Tibetan Thangka Art: Drawing the Body of the Buddha
Weekly Course with Tiffani Gyatso
4 Classes | 90 minutes
Thursdays April 15th, 22th, 29th and May 6th
$80 for Complete Series
Time:
10AM Los Angeles | 1PM New York
2PM Sao Paulo
6PM London | 7PM Rome
(Please see information below about complete three part Thangka Series)
This course is offered live on Zoom and will be hosted on our new learning platform where you can review your classes at any time
(Recordings and all course materials will be viewable for one year).
If you attended previous courses with Yangchenma Arts & Music, you will soon be able to access all your courses in one place with a single login.
For the first two years at least, a thangka painter in Tibet would only learn the proportions of the Buddhas and other deities by drawing them many times. Painting would be introduced some years after the artist was intimate with the lines, shapes and style. The proportions of the body of the Buddha relates to the anatomy of his enlightened being, which recalls us of our own “inner shape of perfect awareness”. By drawing the Buddha, with so many rules and perfect proportions, it demands our full presence, pristine devotion and aligned motivation which with some time of practice it transforms into a kind of joy and freedom attained only by consistent discipline. The drawing is the essential basics for any sort of further studies in the art of thangka painting.
In this workshop we will be introduced to the proportions of the full body of the Buddha and lotus throne as well as all the symbolism and preparatory prayers. During the week we will also given practice to do at home. It will be a commitment with the Buddha and with the sacred artist within you wanting to take shape in the world.
Tibetan Thankga Art: Foundations | Series of Three Courses: $295
Tibetan Thangka Art: The Face of Compassion (Four Sessions - Recordings)
In order to attend “Drawing the Body of the Buddha”, we recommend attending this course, the Face of Compassion where all the basic principles of drawing and colors are introduced and practiced. If you missed the course live, you may purchase the recordings here. (If you are not able to complete the course before beginning this one, you may complete it at your own pace).Tibetan Thangka Art: Drawing the Body of the Buddha (Four Sessions - Live, April 15th - May 6th)
Tibetan Thangka Art: Painting the Body of the Buddha (Eight Sessions - May 20th - July 8th)
For those interested in going deeper into the practice of thangka art, you are invited to attend the next course of eight sessions where we will learn the techniques of painting. Register for Painting the Body of the Buddha here.
(If you already attended the Part One “Face of the Compassion” course and would like to participate in the complete series, please e-mail info@yangchenma.org to receive coupon for $80 price deduction on this series of courses)
Drawing the Body of the Buddha | Program Schedule
Session One | April 15th:
Presentation of the full grid template and the first lines of the body of the Buddha
Session Two | April 22nd:
Today we will dress the body of the Buda with the two pieces of a monk’s clothes: a robe and a zen. Let us understand the curves and lines of a cloth working gracefully with gravity and the energy that the Buddha emanates from its pores, not letting any of it touch his skin as a symbol of blazing brilliance.
Session Three | April 29th:
Today we will continue the drawing together, finalizing with the drawing of the lotus throne where all enlightened beings sit as a symbol that their presence is untouched by the poisons of samsara just as the lotus stands unstained by the mud from where it emerges.
Session 4 | May 6th:
We will finalize our drawing with a thin marker. It is just a step before of using a brush which requires a stable and precise hand. With that we can erase the sketching lines and have a last piece clean and ready for the next classes for those wishing to paint.
Materials Required for Course:
A3 size Canson smooth surface paper 300m/g
Regular A3 or A4 Paper
Four sheets of tracing paper
Print out of the Buddha Body Template (to be provided)
A mechanical pencil 0,5 HB and a 4B pencil
normal tape
Micron or pinball black pen. One each: 0.05, 0.2 and 0,5 black
About our Teacher:
Tiffani Gyatso is an artist from Brazil who focused her studies on the sacred expressions of art from different cultures. She specialized in traditional Tibetan Thangka painting, which she learned in India at the Norbulingka Institute from the years 2003-2006 and later furthered her studies at the Prince School of Traditional Arts in London where she studied sacred Geometry of the Middle East. Today she runs her own art retreat center at the Atelier YabYum at the mountains of Brazil and guides art groups to India and Nepal.