With his introduction to the techniques of art by a commercial Taiwanese folk painter, further tutelage under Isaka Kyokko, and later exposure to poetry societies that he attended, Lin's foundations as a painter were tied closely to traditional Chinese painting. This made him very different from his fellow painters of the era of Japanese rule, whose art was overwhelmingly rooted in Western techniques.
來自童年民間畫師的繪畫啟蒙，加上伊 2 旭江的引領，還有日後參加詩社浸淫詩作與書法的薰陶，使得林玉山的繪畫基礎與傳統中國畫緊密相通，這與日據時代，同輩的畫家們大多埋首西畫的道路大不相同。