Gongbi is a 2000 year old Chinese realist painting technique. The Gongbi technique uses highly detailed brush strokes to precisely delimit areas of the painting. Gongbi artists had to be totally committed to the style in order to master it. Only the wealthy could afford the paintings.
There are four types of brushes used for detailing. The finest is about the thickness of a needle. At this point, the technique she developed for working on photographs departs from tradition.
In the Chinese technique, the detail outlines are painted first, then the areas inside are filled with ink washes. The painting is made on a special type of rice paper that is soft and textured.
The order is reversed when working on a photograph. The image must come first, then it is meticulously outlined. That took practice and a strong magnifier. There is a variety of paper available for inkjet printing. We tried many, including one that is similar to watercolor painting paper. Each was a failure until we tried glossy, waterproof photographic printing paper. With care, the ink stayed exactly where it was placed, and didn't spread. The scanned result, after a lot of trial and adjustment, looked just like the painting on a photograph.
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