A fair number of students have asked me through the years the kind of materials I use for my drawings and paintings. Even though there were limited resources when I started to study painting, in recent years the availability of different types of materials have just been a click away.
One of the most important or perhaps ‘the’ most important tool for a thangka painter is a good brush for pulling lines. Wether you are inking a drawing, pulling coloured lines on your painting or applying gold motifs, a good brush is indispensable. I have used many different brushes in my painting career but I keep falling back to the Chinese brushes that I used to use when I started studying.
Apart from the Chinese brushes the one that I would highly recommend to thangka painters and especially beginners are the ‘Winsor and Newton’ series 7 brushes (sizes #0 and #1)
I personally prefer using brushes with natural hairs rather than synthetic ones because the synthetic hairs often tend to split after some time. Here are some links to brushes that I use regularly.
One of the modern ‘gadgets’ that I use frequently is a ‘drawing light board’. I use this board when I am doing repetitive works, tracing, copying or integrating designs into my work.
This board comes in different sizes but the A3 size is the most convenient one for me. There are also A2 sizes but I prefer it to be portable so that I can take it with me when I am travelling as well. Obviously there are various light boards to choose from and you can decide for yourself the one that suits you the best but I will post a link below to the one that I am using.