In-Depth Blog Post #5

Hi! Welcome to my 5th In-Depth Blog Post. Since our in-depth night is coming next month, my mentor and I have been having more frequent meetings since I was falling behind a bit (I wasn’t feeling my best to be honest) and I worked hard to improve by practicing every day. My mentor and I talked about what to do for the final presentation because I was feeling a bit anxious about it, and they recommended to just change my project up and just focus on the caligraphy portion. I agreed because even though caligraphy seems simple, every stroke has to be precise and it takes a lot of patience.

These are some images of my practice:

Because of my hardwork and practice, my mentor said that they saw major improvement in my caligraphy. Now I am confident in writing whole characters while executing each stroke proficiently. I have also started writing poems from a book my mentor gave me. There are sometimes I make mistakes in my learning, since some strokes are harder than others, so I have to focus more on those.

For example: These are strokes I learned that are harder to do, therefore, I need more practice for them

 

This is a poem I am working on writing right now:

This one is called 静夜思 or Quiet Night Thought by Li Bai. It is a very famous poem in China. The characters (the words) are simpler, so that’s why I started with this one first.

As you can see, it is not completely finished yet, but I hope to finish this poem and another one before I start on my final project.

Reflection Questions:

  1. What kinds of learning opportunities does the mentor provide to expose you to new learning?

My mentor has provided me with multiple ways of learning. They have sent me multiple videos that focus on a specific concept that I need to focus on/or if I need to revisit them. They have also let me learn by trial and error, my mentor felt that it’ll be beneficial if I learned some skills by trial and error, it would help me overcome the thought that I have failed my piece. I feel like this worked well for me, as I am a type of person that gets pretty worked up if I make an error somewhere.

2. What type of learning opportunities exist to reinforce new learning?

Some learning opportunities that exist include YouTube. On YouTube, there are a lot of great tutorials that I can watch if I’m still confused about a topic. There are also a lot of different books I can read as well that work pretty well.

3. What types of opportunities exist that might accelerate learning?

My father learned Chinese Brush Painting when he was younger, so he is able to help me to accelerate my learning. When I practiced during the week, I asked my father to see if I can improve on anything. Usually he will give me extra tips to further support my learning.

4. When you get together, what do you talk about?

When I get together with my mentor, we talk about what I learned last week and what my assignments were. After we go through all of this, we talk about the new skills I will learn for the following weeks. We also talk about new resources I can take a look at as well if there are any.

5. What is going particularly well in your mentoring relationship right now?

Something that is going well in my mentoring relationship right now is that my mentor and I listen to each other really well. We also communicate with each other effectively and email each other if something came up and we have to change our meeting up times.

6. What are you learning about each other?

Something my mentor and I learned about each other is just why we both passionate about learning how to do Chinese Brush Painting. My mentor came from a family that did a lot of art, so that’s why they decided to pursue the same path as well. They are someone that enjoys the art and what you can create with it!

 

Thank you for reading, hope to see in the next blog post!

-Claire

Here are some extra pictures of my practice~

 

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