Oil Painting of Princess Damayanti

Hi guys ,today ill be illustrating you all about an antique oil painting .The main theme of this painting is a love story between a prince Nalan and princess Damayanti from Mahabharata an ancient Indian epics.The prince being miles away, a swan acts as their messenger of love. the painting shows the Indian culture, dressing and architecture. The painting gives a mixture of European techniques with the touch of Indian sensibility. It's vibrant colors with an antique touch .Oil painting is all about mixing and exploring colors. I'm not a professional artist it was a good start it came out well. Its not hard as you think . So, let's get started: )

You will need:

Oil paint ,Paint brushes of different size, Canvas or thick chart paper, Pencil,Eraser, Sharpener, Glitter pen or Golden paint, Scale

Outline of the painting plays a major role . It gives a clear idea of how the painting is going to be and the light shading gives a slight difference of where we should have the darker shade.The outline should be perfect and accurate to make the painting look picture perfect.I free hand on my own and if you are planning to trace I recommend you to use trace and transfer paper because it gives a clear outline. It doesn't mean you have to trace if you wish to do so use trace and transfer paper as direct drawing may cause tearing and wrinkles while you erase.When you are drawing the line look that it's straight and measurement of the line should be equal. The curve should have perfect shape .

The choice of color is very important in a painting. I chose red because it's bright attractive and elegant. The color has an attitude,story,and art.To apply the initial coat of paint take a filbert brush which has an oval shape which combines the characteristics of both flat and round brush. The red color which I took was the shade scarlet it very bright and vibrant.I cover the body part completely with red in same direction when you start covering an area the brush should move in same direction never go ziczac. After the process i took the liner brush and black paint and started with the folding lines of the dress and nicely blended with the red color. The folding of the dress should be well defined.The black lines should not be seen but,should be blended well with the red color and it should have a blackish red shade and should look so natural and have a continuity.

Take a round brush to paint the border of the saree it will be comfortable for it .The shades of paint you'll need are: Yellow ochre , Viridian , Lemon yellow ,Burnt umber ,Burnt sienna shade .Cover the border with yellow ochre move in vertically in the down part of the saree border as shown and see to that the paint doesn't get out of the line.Take the liner brush to draw the green line in the border .Now mix burnt umber,burnt sienna,and yellow ochre mix this shades accordingly with reference to the pencil shading where you need a darker shade and lighter shade it gives a natural look to the painting. When It's dried use glitter pen or golden paint to the area where you would like to highlight the border. It's optional instead you can mix lemon yellow and yellow ochre to highlight them.

Top or the jacket should always be in contrast to the dress so it looks good . I chose a shade of pink . To achieve this color you need: zinc titanium white,scarlet red,black, burnt umber,Apply the initial coat as white then mix zinc titanium white and scarlet red you'll get a pinkish shade highlight the shape of the the arm by using dark shade in the outline of the arm and lighter shade in middle part of the arm. Use very light pink shade to highlight the jacket in the collar bone and shoulder part .

The painted body parts like face ,nose ,hands, legs should have even tone . So,to complete the task first apply the initial coat of paint . To get the natural skin tone you'll need: yellow ochre, burnt sienna, burnt umber ,zinc titanium white. Take these paint and mix it well. You will get a natural skin tone, paint it evenly in face,hands,legs.To make the face done darken and lighten the face tone according to the light shading done during outline.Highlighting and contouring is so very important to get the natural look.The nose,chin,cheek bone,and forehead area should be highlighted by mixing white with the even skin tone. The parts that should be contoured is temple,sides of nose,lower cheek,jawline. So, it gives a natural look.In other body parts ear,hand elbow and legs.Use liner brushes to draw eyebrow and eye .Don't use dark black for eyebrows mix black with the skin color and for the eyes and hair use true black. Place a white dot in the side of the eye to give a natural look.

Background of this painting gives a antique touch to it. It's a mix of group of colors as you need to cover a large area use mop brush to give initial coat. You will need burnt umber,burnt sienna,black,viridian, emeraid green ,yellow ochre, lemon yellow, orange,scarlet and zinc titanium white. First draw the branches of the tree in the background in black color and major part of the leaf covered area by mixing burnt umber and yellow ochre the tree near the pillar is main attraction in the background add all the above mentioned paints in random in the tree. take a mop brush and mix more of white and a little burnt umber and cover the background completely .Mix more of white , little viridian green and burnt umber to give an antique whitish green background.Take round and liner brush to draw branches of the tree. Background task done.

Now , the main part the swan and the pillar to paint the pillar use yellow ochre ,burnt umber,burnt sienna,zinc titanium white,mix them in appropriate quantity darken and lighten in reference to the preliminary drawing. Use liner brush to highlight the corners,curve and lines in the pillar , always use black and white paint to highlight and darken the shadow they both are magical colors which could change your painting dramatically.Coming to swan ,it's quite an easy part ,take the filbert brush cover it with white use yellow ochre ,black,and burnt umber to give it a natural shade use very little amount of black to outline the feathers .Mix red and black to paint the wall.

To paint the steps and wall use yellow ochre ,white,burnt sienna ,and burnt umber give light shade for the steps and also darken the shadow part.

The water pool and lotus is quite simple you will need white,scarlet red,ultramarine ,phthalc blue and black mix blue white and give a initial coat and lighten and darken in the edge with blue give waves in red ,pink ,white like reflections of water. Mix white and red to get pink and out line the flower with red to give a perfect look.Finally touch up and give a vintage feel to the painting there should not be any white patch or blank space give a good picture perfect finishing touch:)

Finally, hope you all liked and enjoyed my project

THANK YOU