Page 115 - Tibetan Thangka Painting Methodsand Mat, Jackson

Ten

Shading and Colour Gradations

After the initial coats of colour had been laid down, the as the horizon was approached. A less time-
next step was to apply washes for shading and gradual consuming method, this was used for the skies
transitions of tone. "Shading" (mdangs) in this context of paintings of either peaceful or aggressive (khro
does not mean the treatment of light and shadow bo) deities.
within the whole composition (chiaroscuro), for the
3) sprin mdangs ("cloud shading"): shading laid
distribution of light and dark was not systematically
down in horizontal bands in immitation of cloud
developed throughout a thangka painting. Nevertheless,
layers.
Tibetan artists did practice shading in a different sense.
Transitions of both tone and colour were regularly 4) char mdangs ("rain shading"): indigo shading
executed on single objects within the painting, and applied in vertical strokes, giving the appearance
when used to create shadowing, the technique con- of a falling shower. This was to be used especially
tributed a three-dimensional appearance to such things in paintings of aggressive, terrifying deities.
as clouds and the bodily forms of the divine beings.
Especially when employed in the "modeling" of faces
and bodies, shading lent a realism where it was needed
most: on the sacred figures at the center of the icon.

Main Shading Techniques

The painters of Tibet used several techniques for shading
and colour gradations, but most of them can be typed as
either "wet" or "dry" techniques. "Wet shading"
(rZon mdangs), the blending of two wet colours on the
painting surface, was employed for the most part only
during the laying on of the initial coats of colour. "Dry
shading" (skam mdangs), on the other hand, was usually
a secondary step. It consisted of the application of
successive thin washes of colour over a dry preliminary byug mdangs 'bru mdangs
coat. Both dry and wet techniques in their simplest
("spread-on shading") ("granular shading")
forms have been described in Chapter 8 in connection
with the painting of the sky.
Wet shading, as we have seen, usually required
more than one brush. The colour at each end of the
gradation needed -its own brush, and often a third was
used for the intermediate hue. Dry shading, conversely,
was executed with only one brush, although this in no
way prevented the artist from achieving a variety of
shading effeCts by altering the size, shape, direction and
frequency of the brush strokes. For the painting of skies
alone the Bhutanese painter Kunsang Tobgye actually
enumerated as many as four types of dry shading:

I) byug mdangs ("spread-on shading"): the usual
evenly graduated dry-shading method. According
to the artist this method was most appropriate for sprin mdangs char mdangs
shading the skies in paintings that depicted peace-
("cloud shading") ("rain shading")
ful (zhi ba) deities.
2) 'bru mdangs ("granular shading"): shading with
.small dabs or dots of indigo, applied thickly and
close together at the zenith, but less frequently Four different types of dry shading.

III