The making of My Kerala Mural

I'd mentioned my plans to attend a Kerala Mural workshop in an earlier post.....so here are the pics from it. I thoroughly enjoyed the 3 day intense program. Before I went for it, I was wondering how many murals we would complete sitting 7 hours a day for 3 days. How many?! We were hardly able to complete one! Its such a tedious process and there are so many intricate details in the drawings that its a lot of effort but the end result makes it all worth it!

A close up of Ganesha - My First Kerala Mural 

Traditionally these murals are paintings of Hindu Deities done on walls of temples and palaces in Kerala. The colors used were all natural dyes. The most interesting aspect of these murals is Panchvarna or the use of only 5 colors - Yellow, red, green, blue and black. These are painted on a white background, so the white spaces in the pictures are left blank to show through. 

Acrylics are being used on canvas and other media more recently. Except for those changes, we used the original traditional method to do the mural. The basic steps after preparing the background (which are not required on a white canvas) are -

Trace out the drawing. We used graphite transfer method for it. 
Do the outline again with red paint.
Fill in yellow for the ornaments, head-dress, the stems, the dress and the background.
A double coat of yellow where required.
A bold red outline and some shading and some red effects on the background.
Yellow for the body (multiple coats).
Then green for leaves, stems and dress.
Then blue for some parts of the dress and garlands.
Finally a black outline all over again and for the hair.

The starting point - the drawing given to us

The sketch on the canvas

The first step - outline with red paint

Filling in the yellow parts

Red outlines and shading 

With the reference painting

Background completed

 

Again yellow for the body

    Now for some green

  And some blue

                                           

After the final step - black outlines

And I completed my first Kerala Mural. Hope to make more sometime soon.

This one goes to PPF and Show and tell Saturday #30. Drop in there to see some amazing art. 

Painting and clay art

After a long slumber, I awoke to make a painting :) You won't believe how long I had this idea in my head. I have thought it over so many times. But I think my inertia becomes too strong at times. And it takes me months, or years sometime, to overcome it and jump into action. Well, better late than never!

My original idea was slightly different but here'e what it turned out to be. But that's art for me.....enjoying the process and being pleasantly surprised by the outcome :)

Its actually a set of 4 canvases each an 18" square. I intend to hang them up on the wall above my off-white sofa with colorful cushions. Do you think it'll look good there?

Did I mention I took a basic course in clay modeling and the wheel? It was a 10 session course at Clay Station and was good fun. More about Clay Station in a separate post. The course covered hand building techniques and some basics of throwing on the wheel. Since a child, I was always fascinated by the Potter's wheel. I was excited to see how a rotating wheel and a skilled pair of hands could mold and shape the lump of clay into beautiful art pieces. 

Well the course focused more on hand building as the time wasn't enough to take us anywhere close to even an amateur level on the wheel. But I did get a feel of the wheel and learnt to almost center the clay lump and give it a basic shape.

So, here are some of the stuff I made during the class using the various techniques taught. 

I'm linking this to Paint Party Friday. I haven't participating in this fun party for quite sometime now. This week I have something to take with me to the party and share with all the talented artists there.

Kathakali Dancer

This is my entry for 29 faces May (Day 4) and PPF Week 8, Year 2.

I used acrylics on sketching paper. And I'm happy with the outcome :)

Kathakali is a dance-drama form from the southern Indian state, Kerala. It is said to have its origins in the 17th century. The most striking feature of this classical dance form is the elaborate makeup of the characters. They enact parts of the great Indian epics Mahabharata and Ramayana and other stories from Indian mythology.

I had this dream of painting a Kathakali dancer and finally...thanks to PPF and 29 faces I did it!