When you colour a gongbi painting, use two brushes, one dipped in the required colour, the other in clear water. As soon as you have coloured a leaf or flower, go over it with water to give it a smooth, even appearance and to remove traces of the brush, but be careful not to grease or soil your work.
The front of a leaf should be painted darker than the back. You can leave a narrow white strip alongside the principal vein, to be filled in with some light colour later. Or, you can do a line in mineral green alongside this vein. Both the fei se (flying colours) and zhao se (undercoating with alum) can be used when colouring leaves and flowers. are examples of xieyi leaves in ink only. there are line drawings or double line drawings of leaves and flowers.