Mastering Cattleya Gongbi: A Step-by-Step Chinese Drawing Technique Guide

2025년 7월 26일

Step 1:

For the background, apply a flat wash of ochre yellow water (you can add a tiny bit of carmine to get a bronze color). Use light ink to outline the flowers, dark ink for the leaves, medium ink for the reverse side of the leaves, and light ink for the lower branches and bottom aerial roots. Apply a flat wash of yellow-green to the reverse side of the leaves, flower stalks, and stems. Use pink-green (white + light green) to flat wash the lower part of the stems. Apply a flat wash of light white to the flower heads, and grass green to the front side of the leaves.

Step 2:

Use light rouge to shade the flower petals. Shade the reverse side of the leaves with light grass green, and the front side of the leaves with light indigo. For the lower branches, use grass green mixed with a tiny bit of light green for shading. Around the bottom aerial roots, outline them with light grass green to make them stand out.

Step 3:

Continue shading and washing the front side of the leaves with dark green ink. Continue shading the flower petals with a slightly darker rouge, making the front side darker and the back side slightly lighter. Carefully highlight the drooping anther parts with dark rouge. Highlight the flower stalks with light rouge. Apply a wash of light green to the tips of the reverse side of the leaves, and a wash of light ink green to the base of the reverse side of the leaves. Lightly highlight the top of the lower pink-green branches with light white. Continue outlining the aerial roots and around the stones with light ink green. Overall, apply a very light indigo wash from the bottom to the top of the background, bringing the visual focus to the upper part of the painting.

Step 4:

Finally, highlight the tips of the flower petals with dark rouge, then apply white powder from the base to the tip in a reverse wash. Highlight the center of the anther with pink-yellow. After highlighting the reverse side of the leaves with a slightly darker light green, re-outline them with light rouge. After flat washing the front side of the leaves with grass green, locally highlight them with dark green ink. Re-outline blurred lines on the front leaves with medium ink. Locally highlight the flower stalks with dark rouge. Highlight the broken parts of the lower branches with ochre yellow, then outline the texture with light grass green. Highlight the base of the lower branches with medium ink green. Outline the texture of the upper flower stems with light rouge.