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I posted some of my thangka work some (or a lot of) months ago. In the mean time I've finished some work and started some new images.
If you want to see the drawing progress 'live', follow this link: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gi...15520785159041.
Under the Photo tab there are some samples.
You might want to visit my website as well to find out what all this Thangka stuff is: http://www.digitalthangka.com/
Very enchanting. You created these using Designer Pro?
Yes, I did. All done 'from scratch', starting with a grid. I do have a drawing teacher, who hits me in the head when I make a mistake ;)
More on the process and the traditional drawing process (like grids, dimensions and colouring) and the Buddhist background of this images can be found on my website.
Yes, but lest we think that your sole purpose for posting here is to drive traffic to your website :rolleyes:, and since you use Xara Designer Pro 6, why not share some of your techniques on this website? ;) That is the reason it is here. To ask, to show, and to learn.
Ah ok. Well, most of my drawing techniques are quite straight forward. Just drawing lines and building up colours with shading, transparancy, feathering and such.
It's just a lot of detail (and time of course) ;)
Is there something specific you want to know? Apart form the Buddhist background stuff?
I am really not trying to drive traffic to my site. Just wanted to show some of the more unusual stuff that is done with Xara...
Agreed. But if you want to show some of your more unusual stuff, then why not show it here? :)
But I would be most curious to see how you work with grids.
Yeah, that's some impressive stuff. I too would be interested in understanding how you use grids in preparing such images.
Thanks for sharing, by the way!
That's all on my website and facebook group ;) hence the links. Guess I have to grant you both your wish.
I have added pictures form the drawing process of White Tara, a Buddhist bodhisattva (never mind the terms - google is your friend;) ) This is the full colour picture of which the gold-on-red version is an offspring from.
Picture 00 is the grid that is the basis of all thangka drawings. Every figure has its own grid, that defines its proportions. Mine are based on the tibetan unit 'sor'. I defined that as 0.5 cm. The grid is based on multiple units (like '4 units high', '20 units wide' or '1/3 of a unit'. You also can see lines drawn from crossing lines on the grid.
The face has its own grid, defining the place and size of the eys, nose, mouth, chin line etc.
Pictures 01 and 02 is the line drawing of the figure. Note that you always start with a line drawing the figure, clothing, aura's and lotus throne, landscape. Colouring back-traces that road: starting with the landscape and ending with the eyes of the figure.
In the pictures 03 to 05 clothing, jewelry, garments and aura´s are added; in the pictures 06 and 07 additional landscape elements. I roughly sketched the crane (see detail) by hand - on my tablet of course ;) ; I then placed it at the right position, enlarged it a bit and then drew it correctly.
Picture 09 is a first colour impression. You can also see Amitabha at the top - a picture I did earlier. If I want to impress people I show them the detail in that one - 25,000 zoom factor FTW ;)
Picture 10 shows a detail of the lake I am working on right now. As you can see the waves have evolved somewhat from an earlier version.
Work on this version is still in progress (still missing a lot of terrain detail and colouring of the Tara) as is the gold-on-red version: this still lacks clouds and details in the aura.
I missed one detail picture. Currently the colouring of the waves has progressed a bit more than this image.
Nice work Fred, but as Gary said... Show more of your work here.
@Derek
I have posted two other pictures a few months ago. Guess you have to search my name... Keep in mind that I do not do this for a living. When I would (and I am working on that through various channels), each picture would take me about 2 months to finish. Looks like a long time but large thangka paintings with high detail done by hand can take up to 3 years to complete.
Edited in some extra note: Another reason I refer to my site is that it contains links to 96dpi-versions of my completed drawings - a higher resolution than available on talkgraphics that shows much more detail. Again, this is not an attempt to lure you to my website!
Wow Fred - really liking these. Thanks for the explanation. I'll have to using that interweb thingamajig to figure out the 'sor' - anyway, beautiful work!
That's a long time to be doing a piece of artwork... But it's well worth it when you see the final outcome!.. Keep them coming.
This are two detail images of the gold-on-red version of White Tara. Drawing with (real) gold on a red surface is a known technigue in Thangka painting. My version differs in the respect that I can draw transparent gold. And it is a lot cheaper to do ;)
Thanks for posting up the methodology Fred and the art is impressive :cool:
Thanks Fred. Maybe someday you will do this for a living.
The calligraphic quality of your line work is delicate and exquisite. Are you recreating existing images or creating images in this style based on historic renderings and paintings?
@Gary
I am being trained in thangka drawing by Andy Weber, who has been drawing and teaching this stuff for over 30 years. He teaches a certain lineage: a set of historically defined proportions, colour schemes, and the drawing process I mentioned earlier in this thread. There are several official lineages and one should not mix them together. The basic grids and images he teaches were handed down to him from his teacher; he copied them from 200 years old originals.
There are some - Buddhist - requirements in a Thangka drawing: proportions of the figure, some colouring (like the body colour or the colour sequence in the crown jewels), prescribed jewelry and garments. All of what you see in a drawing has a relation to Buddhistic teachings.
The goal in this form of drawing is to match the proportions and prescribed colours as perfect as possible. Some elements are free for interpretation. E.g. there is a requirement for 6 types of jewelry, but there is no requirement on how they should look. Same goes for landscape elements.
So back to your question: the first two images were digital - handdrawn - copies of my teacher's work, when you look at the overall setup of the image. However, because I use Xara, the level of perfection in line drawing and smoothness of shading is way beyond the possibilities of a traditional craftsman, which reflects in the amount of detail in the garments and jewelry.
My current images are more my own: the landscape, plants, the animals are all my very own creation.
My challenge was (and still is) to keep the atmosphere of the traditional ways and transform it into the digital age. That means that I look at the drawings of master painters a lot and try to figure out what and how to incorporate their techniques in my own drawings. Some of the stuff I do is totally different though: the way I drew the mountains in the White Tara picture is very much 'western'. So I am still in a transforming process from old to new - going digital without losing the traditional way.
Thing is that - as far as I know - I am the only one who draws digital Thangkas the traditional way. There is an American artist who scans old images and traces and paints them, but I have never met anyone who draws from scratch. So I have to figure out a lot of stuff myself. Luckely, Xara gives m the freedom to experiment, so cudos to them.
And I haven't started yet on the spiritual, Buddhist requirements for a Thangka artist... ;)