Mantas: Third Steps

Working on the third and, I hope, final firing. This firing is mostly adding black outlines, but I also do some more intensifying colors, like I’ve done on the yellow-brown coral that has the outlines on it. I’ll do that on the other one too. Most china painters don’t do this outlining, but I work much larger than traditional china painters, and these images need to carry across a room, so they need to be punchy. Also, doing several coats and pouncing the colors to remove brush marks, the edges of things get fuzzy. This gets them crisp again. I keep the black in the mortar and pestle and grind it periodically to keep it in suspension. I just let it dry out in between jobs.