How to Draw Chinese Words

The Chinese alphabet is derived from ancient drawings of people, plants and animals. Over the years it evolved into Chinese characters used for writing, drawing and communication. Unlike English written text, the Chinese text, or script, doesn't include spaces between characters and often words are broken up into different groups so that when it is read each character in each group must be taken into account for the whole. Though some Chinese dictionaries include tens of thousands of characters, according to Omniglot.com "Knowledge of about 3,000 characters enables you to read about 99 percent of the characters used in Chinese newspapers and magazines."

Things You'll Need

  • Square paper
  • Pencil
  • Ruler
  • Paint brush
  • Ink
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Instructions

    • 1

      Draw a vertical line down the center of your square piece of paper dividing it in half. Draw a horizontal line across the middle of your paper dividing the paper into four squares. Draw diagonal lines from one corner to the opposite corner traveling through the midpoint. You should end up with eight equal-sized triangles on the paper. This grid will help when writing Chinese words.

    • 2

      Wet the paintbrush in ink and hold it over the paper. Start where your middle vertical line meets the top of the paper and draw an arc down toward the bottom right corner, stopping before you cross the horizontal line. Repeat this step for an arc going toward the left corner. This symbol means "person."

    • 3

      Take out a new sheet of paper and repeat step 1. Draw a straight line down the middle vertical line then draw a straight line along the middle horizontal line bisecting the vertical one. This symbol means "ten."

    • 4

      For more words and phrases visit websites in the Resources section below. Some websites include a practice guide that divides the screen just like you divided your paper with templates to write over by moving the mouse. This shows how to move the brush across the paper so you can translate it onto your physical paper.

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