Madhubani painting on wooden box- Tutorial

In the process of organizing and decorating my craft room, I'm making many hand crafted items. Already I have shared  about the wooden boxes painted. One box with Warli design and and another with decoupage.

About Madhubani art I have written in one of my posts,Madhubani Art( Mithila Art) -Art from an ancient city .I have been wanting to learn Madhubani art. But never got an opportunity to learn it from a professional. Still my search is on for a professional Madhubani artist to learn this beautiful art. Thought of trying this art , by painting it on a wooden box. I searched many tutorials online, and tried to paint. This is my first attempt in Madhubani art.

Here it is :

Tutorial to paint on wooden box:

First step is to paint the wooden box with wood primer. You can use acrylic white color too.After the application of  primer wait for 4-5 hours so that it dries completely. Then apply white acrylic color.I have mixed a drop of yellow color, to make it look like a handmade paper. :)

Wooden box with after first layer of paint applied

How to transfer the design :

The tedious task is to transfer the design, may it be embroidery or painting. If you can draw , it is  good. If you can't then the design should be transferred. There are many techniques to transfer design.I used pencil scribbling method. Here are the steps of the method:

1. On the wrong side of the design page , scribble with 2B pencil. 

Scribble on the wrong side of the design

2. Now keep it on the surface where the design has to be transferred and draw lines of the design with sharp pencil.

Draw on the design

The design will be transferred on the surface:

Design transferred on the surface

I prefer this method over using carbon papers to transfer designs , as carbon papers leave black patches sometimes.
After design transferred, paint it with the required color. In Madhubani art the major colors used are  red, yellow, green and black.
Here it is after painting:

Madhubani art on wooden box

There may be many mistakes in the first attempt.
Hope soon I will find a Guru , from whom I can learn this traditional art :)

Planning to design a saree with Madhubani designs. Will share the saree design soon with you.

Until then,

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

 

Tanjore paintings- Rich heritage of a small city Tanjore

Tanjavur or Tanjore is a small city in Tamilanadu, famous for Brihadeeswarar Temple, one of the largest temples of India. Tanjavur art / paintings originated from this city. Tanjavur paintings are known for its richness in color and ornamentation. The paintings are embellished with semi precious stone and thin gold sheets.
Themes used in Tanjore paintings majorly include, life of Krishna. Nowadays many artists use different themes like Shiva, Vishnu, Laxmi etc. Not only painting with colors, also embossing technique is used in Tanjore paintings.

During my visit to Chitrasante 2016  I could capture some images of Tanjore paintings. Each painting was unique.
Here sharing the photos of the paintings exhibited:
The below painting is on theme Krishna's life. 

Tanjore painting with Krishna theme

 Another showing Rasha Krishna.

Radha-Krishna- Tanjore painting

As I have written, Though most of the Tanjore paintings are on Krishna's life, nowadays artists are trying different themes. Here is one such painting:

Tanjore painting - Devi(Goddess)

And the richest God :) Venkateshwara (Balaji):

Venkateshwara- Tanjore painting

As real gold foil is used in Tanjore paintings,these are very expensive. The small sized ones are affordable:

Small sized Tanjore paintings

Tanjore painting- Parrot

The below paintings show the artists creativity, mirror with Tanjavur painting:

Mirror with Tanjore painting

I had learnt this art a few years ago and here is the painting I made.
Though the  making of Tanjore painting requires guidance from an expert, I will share tutorial in coming posts, for enthusiastic art learners.

Until then,

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana

Coffee to drink or paint ?- Coffee painting

Confused reading title ? :) Yes !Coffee can be used for painting. Even I didn't know about this. Recently while browsing for some designs for glass painting  I had come across coffee painting. I was mesmerized by coffee paintings made by many artists. Even I thought to try my hands in coffee painting. The result is here :

This is painted with only coffee powder and water. Very simple too. The specialty of this painting is this has l  only shades of Brown! To highlight , I have used Gold color  3D outliner.  

Its really fun to paint with coffee, with nice aroma of coffee, and of course with a cup of coffee!So next time while having a cup of coffee , think of painting with coffee :-)

Love , laugh and live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana