Method of Miniature Art Paintings

(miniature art painting of a girl)

The beautiful art of miniature painting in India is a delight to behold, and it is not surprising that its creation requires a great deal of skill, patience and imagination

Material required

• Tracing paper and carbon paper
• Colours-Anyone of the two can be used.

• Oil colours- These tend to be a bit thicker than acrylics and require thinner for washing, thinning, and brush cleaning .They also dry late

• Acrylic paint- They are water-base and are smoother, though on drying it may become grainy. But mostly acrylics are artist’s choice posters

• Metallic colours

• Brushes-A variety of brushes are required 000 and 5/0 for smaller areas, and from a 10/0 to a 20/0 for fine detail

• Paper

• Rough cloth

( Mughal style of miniature art painting)

Process of Indian Miniature Paintings

Step 1:
Choose a design

Step 2:
First draw the required pattern on the trace paper and copy the design into the cloth/paper using carbon sheet

Step3
Now first paint the human figures. Then animals and other components of the picture. The background is painted last. This is to set each area's base colour

Step4
This step need fine brushes to beautify the Floors, carpets, human figure with intricate detailing. This also includes techniques like shading, highlighting, washing,

Step 5
Outlines the figures with a darker colour and highlight the jewellery and other parts using metallic paints to give an appearance of richness.

Step 6
Burnishing is the last stage. The miniature art painting is laid face down on a hard surface, and an agate stone is used to stroke it firmly. This gives the painting a uniform texture.

Miniature Art Painting Techniques

Shading and highlighting: These give a brilliant light effect. While shading is used to detail shadows, highlighting emphasizes the brighter areas.

Outlining: This technique is used to separate various parts of the painting

Dry-brushing . This miniature Art painting technique involves accentuating certain parts of the painting with a brush that has barely any color on it. The color used for dry-brushing is lighter than the base color.

Blending: Blending is an advanced miniature Art painting technique that is used to merge colors in one area with surrounding areas, to give the impression of a smooth and natural movement.

Washing: This is a miniature art painting technique wherein extremely diluted paint is put in the folds and low points of the painting.



(experimenting can be fun : Checkout the pepsi bottle in the miniature art painting)

Apart from paper artists also make miniature art paintings on the following:
Glass
Velvet
Marble
Silk
Wood

But making miniature art painting no doubt requires a lot of practice and patience. If you have both then go ahead and decorate your house with these wonderful pieces of Indian Art. You will find links to find Miniature art painting designs on the sidebar. So go ahead….

Do share your views and ideas and share your comments. Post your comments the tag board on the sidebar.If you want to know another traditional form of Indian painting.Click the links below

Madhubani painting

Glass painting Designs

Tanjore painting

Warli painting

Rangoli :Painted prayers of India