他的忘年交黎锦熙在《齐白石年谱》中这样回忆齐白石如何画虫：
辛丑(1901)以前，齐白石的画以工笔为主，草虫早就传神。(因为他家一直养草虫：纺织娘、蚱蜢、蝗虫之类，还有其他生物，他时常注视其特点，做直接写生的练习，历时既久，自然传神。)到壬寅四十岁，作远游，渐变作风，走上大写意的花卉翎毛一派(吴昌硕开创之)。民初学八大山人(书法仿金冬心)，直到民六、民八(1917、1919)两次避乱，定居北京以后才独创红花墨叶的两色花卉与浓淡几笔的蟹和虾。［1］
黎锦熙四岁便与齐白石相识，十岁时成为了齐白石最小的诗友，他们之间有着近六十年的忘年交，他的说法当为可信。
他的另一位朋友龙龚在《白石传略》中也提到齐白石曾经养过许多昆虫，且进行了相当多的写生：
从1909年到1919年十一年，速写的或工细的画在毛边纸上的画稿，最少也在一千张以上。每个画稿都不出一张信纸大，有的画几只虫，有的画一只鸟，有的甚至是打乱了的花瓣或折下来的树叶，每一张都附记月日，作些题识。画稿的日积月累表明着创作经验的日将月就，只可惜表现在整幅作品中，齐白石还不敢把来自写生的表现方法大胆地用进去，因而冷逸有余，生动不足，倒不如画稿有真功夫，把这个真功夫集中运用于创作，是他定居北京后“衰年变法”时事……［2］
可见齐白石是进行了大量的写生，这为后来创立自己的风格奠定了坚实的基础。若没有那一千多张的写生稿，也不会有后来细致入微的草虫作品。
注释：
[1]胡适、黎锦熙、邓广铭编：《齐白石年谱》，北京画院藏原稿本。
[2]龙龚：《齐白石传略》，第40—41页，人民美术出版社1959年版。
His friend, Li Jinxi recalled how he drew insects in The Chronicle of Qi Baishi:
Before 1901, the paintings of Qi Baishi were mainly fine brushwork paintings. The insects and grass paintings were vivid already.(Because he always kept insects and grew grass at home: e.g. katydids, grasshoppers, locusts and other living creatures. He often focused on their characteristics and practiced sketchy painting directly. With the time spent on practice, his paintings were naturally vivid.)When Renyan was 40 years old, Qi Baishi traveled far away, and gradually changed his painting style to large impressionistic style paintings of flowers and feathers (founded by Wu Changshuo). He learned Zhu Da’s (nickname: Bada Shanren) painting style (and he stimulated the calligraphy style of Jin Dongxin) in the early republican period. Until after the moved twice to avoid wars in 1917 and 1919, he settled in Beijing, and then created his own painting style, that was red flowers and inky leaves with two colours and plants, crabs and shrimps drawn by a few simple lines.［1］
Li Jinxi knew Qi Baishi when he was 4 years old. He became his youngest poetry mates when he was 10 years old. They are friends for nearly sixty years. His comments are reliable.
Aother friend of Qi Baishi, Long Gong also mentioned that he ever kept many insects in The Brief Biography of Qi Baishi, and he did considerable amount of practice in sketching.
From 1909 to 1919, there were more than one thousand drawings on the untrimmed paper with sketching or exquisite ways at least. Every piece of painting was smaller than a letter paper. Some of them were drawn several insects; some were drawings of a bird; and some were drawings of messed up petals or broken off leaves. Every drawing marked the date and some signs. The drawings accumulated day by day and month by month. They indicated the creative experience he had got, except that Qi Baishi did not put techniques of expression from sketching into the entire painting audaciously, because he thought those paintings not good and vivid enough. He would like to master actual skills of painting. And then apply the skills into creation. All of those were the stories of him in 'Suoning Reform' period after he settled in Beijing ……［2］
Qi Baishi did considerable practice in sketching; and this laid a solid foundation for creating his own style afterwards .Without more than one thousand of sketches, there will not be the delicate insects and grass works afterwards.
Notes:
[1] Written by Hu Shi,Li Jinxi, Deng Guangming: The Chronicle of Qi Baishi, the manuscript is stored in the Beijing Art Academy
[2] Long Gong: The Brief Biography of Qi Baishi, page 40 to 41,People’s Fine Arts Publishing House,the 1959 edition
编辑：罗元欣
本文整理自吕晓所写《草间偷活——试论齐白石的草虫画》一文
Editor:Luo Yuanxin
This article is created based on Survivals in Grass – the Tentative Study of Insects and Grass Drawings of Qi Baishi written by Lv Xiao
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