Logo
ScienceStack
Table of Contents
Fetching ...
Sign In

Computational Approaches for Traditional Chinese Painting: From the "Six Principles of Painting" Perspective

Wei Zhang, Jian-Wei Zhang, Kam Kwai Wong, Yifang Wang, Yingchaojie Feng, Luwei Wang, Wei Chen

TL;DR

This work investigates how computational methods can be applied to Traditional Chinese Painting (TCP) by analyzing a corpus of 92 papers and organizing the landscape around the Six Principles of Painting. It introduces a four-stage framework—Digitalization, Interpretation, Creation, and Exhibition—to categorize TCP research and aligns this taxonomy with three perspectives: artistic elements, framework purposes, and computational techniques. It synthesizes tasks, features, and rendering approaches into a coherent taxonomy and discusses practical challenges and opportunities, including dataset scarcity, TCP uniqueness, and data-linking across cultural artifacts. An online interactive browser at ca4tcp.com complements the review and provides a practical resource for researchers and educators.

Abstract

Traditional Chinese Painting (TCP) is an invaluable cultural heritage resource and a unique visual art style. In recent years, increasing interest has been placed on digitalizing TCPs to preserve and revive the culture. The resulting digital copies have enabled the advancement of computational methods for structured and systematic understanding of TCPs. To explore this topic, we conducted an in-depth analysis of 92 pieces of literature. We examined the current use of computer technologies on TCPs from three perspectives, based on numerous conversations with specialists. First, in light of the "Six Principles of Painting" theory, we categorized the articles according to their research focus on artistic elements. Second, we created a four-stage framework to illustrate the purposes of TCP applications. Third, we summarized the popular computational techniques applied to TCPs. The framework also provides insights into potential applications and future prospects, with professional opinion. The list of surveyed publications and related information is available online at https://ca4tcp.com.

Computational Approaches for Traditional Chinese Painting: From the "Six Principles of Painting" Perspective

TL;DR

This work investigates how computational methods can be applied to Traditional Chinese Painting (TCP) by analyzing a corpus of 92 papers and organizing the landscape around the Six Principles of Painting. It introduces a four-stage framework—Digitalization, Interpretation, Creation, and Exhibition—to categorize TCP research and aligns this taxonomy with three perspectives: artistic elements, framework purposes, and computational techniques. It synthesizes tasks, features, and rendering approaches into a coherent taxonomy and discusses practical challenges and opportunities, including dataset scarcity, TCP uniqueness, and data-linking across cultural artifacts. An online interactive browser at ca4tcp.com complements the review and provides a practical resource for researchers and educators.

Abstract

Traditional Chinese Painting (TCP) is an invaluable cultural heritage resource and a unique visual art style. In recent years, increasing interest has been placed on digitalizing TCPs to preserve and revive the culture. The resulting digital copies have enabled the advancement of computational methods for structured and systematic understanding of TCPs. To explore this topic, we conducted an in-depth analysis of 92 pieces of literature. We examined the current use of computer technologies on TCPs from three perspectives, based on numerous conversations with specialists. First, in light of the "Six Principles of Painting" theory, we categorized the articles according to their research focus on artistic elements. Second, we created a four-stage framework to illustrate the purposes of TCP applications. Third, we summarized the popular computational techniques applied to TCPs. The framework also provides insights into potential applications and future prospects, with professional opinion. The list of surveyed publications and related information is available online at https://ca4tcp.com.
Paper Structure (31 sections, 9 figures, 1 table)

This paper contains 31 sections, 9 figures, 1 table.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Methodology
  3. Methods and Corpus
  4. Cooperate with Domain Expert
  5. Coding and Classification
  6. The Six Principles of Painting
  7. Resonance of the Spirit, Movement of Life
  8. Bone Manner, Structural Use of the Brush
  9. Conform with the Objects, Obtain their Likeness
  10. According to the Species, Apply the Colors
  11. Plan and Design, Place and Position
  12. To Transmit Models by Drawing
  13. Analytical Framework
  14. Digitalization
  15. Interpretation
  16. ...and 16 more sections

Figures (9)

  • Figure 1: "The Night Revels of Han Xizai" hxz2022painting mainly depicts the scene of a night banquet hosted by Han Xizai (A), the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, while "The Night Watch" nw2022painting depicts the scene of a night patrol by the civic militia (B). Both paintings depict group portraits in terms of their subject matter, depicting dozens of characters. However, there are significant differences in terms of the materials, format, and techniques used in the paintings.
  • Figure 2: The 92 collected papers and their codes.
  • Figure 4: A framework for applying computational techniques in TCP analysis.
  • Figure :
  • Figure :
  • ...and 4 more figures