Page 121 - Tibetan Thangka Painting Methodsand Mat, Jackson

The shading of clouds.

create a contrast between the outer white edges of the Technique 1: The painter Wangdrak used a
clouds and both the shaded involutions of the clouds relatively simple shading method for clouds, consisting
and the surrounding landscape. To produce this effect, of one-brush dry shading over undercoats of alternating
the artists shaded from the bottom zone of each cloud colours. In particular, the artist would begin by giving
area upward, leaving the top of each cloud lobe the pure base coats of white and greenish white to the clouds in
white of the undercoat. an alternating sequence. Then, for the actual shading,
Some artists (e.g. Legdrup Gyatsho) used to apply he applied graduated tints of indigo over the white
two base colours to these clouds: greenish white to the bases, and a greenish-yellow dye such as the traditional
small, inner nodes and white to the larger clouds just zhu rams (a mixture of light indigo and zhu mkhan
behind. Then they would shade both cloud layers with a yellow) to the pale-green undercoats. Because the
greenish-yellow wash (utpal ser po). Other artists (e.g. maximum contrast was desired, the outer edges of the
Wangdrak) left both layers of clouds the white base. clouds were not darkly shaded, while most of the inner
colour, and shaded over both with indigo for a mono- areas of the clouds were shaded to different degrees.
chromatic result. Whichever the artists did, shading was Variation of technique 1: For additional contrast
the final painting step for these clouds since they, like and depth some painters applied two-tone base coats to
all clouds In these Central Tibetan painting styles, did each cloud during the application of the mineral colours.
not receive any final sharply defined outline (bead). This technique required that the clouds as originally
A tmospheric Clouds drawn possessed a central hole or deeply involuted
recess, and it was this area that received a base coat that
The higher, atmospheric clouds were sometimes shaded was a noticeably deeper (usually a greener or bluer)
by methods quite similar to the above, but many off-white shade than the surrounding cloud undercoat.
painters also employed other more involved methods. During the actual shading this inner area received even
Like the low-lying mists, the higher clouds were usually darker shaqing washes to distinguish it further. For
drawn by our main informants in symmetrical, repetitive example, in a cloud of greenish white base colour the
patterns. 15 However, each element repeated in the deep recess in the middle of the cloud was shaded using
design was larger and mare complicated than in the indigo, which made the area contrast even more sharply
mists, and often each of the clouds in the overall design with areas tinted with greenish-yellow dye that
was set apart from those that adjoined it by means of surrounded it.
different, alternating colours.

THE SHADING OF PARTICULAR OBJECTS 117