This was one of my very first painting when I chose to study in Lacquer expertise. From the third year of university, we were allowed to choose the wishing field to delve. Within oil painting, silk painting and lacquer painting, I followed the third option. Therefore I had more time to practice and searched for the techniques that we wanted to conquer. The first painting in the third year was also a still life piece, but it was performed in different material compared to previous years.
The period of making a lacquer painting was around 2 to 3 months and this material was unable to fix on the surface without ruining every layers underneath. Therefore, we were required to create a perfect charcoal sketch to outlined the composition and the appropriate values.
After the outlines of the painting had been completely dried. I started to apply the first layer of colors and then put the silver leaves on top of them.
silver leaves could be put whole pieces on to the color layers or could be sieved to the specific color area to create different textures and effects for the shapes.
Before we added another color layer on top, we had to glaze a thin layer of "son ta" all over the silver surface and let it dried completely. This action would keep each layer separated, hence the action of grinding would reveal the effect of layers knitted to each other.
After grinding the painting, We began to fix the value of the shapes based on the charcoal sketch. The steps in this stage would be varied, due to studies and experiences of each students
By coating more layers of "son ta" mixed with clear pigment or we could repeat the action of applying color layer, stuck silver leaves or sprinkled the silver powder on top,then glazed the layer of "son ta" and grinded it out if we had not wanted the previous texture.
