Dunhuang early mural painting techniques

The character of frescoes is dependent on the building, so the prior production of the building wall as a carrier to carry and express the frescoes is particularly important. Dunhuang Grottoes and the grottoes along the Silk Road also share many similarities in this regard.

In the Dunhuang literature there are also many on the production of mural wall bottom of the record, most of the craft production is very careful, folk artists (including some highly educated painters) in the long-term practice of mural painting summed up a very durable mural production process. Based on the traditional craftsmanship, from the wall treatment, painting procedures to the development of pigments are considered the adhesion of the frescoes and the durability of the pigments, which also provides a long-lasting visual graphic support for the propaganda of Buddhism.

After the overall delineation of the large blocks of the entire cave wall through the top, it was time to start processing the picture according to the planned content. The first step is to make a draft. In the early caves of Dunhuang, you can see that the entire cave is outlined with a specific image of the earth red line, is the artist with a brush directly on the wall sketches. From the picture can also be seen on the sketches of the artist, the painting tools used for the soft brush, usually with a brush dipped in light earth red color directly on the wall sketches.

The whole cave is a light earth red line roughly sketched out the position of the character dynamic, outline clothing, including patterns. Painters in the long-term painting process, practiced skilful painting skills, some paintings may have reference to the sample, for rough reference and copying, while some of them are their temporary creative play.