Today we start drawing. As I wrote previously I choose to make this Thangka about the White Tara.
Of course, the drawing part requires as much precision and as many rules to follow than the previous stages of the painting preparation. I will have to follow strict measurement to copy the White Tara from one of Lobsang's books. As usual, Lobsang did not hand me out tools for Westeners, the measurements will be created with wooden compass and handmade 'chalk line'.
Lobsang got a little plastic bag out. In it, there is a string and some natural pigments. At the end of the string there is a hand made hook. When he pulls the string out of the bag, it is charged with pigments. Carefully he places the hook at the top of the canvas, hold the string tight and straight and 'ping' it, so it creates a mark of pigment on the canvas.
Of course, the drawing part requires as much precision and as many rules to follow than the previous stages of the painting preparation. I will have to follow strict measurement to copy the White Tara from one of Lobsang's books. As usual, Lobsang did not hand me out tools for Westeners, the measurements will be created with wooden compass and handmade 'chalk line'.
Lobsang got a little plastic bag out. In it, there is a string and some natural pigments. At the end of the string there is a hand made hook. When he pulls the string out of the bag, it is charged with pigments. Carefully he places the hook at the top of the canvas, hold the string tight and straight and 'ping' it, so it creates a mark of pigment on the canvas.
To make sure the middle lines are perpendicular, Lobsang used a compass. I had some vague memories of the geometry class from my childhood. I have been using set square and 'T' for far too long and I don't know how to make perpendicular lines using only a compass, anymore !
Once the grid lines are set, Lobsang estimates the proportion of the White Tara based on his grid pattern book and creates 'proportion measures' [as he used to train me for the drawing practice] in the top left corner of the thangka.
So, with a few recommendations off I went. I had some homework to do and a White Tara to draw. In Lobsang's book the White Tara grid drawing is composed in two pages. The first drawing shows only the body without any cloth or jewelry. The second one, is the same, but covered with all the cloth, drapes and crown. This is to help the artist to be precise in the body positions and proportions. Lobsang asked me to lightly draw the body first and then add the cloth.
After a week, I got up to there:
I have started drawing the cloth on the left side of the body. You can see the right leg bare of any cloth, which is the initial body drawing.
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