How much can you do with a line? I have been playing around with Madhubani-inspired borders lately, and this started as a very simple experiment. [Jump to the Free Printable Sheet, if in a hurry :)] I wondered: how much beauty can a few lines add to a basic shape? So I took some familiar…
Sometimes an artwork begins with a grand idea. And sometimes, it begins with a pile of postcard-sized cardstock sitting on the table and a few Postcrossing addresses waiting to be sent. This one began with the latter and Madhubani birds on my mind. I had a few postcards to send out for my Postcrossing addresses….
On an April evening, I painted this digital madhubani peacock on my iPad. I was being part of a collaboration on Instagram to post a peacock in Madhubani for the day and I was travelling. No papers, no pens. But I had my work iPad with me. A late-night art fulfullied the day’s commitment. I…
Have you ever started a blank page and frozen when it came to Madhubani borders? I have. And it happens almost every time I make an art. Madhubani or Mithila art is known for bright colours and bold double lines. But when I sit with paper and pen, leave alone paint & brush, the first…
My hand remembered before I sat down to draw these Madhubani borders. A few weeks ago I picked up my favourite black pen. No plan. But triangles came out forst on my mind. Then some some flowers. Then some lines. I started. These were the borders I saw on the walls of Patna in Bihar,…
This is my desk today. For a change, no ‘editing’, no ‘angle’ as in my journalistic writings. Just me, paper, and whatever shows up. Today, it’s two fish. In Mithila painting.I didn’t plan them. I let the two fish swim different directions. The lotus came next. Pink, because my desk cloth that day was this…