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Activities / Madhubani / Madhubani Painting

Madhubani Painting

Madhubani Painting: Bharni and Kachni Styles from Bihar's Mithila Region

Level
Advanced
Duration
4 - 8 hours
Budget
₹563 – ₹1,093
Age
15+
State
Bihar

Materials

  • Heavy paper, A3 (US: 11 x 14 inch), 200 to 300 gsm
  • Acrylic paints: red, yellow, blue, green, black, white
  • Round brushes in sizes 000, 0, 2 (a set of 6 to 9 is fine)
  • Black waterproof fineliner, 0.5 mm
  • Low-tack masking tape, 24 mm
  • Drawing board with clip, A3 size (or a flat piece of thick cardboard)
  • Pencil (HB) and soft eraser
  • 30 cm ruler
  • Plate for mixing paint, jar of water, paper towel
  • Scrap paper for testing colours and resting your hand

Steps

  1. Choose your style: bharni or kachni
    Bharni means filled: bold shapes packed with flat, bright colour. Kachni means line work: fine hatching and dots, mostly in black with one or two colours. For a first painting, use bharni for the fish and add kachni patterns inside the bodies and in the background. Decide before you begin, because it sets how much paint and how much pen work you will do. Plan 4 to 8 hours in two or three sittings.
    Tip: You can stop after any step. Dry paper and unfinished patterns wait happily until the next day.
  2. Tape the paper to a board and set out your tools
    Place the A3 sheet (US 11 x 14 inch paper also works) on a flat board and stick masking tape along all four edges, with about 5 mm of tape over the paper. This keeps the paper from curling when it gets wet and leaves a clean white edge when you peel the tape off. Set a jar of water, a plate for mixing paint, a paper towel and a scrap sheet for testing beside you. Common mistake: strong tape that tears the paper. Use low-tack masking tape.
    Tip: Press the tape down with a fingernail so paint cannot creep under it.
  3. Draw a double-line border in pencil
    With a pencil and ruler, draw a rectangle 1.5 cm in from every edge, then a second rectangle 6 mm inside the first. Press lightly. Everything inside the inner line is your painting space. The double border is a signature of Madhubani and also keeps your picture neatly framed. Measure each side from the tape edge so the border is the same distance all round.
  4. Sketch the main subject, a pair of fish, in pencil
    Draw two fish, each about 18 cm long, curved so that head touches tail and together they make a rough circle about 20 cm across in the centre of the sheet. Make each body an almond about 7 cm tall at its widest point, with a forked tail, two small fins and a large almond eye about 3 cm wide. A big figure leaves room for detailed patterns. For a peacock, sun or tree of life, use the same overall size, about two-thirds of the space inside the border. Keep the pencil light.
    Tip: Draw one fish first, then rotate the sheet half a turn and draw the second the same way.
  5. Plan the patterns inside the fish in pencil
    Draw two curved lines across each body to make a head zone, a middle zone and a tail zone. In each zone, lightly pencil the first few rows of one pattern: scales as overlapping arcs about 1 cm wide, parallel stripes 4 mm apart, or a row of dots. Mark where the dark pupil goes in each eye. You only need the first rows as a guide, not every single arc. Planning in pencil lets you fix mistakes before they are in ink.
  6. Ink all outlines and patterns with a waterproof black pen
    Trace every pencil line with a waterproof black fineliner, or with a size 0 brush loaded with black acrylic thinned with a few drops of water. Draw continuous, firm lines. If you are right-handed, work from the top left towards the bottom right (the reverse if left-handed) so your hand does not smudge wet ink. Ink the double border as well. Wait 10 minutes, then rub out the pencil with a soft eraser. Common mistake: a pen that is not waterproof. The paint pulls the ink and turns the lines grey.
  7. Choose four or five colours and test them on scrap paper
    Squeeze out pea-sized amounts of red, yellow, blue, green and white, and keep the black for details. Traditional Madhubani uses only a few colours, so pick four or five for the whole painting. Test each on the scrap sheet: it should cover in one coat or at most two thin coats. If it feels thick as toothpaste, add one drop of water. Mix a lighter shade by adding a little white. Paint dries on the plate in about 15 minutes, so keep the amounts small.
  8. Paint the fish with flat colour, one colour at a time
    Start with the lightest colour, such as yellow in the fins and tail, then red and blue in the bodies. Use the size 2 brush for big shapes and size 0 for small ones. Keep the brush damp, not wet, and fill each shape from the middle out to the black line in smooth strokes. Apply two thin coats rather than one thick coat, waiting 10 to 15 minutes between them. A coat is dry when it no longer looks shiny. Common mistake: touching a half-dry shape, which lifts the paint and leaves patches.
    Tip: Rest your painting hand on a clean sheet of paper so it never touches wet paint.
  9. Paint the double border and fill the gap with a pattern
    With a pencil, lightly mark the 6 mm gap between the border lines into blocks about 8 mm long. Then, with the size 0 brush, paint a repeating pattern in them: red and yellow triangles pointing the same way, or alternating colour blocks. Leave the black lines visible. Do short stretches and rest your wrist every 30 minutes. Common mistake: painting freehand without marking, which makes the blocks drift in size.
  10. Fill every blank area outside the fish with patterns
    Work outwards from the fish. Fill the background with small leaves about 2 cm long, rows of dots 4 mm apart, crosshatching with lines 3 mm apart, and tiny flowers. Use the fineliner for line patterns and the size 0 brush for painted leaves. In Madhubani no white area bigger than a thumbnail is left empty. Stop every 30 minutes to rest your eyes and hand. Fine line work for long stretches causes eye strain.
  11. Add the pupils, fine scale lines and last black details
    With the size 000 or 00 brush, or the fineliner, paint the dark pupil of each eye and add fine lines inside the scales and on the fins. Re-draw any outline that the paint has covered or blurred so every edge is sharp again. Then stand back about 50 cm and look for gaps or uneven areas. Doing the black work last makes everything look crisp.
  12. Let it dry for 24 hours, peel off the tape and clean up
    Leave the painting flat and untouched for 24 hours. Then peel the tape slowly, pulling it back along itself at a low angle, away from the painting, so the paper does not tear. Wash your brushes with soap and water right away and close the paints and pen. Leave the painting unvarnished, or ask an adult to spray matte fixative outdoors from about 25 cm away. Common mistake: peeling the tape while the paint is still damp.
    Tip: Store the finished sheet flat under a clean book for a day to take out any curl.

Sustainability

Medium - paper-based; water-based colours are fine. Traditional pigments such as turmeric, indigo and rice paste can replace acrylics

Safety

Eye strain and hand fatigue from fine brushwork, so rest every 30 minutes; fixative spray, if used, only outdoors by an adult