Skip to main content

From the Malabar Coast

India is a home to numerous art forms, culture and heritage. Be it warli from Maharashtra, Pattachitra from Orrisa or the Tanjavore paintings from Tamil Nadu - all of them have their own essence and depict various mythological stories, tales from people of olden times and the lifestyles of tribal communities of India. One such art form is the Kerala Mural or the Chumara chitram, Chumar - meaning wall and Chitram - meaning image. Kerala murals are an exquisitely detailed picturization of the mythological stories. Quite like other traditional paintings of India, Kerala murals also originated with being made from natural colors in them. These colors are sensitive to sunlight and water. Over the years though these painting might have lost their shine and brightness but the tradition of making them still pertains. You can find these painting on the walls of temples in Kerala. The painting have now been repainted in most of the places so you can see how intricate and flawless they used to be. 

This post is personally one of my most favourite paintings. It took a good amount of time and patience to finish but was worth it. The color palette of the painting is obvious and simple but the color combinations make it look even better. 

One important to remember while making these murals is being confident with your strokes. A wobbly hand would ruin the details of the painting and it is important to use appropriate brushes. I used a 0 and 00 brush for this. 

Another trick to get this right is to play between wet and dry surfaces. For sharp finishes over the background wait for the color to dry and use less water to color ratio (for darker color) and spread the darker color with water later on as per requirement. For smother finish of colors and Ombre effect let the background color partially dry. 

These were some tips and tricks to making a water Kerala Mural. For more such works keep checking this space and for any questions leave a comment down below.

Ciao! 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Exploring more of Watercolouring

One thing that I find interesting about water-colour is that you can try a lot of super-cool techniques.  It seems like I have used a stencil in this painting but with water-colour, it is possible to do this without a stencil. Water-colour has an amazing property of transparency and spreading in water. To make this amazing bird painting or any other painting in this technique, draw the basic image and paint the outside with clean water using the brush, this is called 'wash'. Before the water dries, take your desired colour and apply it on the wet area. The colour instantly spreads to give this kind of texture.  So, it's time to try this technique yourself... Happy Water-colouring!!!
Post a Comment
Read more

Let the MAGIC begin!

How it all started... A few months ago, I was sitting at my friend's apartment, when he suddenly started snooping through my phone and went on to say "Why ain't you participating in drama this year?". His question was indeed logical. I question myself in my mind once and said "Umm... I am not sure." And he said, "I hope you know that you are going to waste a lot of talent if you don't. Come on just go for it!" While I was still stuck between 'Drama or No Drama', he came up with one more question, "And what about your blog? When are you going to do that?"  And, that's what brought me here, blogging all that stuff which would have probably remained on my phone's File Explorer and then gone straight into the backup folder. About the Magician! Hi! I'm Subhashree, a Tamilian who hails from Kerala, currently living in Pune, pursuing my B.tech in Information Technology. Not long ago did I discover my inter...
Post a Comment
Read more

Father's day Special

It's 18th of June and finally Father's day. I live in a hostel, so there plenty of moments when I wish my parents and I enter the #Homesick mode. The best way to escape that is to indulge Arts and dedicate them something. So, I made this Father's day Hand-Lettering long back when I was missing my dad terribly. And the time has come when I can show that too you, to inspire you so that you can make one like this too... Feel free to experiment with styles and fonts. Make something for your dad and make him feel special... Happy Hand-Lettering! AND... HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO ALL THE DAD S!!
Post a Comment
Read more