Page 105 - Tibetan Thangka Painting Methodsand Mat, Jackson

had fmished painting all of the areas of a certain colour. from the top down. An immediate result was that the
Then he washed his brushes and put aside his paints and painting took on a mottled appearance, with many
stretchers for the night. To keep the paints fresh for the shiny and a few matte areas visible when the canvas was
next day, some painters poured a spoonful of water over held at an angle that reflected the out~oor light. These
each colour. Excess water could be poured off the irregularities helped the painter make sure that his
following morning, and the paints would then need only scraping was thorough, and anyway they did not remain
a little stirring to be ready again for application. Many long, because immediately after scraping the artist
artists also covered their paint bowls overnight to dusted off the painting with a feather duster or clean rag
protect the paints from both excess drying and airborne and then rubbed the whole surface with a small ball of
dust and soot. Similarly, to protect the paintings the parched grain flour (rtsam pa) dough.6 The dough ball
stretchers were commonly hung facing a wall, sometimes had to be almost dry so that it would not stick to the
covered with a cloth. But even when such precautions painting. The painter used it as if it were a large rubber
had been taken, it was still usually best to begin work eraser, rubbing it over the painting with large, sweeping
the next day by dusting off the painting surface, and strokes. When the sides of the ball became coated with
this was essential if the stretcher had been set aside for colour he would knead the dough in his hand for a few
more than a few days. seconds, thus exposing new clean surfaces. Rubbing with
this dough restored the desired matte finish and picked
Final Scraping and Cleaning up any paint dust that remained. It also left a thin
coating of tiny dough particles and this had to be dusted
At the completion of the initial application of colours, off as the final step.
the artist had to scrape smooth (gris 'brad) the whole Not all Tibetan painters scraped and then cleaned
painted surface. When mixed with the size binder the their thangkas. It was not essential for example on
mineral pigments became paints of somewhat differing paintings in which the 'colours had been applied in thin
consistencies, and these paints also dried into paint washes to begin with. Thus many Eastern Tibetan
layers of different thicknesses and textures. To minimize painters did not traditionally scrape their paintings.
the unevenness of the surface and to prepare the whole Once when the artist Wangdrak was working on a project
painting for the finishing work to come, many Central with several painters from Amdo, the Eastern Tibetans
Tibetan painters at this stage would smooth the surface expressed surprise when he took out his knife and began
by gently scraping it with a razor-sharp knife. to scrape his partially completed thangka. They asked
Careful scraping, with the knife edge facing in the him if he was not damaging the painting, for indeed the
direction of the scraping motion, removed the top scraping did seem to remove a lot of pigment. But, as
portions of the thickest paint layers. Wangdrak, for Wangdrak showed them, there was no harm done. In
instance, first scraped from the bottom upward and then fact if the paints were properly mixed they could
actually be improved by scraping. Being thinner, they
were less prone to cracking and peeling. Scraping off the
surface layer also helped the appearance of some paints,
such as poor grades of minium. But an equally important
benefit was that this smoothing and cleaning made the
subsequent steps of shading and outlining much easier.
Nevertheless, scraping followed by rubbing with rtsam-
pa dough did have one drawback: it could easily darken
a pure white area. Therefore some painters waited until
after the scraping and rubbing to fill in prominent areas
of white such as the faces and limbs of white deities.

Cleaning off paint by rubbing with a ball of tsampa
Scraping smooth the initial coat of paint with a knife. dough.

FINAL SCRAPING AND CLEANING 101