Page 101 - Tibetan Thangka Painting Methodsand Mat, Jackson

eight painting areas of the same size. The same number in the foreground, however, were not painted until
of sketches followed, often with the aid of a stencil. last, to prevent them from becoming dirty.
The painters then began their painting by colouring all The remaining colours were required for the most
the skies, then all the landscapes, and so on through the part in the forward plane of the composition. At this
remaining steps of painting. Six or eight paintings at a point the artist might apply the reds and oranges,
time is indeed an extreme example, but it is very com- followed by yellow. He continued to fill in as many
mon to see two or three paintings (often different areas as possible with each colour, painting such things
compositions) at the same stage of completion being as the flames, nimbuses or back curtain, robes and the
painted in this way to achieve maximum efficiency. deity's body, as appropriate. Next he applied such minor
The third main principle that governed the order colours as ochre, brown, pink and finally white and gold.
of initial colouring concerned shading technique. Usually
most shading or tinting was done by applying darker
shading washes over a lighter base colour. This sequence Painting Techniques
was important to the painter during the application of
the first coats of colour since the lightest colour of any Having briefly outlined the general. order of paint
area to be shaded had to be laid down first. application, we will now describe certain painting
The fourth principle governing painting order was techniques in more detail, still following their usual
that important areas, especially those painted with light progression.
colours, should be applied last. The face and body of a
white deity, for instance, were prone to be smudged by Preliminary Colour Transitions
the artist's hand if they were applied at an early stage.
Since most of the important areas were in the fore- Since in general the most distant planes of the thangka
ground this principle was in harmony with principle had to be coloured before they were overlapped by the
number one. However, some painters for the same paint of the forward planes, the sky and the landscape
reason painted all faces and bodies last - even those that had to be brought to a finished state much earlier than
were blue and green - and this ran counter to the the other areas. If a background area required shading or
principle of economy in paint mixing. gradual transitions of tone - and some regularly did -
this would have to be done quickly, before some of the
other areas received even their first coat of colour. Thus,
An Example of Painting Order even though shading was for the most part a secondary
step, we cannot avoid describing here the basic
To see how these principles were actually applied, let us techniques of shading that were employed during these
now describe the order in which the initial coats of first stages.
colour were applied to a small, one-deity thangka with a The colouring of a thangka began with painting
very simple landscape. In this example there were four the sky blue, and for this the artists were not content to
main planes: the sky, the landscape, the deity's nimbus lay down a uniform, flat coat of colour. Usually they
and the divine figure itself. The first area to be painted strove to achieve an even gradation of hue, beginning
was the distant sky, and this required the painter to with a deep-blue zenith at the top of the painting,
prepare and apply a suitable blue paint. Next he applied. and working down to a white or very light horizon. To
this and other blue paints wherever else they were accomplish this the painters used three main techniques.
required in the landscape, for example on areas of water Of these, one employed washes of colour in varying
and on the blue parts of the traditional blue and green degrees of transparency, another utilized only thick and
rocky crags. Last he painted the blue areas on and opaque coats of paint, and the third was a combination
around the central figure, beginning with the body of both methods.
nimbus or backdrop since it was in the rear, and then
One-Brush Dilution Shading
moving to the body, if appropriate, and to any part of
the clothing and accoutrements that were blue. The first and simplest method for creating a colour
The colour green came next, being first applied transition in the sky consisted of the application of a
to the green hillsides and meadows in the landscape, and mineral pigment in gradually diluted strengths. We have
afterward to large details in the landscape such as trees. called this technique "one-brush dilution shading", and
Then, as with the blues, the artist continued to work it is basically akin to the graded washes of a Western
forward in the composition, applying green as necessary watercolour painter. To tint the sky in this method,
to the nimbuses or back-curtains and then to the figure. the painter began by loading his brush with paint from
Immediately after the blues and greens, the artist the surface layer of the pot of blue colour. This paint
mixed and applied white and bluish and greenish off had to be the deepest blue that he desired in the sky.
whites to such distant objects in the painting as clouds Starting at one corner of the top he laid down a single
and snow peaks. These colours completed most of the sweeping stroke across the top of the sky (assuming that
distant planes of the composition, and at this point it there were no clouds or figures to obstruct it). Then he
was also convenient to mix such off-white hues using the returned to just beneath the starting point and applied
already prepared blues and greens. Areas of pure white another horizontal stroke just below and slightly over-

PAINTING TECHNIQUES 97