is rather vulnerable, it is hard to control and master on raw rice paper, let alone the transparent overlap of color and ink. There are tens of thousands even hundreds of thousands dots in a painting needing to be overlaid many times within the extent of painting’s requirement to fix the figure’s shape and appearance.
7. I often combine the above techniques, and the using steps could be arranged in different orders according to the required effect of painting. Actually, I have a lot of other works never showed to you, in which I use the technique dozens of times in painting the same dot. Because I hope each dot in my painting could be an “individual” with unique value and full of artistic atmosphere.
8. As a creation, I often use the said techniques including accumulate-ink, washed-ink and broken-ink for tens of times to a single “fainting dot” (refer to the enclosed picture of the red fainting dot), and you can see the dot is transparent with strong features of ink and wash, and thick and rich at the same time.
I want to challenge the traditional and existing Chinese ink and wash skills to reach a new high-point, and form a brand new air in my painting, I want to select according to my own thoughts and draw a distance in terms of the creative subject from the great traditional Chinese painting artists and excellent painters of our age. The subject should not be the restriction to my art, only one or two subjects or series in creating life could easily make a commercial painter, so I often start a new series after one is finished, and every creative series is related to the artistic exploration of my “fainting dot” and “brushwork”. I believe a good artist is not only being original in works, but also has high creative ability in techniques. I take example by Mr. Li Keran on this point.
I am looking forward to your visit in Beijing!
Best regards！
Yours,
Nan Qi
April 27th, 2008
Songzhuang, Beijing
Note: This is a letter in reply from Mr.Nan Xi to a collector.