Red-Crowned Crane in Silk: Gongbi Workshop with Victoria
Date: Tuesday, November 17 | Time: 9:00 AM – 12:30 PM Pacific Time | 12:00 Noon to 3:30PM East Coast Time
Format: Live Zoom and Lifetime Access to Recordings
About the Class
Where clouds are home to the crane(雲是鶴家鄉): in Chinese culture the red-crowned crane is a symbol of longevity, purity, and the free spirit. Cranes are said to carry immortals across the sky, so their true home is among the clouds, far above the everyday world.
- In this half-day workshop, Victoria will guide you through a complete gongbi composition on silk: a red-crowned crane with its wings spread in dance, set against blue-green mountains and drifting white clouds. You will learn to:
- Outline the crane's layered wing and tail feathers with fine, controlled lines
- Paint the white plumage so it stays clean and luminous against the tinted silk
- Add the accents: the red crown, black neck, and dark flight feathers
- Build the blue-green (qinglü) landscape with soft layered washes
- Shape the flowing outlines of the clouds
Silk Mounting Demonstration
This class includes a demonstration of mounting silk. Once the line drawing is finished, and before any color goes on, Victoria will show how to dry-mount the silk onto backing paper with silicone film. This keeps the silk flat and stable through all the layers of color that follow.
Level: For students with some brush-painting experience. Beginners are welcome if they're willing to work slowly and carefully.
Materials
Supplies List
- Silk: 3-thread sized silk (三絲熟絹), 11"x14". It's the same silk we used in last month's flower class, so you can use any you have left over. You may also use any sized paper, such as cicada wing paper, yellow toned sized Xuan, or hot press watercolor paper as substitude to silk.
- Brushes: the Basic 3 brush set, plus a Rat Whisker Liner Brush (出鋒勾線筆)
- Colors: Marie's 12-color set (馬利12色)
- Chinese ink
- Ink stone or palette dish, plus several small color dishes
- Two water containers: one with clean water for washes, one for rinsing
- Paper towels and a felt pad
Please buy / prepare before class (for silk mounting)
- Silicone mounting paper for dry mounting
- Backing paper: Archival Plain Backing Paper recommended. Substitutes include hot-press watercolor paper, mixed media paper, Bristol paper, or heavy drawing paper.
- Household iron, plus four layers of cloth to use as a pressing pad. Cotton sheeting, denim, or any smooth fabric works. Please don't use felt.
- LED Lightbox (optional)
