There are several copying methods for Dunhuang murals.

1, the first part is to choose a good composition. Some pictures that need to be presented are part of the whole mural. The choice of pictures should be exquisite, with outstanding content and balanced composition. Then shoot and make slides as needed. Photographers should shoot the light and shooting range according to the composition requirements, and then make slides. In the past, because the picture was large, the shooting space was small, and the wide angle was easy to deform, several shots were taken at the same distance and height, and then the revised manuscript was depicted after being enlarged to the original size with a slide projector. There are errors in this method, which brings a lot of inconvenience to copying and revising personnel and increases a certain amount of labor. At present, digital cameras can be used to shoot at the same distance and height in turn, and then the puzzle can be synthesized in the computer and enlarged to the original size by the projector. This method can be used to resume copying and complete copying.

2. Put the slide projector and projector on the original paper, project the lines with a pencil, and then modify the cave mural with a pencil until the shape is accurate. Then use a brush to draw a complete sketch according to the momentum and rhyme of the original line, making it an independent work, just like the original powder.

3. Copying the sketch onto the formal colored rice paper through the copying table, which is usually called "over-draft". That is, through the light box with glass on the upper plane, the sketch is printed on rice paper and colored as it is with newly ground Song Yanmo; If the original mural is painted with soil red lines, the soil red is drawn with glue to a certain concentration instead of ink color, and the depth of lines and colors are required by the original mural.

4. After the outlined colored manuscript paper is leveled by a full-time painter with a paper back with strong tension and long fiber, its four edges can be pasted on a moderate wooden drawing board with a white paper strip about one inch wide in the hole, which is suitable for leveling. It is worth noting that the pulling force of pasting four-sided paper strips is also very important, which is less than that of colored paper. In the process of coloring, the drawing paper may shrink due to shrinkage, and it will crack somewhere in the four corners, resulting in the broken corners of the picture; If the tension of small pieces of paper is greater than that of colored paper, the picture in the center of the drawing may be broken due to shrinkage during the coloring process; Therefore, in order to prevent the above dangers, we should first work hard on the selection of copy paper, and it is best to use pure hemp paper or clean leather to sort out and copy the present situation. If you use paper to restore copying, you can use cooked rice paper, but the air permeability of cooked rice paper is not good, and the effect of three drying and nine dyeing is opposite to the original dyeing method, so you can cook it yourself with hemp paper or leather paper, or add alum to cooked paper before making the background color.

(2) background color making

There are many ways to make background color, which generally depends on the effect and drawing method of the picture. If the background color is not good, it will directly affect the subsequent color setting process.

1, thin bottom multi-layer method: (The old gentlemen in Dunhuang Research Institute often use this method. ) that is, adjust the color to be similar to the background color of the mural, glue it and add water for many times, and dry it thoroughly every time before brushing it until the chromaticity is satisfactory. Use a row brush as the background color, not a heavy pen. If necessary, brush an appropriate amount of glue alum water. This method is suitable for copying with gouache pigment, which is easy to smudge.

2. Thick coating method: (Young authors in Dunhuang Research Institute often use this method. ) Brush a proper amount of alum water on the base paper, rinse the pigment (mainly gouache) and remove the glue. There is not much moisture in the color, so it can be dragged smoothly. If it is thin paste, first brush it horizontally from left to right, then vertically from top to bottom, and sometimes brush it again if the water color is clear, depending on the data to be brushed. This method can be used for gouache and stone color.

3. Mud bottom method: This method mainly uses extremely fine raw soil (Dunhuang loess, commonly known as "clear board soil") as the main pigment, with translucent solution powder and water-dried color to form a thin paste, which is brushed for two or three times. The characteristic of this method is that the mud background color forms fine particles between paper fiber and stone color, which is convenient for hanging coarse stone color and easy to produce texture and strong mural effect.

(3) Coloring

The background color with good production effect is translucent, and some lines are covered. You can sketch it again according to the ink line or soil red line used in the original work. The lines of Dunhuang murals are multi-layered, and the bottom line is drawing lines or drafting lines. Some lines may be covered in the process of coloring, so it is necessary to outline the final lines and refreshing lines in good colors. There are red lines and ink lines in line drawing. The last lines are mostly ink lines, while the refreshing lines are ink, red and white lines. Therefore, it is necessary to show the relationship between the upper and lower layers of the screen lines to reflect the painting process and hierarchical effect of the original murals. Line drawing in each historical period has its own historical characteristics, with different pens and diverse painting methods, so as to ensure both form and spirit, not weakness and exaggeration, which is the minimum respect for ancient cultural heritage.

Pay special attention to the amount of glue when coloring, the glue will scab, harden, crack and fall off. Pay attention to the contrast color of dry parts, especially the use of stone color, because stone color is irreconcilable, such as the blue in azurite and stone green caves has a green tendency, and the blue has a purple tendency. The bottom layer with green tendency should be lined with flower blue, and the bottom layer with purple tendency should be lined with soil red, ochre or vermilion. When the upper layer is dyed blue, it will synthesize blue with green or purple tendency. This method can be used when gouache is used to show the technique of mural blooming with water, or it can be directly adjusted to an accurate color and then painted.

Pay special attention to the expression of mural level when painting. Dry murals are characterized by painting and dyeing layers, and attention should be paid to the bottom battle. When making the ending copy and the current copy, there are often many places where the original wall falls off and scabs, and the soil under the bottom war will be exposed to form different textures. Make the soil color of the bottom war suitable. White coating on it leaves a gap, which makes it form a bottom fault with white mud at the bottom.

When applying colors of various shapes and images in murals, we should pay attention to the changes of the original colors, especially black and brown. It is necessary to know what pigment is before discoloration. The discoloration of Dunhuang frescoes is mainly caused by its lead-containing pigments, which are mainly mixed Dani color with red series such as cinnabar, cinnabar and ochre. When painting, you should first paint Danni and other primary colors, and then dye the upper mask black. In addition, the edge of the manuscript will reveal some primary colors. In this way, it can be red in the black and draw more vivid effects. Similarly, when we draw colors, we should also be clear about the various techniques used by the ancients to draw murals, so as to write accurately and positively. There are two ways to smudge: one is to wet the paper with a pen, and then color it with a relatively dry pen to render a different effect; You can also paint first, and then render the light-dark relationship with a transparent pen. Sometimes once is not enough, you can paint and render it repeatedly to achieve a transparent and heavy smudge effect.

There are various coloring methods for copying murals, which depend on people's habits, frame size, working environment, cave space size and their mutual influence. Can be completed in parts from top to bottom; It can also be the whole pink series, such as painting green first, then painting red and blue in turn, and finally merging; No matter how you paint, you should consider the whole picture from a local perspective, and find out the brightest color, the second, third and darkest tone in the whole picture. This is the rhythm and subject-predicate-object level of the picture color to ensure the rise and rhythm of the picture. Good temporary products must have overall color, tone and proper light and shade besides accurate and powerful lines and vivid (freehand) shapes; Texture modeling should be hidden under shape, image and color, with modeling characteristics as the main factor, followed by color composition and texture.

After the coloring and line drawing of the whole painting are completed, we should leave some time to sort out and coordinate, and distinguish the subject, predicate and object; Color jumping blocks should obey the overall relationship, with clear priorities, clear lines and surfaces, and mixed elements in one go.