Page 133 - Tibetan Thangka Painting Methodsand Mat, Jackson

Eleven
Outlining

Almost every object depicted in a thangka required Colours Used in Outlining
outlining or linear detail. Outlining proper (bead)
served to set off most objects from their surroundings, Of the various dyes used in shading only two were
and it was used to demarcate the main subdivisions widely used during· outlining: indigo and lac dye or
within them. Tibetan painters also used line drawings to lake. To create a satisfactory outline these colours had
develop· the form or texture inside a given area, for to be sufficiently dark to contrast sharply with the base
instance within a swirling mass of flames or within the colour and background, so the painters prepared them in
hair of a deity. Furthermore, fine linear drawings were solutions that were more concentrated than those used
the main way of indicating any other details within an during shading. These dyes, however, could not be so
object or field. Examples of this include the repeating thick that they would n9t flow freely from the brush.
designs on brocades, and the radiating golden light rays Outlining always required colours that could be applied
Cod 'phro) within a nimbus. Finally, artists also used in smooth, continuous strokes.
line drawings to indicate any small or thin detail; on
small deities, such details as eyebrows, eyelashes and Indigo
ornaments of gold and bone could only be executed by
thin line drawings. Tibetan artists used indigo for outlining the areas that
Many linear details were final touches that com- had already been shaded with indigo. These included
pleted the area being painted. Once the artist began many of the blue and green areas of the thangka. In
outlining, he knew that the completion of the painting addition, painters also employed indigo for outlining
was drawing near. deep vermilion and maroon areas, such as robes, some

Detail of a partly completed thangka of Amitabha The outlining of leaves.
during the proces~ of outlining by Dorje Gyaltshen.

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