Decorated Karthigai Deepam

Hello everyone..

Today is the auspicious day of Karthigai Deepam.. Karthigai is the 8th month of the Tamil calendar.. "Periya karthigai" or "Karthigai Thirunal" is the birth date of Lord Karthikeya, also known as Lord Murugan, a prominent deity of Tamil Nadu..

About Karthigai Deepam: 

On this special day, Fasting is done in the name of "Karthigai Viratham".. without eating breakfast and lunch but Fruits, Mavu Urundai(Flour Laddu) and Milk can be taken.. the fasting is ended with a grand feast(consists of rice,sambar and 7 or more vegetable poriyal and finished with sweet kheer or payasam) in the evening 6 pm after lighting the deepam and offering prayers to the Lord Murugan..



 Today, the famous "Maha Deepam" is also lit on the hilltop of the Shivan temple, "Sri Arunachaleswarar temple" at Thiruvannamalai,Tamil Nadu

 

As a deepam is the main feature of this celebration, today, I have decorated some clay diyas.. Lets get into it..

Painting:

The simple way of making a clay deepam colorful and beautiful is to paint it..I have painted this diya using lemon yellow and crimson acrylic colors.. (If acrylic colors are not available, Poster colors can also be used... but a coat of varnish is needed to avoid color fading..)

Metallic Dust:

We can obtain an antique effect on the deepam by applying metallic dust...Metallic dust comes as Gold,Silver and bronze... They add a wonderful effect to the plain deepam.. At first, when I brushed on some dust, more dust was wasted.. but accidently, i applied the dust which spilled on my fingers on the deepam, it was very effective and easy to do too..So on this deepam, i have applied gold and silver dust with my fingers...

Beads:

We can paste any decor items such as sequins, beads,bead strings or stones to decorte a deepam.. Please note to leave the place where it is lit.. to avoid melting of the decor items..

I have pasted a lotus shaped old pendant at one its end..

My favourite:

This deepam looks so beautiful that I could not think of any way to enhance it... Such was the talent  of the designer and craftsman of this clay deepam.. So, as a respect to the designer, I have decided to use this deepam as a clay one itself..

A VERY HAPPY KARTHIGAI DEEPAM TO ALL OF YOU"

Hope you liked my diyas.. You can try it too and post your creations at the comment section below..
Have a nice day..Keep on crafting..

Flowers - Blending

"Sometimes all you need is a little splash of color" - Famous quote

Hello everyone..

In this post, I have displayed three different flower paintings painted using blending technique..
For illustrations about blending technique, please refer my previous post.

The first painting is done by using white as base color,and crimson as blending color..

 The second flower has lemon yellow base color and subtly blended with vermillion..

In the third flower, blending is done from the center with crimson and black on a lemon yellow base color.. some fillers can also be added.. metallic/pearl green is used for leaves..

Please leave your valuable comments below.. Hope you all liked this... See you soon with my next post..Have a nice day..

Fabric Painted Golden Floral Frame Design

"Earth laughs through Flowers"-Famous Quote

Hello everyone..
Today I have painted a Frame design with flowers and detailed with golden paint..This painting can well be used as a photo frame in which the centre part can be used to hold your smiling photo..Take a look..

Things needed:

A clean and ironed Poplin Fabric:
Poplin is a fabric woven with criss cross ribs of any fiber such as cotton,wool,silk,etc., which gives it a strong texture and it prevents any paint from oozing down through it.

A dark colored Poplin fabric Buy poplin cloth here

Acrylic Paints:
Many different colors of fabric/Acrylic paints. I have used pearl colors for this painting as they look good on dark colored fabric..



Painting Brushes:

1. A Flat Brush No:2 or 3(For color filling)
2. A lettering Brush No:000 or 00(For outlining)

Short and Stiff bristles are preferable..

Painting Frame:A painting frame helps to tighten the fabric and holds it in the stretched form.



Other Essentials:

1. An old cloth for cleaning brushes in between changing colors
2. An old piece of card or paper to place under the fabric
3. Clean water
4. A mixing tray(Optional in case we want to mix certain colours)

Draw the pattern on the fabric using a white color pencil..

 

Fill the flower petals with any pearl acrylic colors.. And fill the small outline of each petal with pearl yellow..

 

Now outline with acrylic black color..

 

With metallic copper acrylic color, Draw stripes over the yellow area of each petal of each flower..

 

From the centre of each petal,draw strokes of golden color...

 Now draw a circle in the center of the frame and color the area between the flowers and the circle with golden color....

The Finished painting looks like this..

Note: For painting with gold,copper and such metallic colors, Gold,Silver or Copper dust can be mixed with acrylic paint medium and used.. They are available as acrylic paints too..

Please leave your valuable comments below..
Hope you all enjoyed this..See you soon with another artwork in my next post. Have a nice day..