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Activities / Warli / Warli Painting

Warli Painting

Warli Painting: A Village Scene in White on an Earth-Coloured Canvas

Level
Intermediate
Duration
2 - 4 hours (plus drying)
Budget
₹466 – ₹830
Age
12+
State
Maharashtra
Craft
Warli

Materials

  • Heavy paper, A3 (US: 11 x 14 inch), 200 to 300 gsm
  • Acrylic paints with red, yellow, brown and white
  • Round brushes in sizes 0, 2 and 8 (a set of 6 to 9 is fine)
  • Low-tack masking tape, 24 mm
  • Flat board or thick cardboard bigger than the paper
  • Pencil, soft eraser and 30 cm ruler
  • Plate for mixing, jar of water, paper towel, newspaper, apron
  • Reference photos of Warli motifs

Steps

  1. Cover the table and gather your supplies
    Cover a table with newspaper, wear an apron, and open a window if you can. Set out the heavy paper, masking tape, acrylic paints, brushes, pencil, ruler and eraser. Put a plate for mixing and a jar of water beside you. Squeeze out terracotta ingredients (red, yellow and brown) and white in small pea-sized amounts, because acrylic dries on the plate in about 10 minutes. Sit comfortably, as this painting takes a few hours.
  2. Tape the paper flat to a board with a clean border
    Lay the A3 sheet (or US 11 x 14 in) on a flat board or thick cardboard. Press masking tape along all four edges, so that about 1 cm of the paper is covered. The tape keeps the paper from curling when wet and leaves a clean white edge when you peel it off at the end. Rub the tape down firmly with your fingernail. Common mistake: using strong sticky tape, which tears the paper.
  3. Paint the whole sheet terracotta in two coats
    Mix red, yellow and a little brown on the plate to get a warm terracotta, or use red ochre. Thin the paint with a few drops of water, then cover the sheet with broad strokes of the size 8 or flat brush, always going in the same direction. Let it dry for 1 hour, then add a second coat. Leave it for 2 to 3 hours, or overnight for the smoothest finish. Common mistake: painting over wet paint, which lifts it in lumps.
    Tip: Mix more terracotta than you think you need, because matching the colour later is hard.
  4. Lightly pencil the layout: a ring in the middle and a border
    When the base is dry, draw a border with a ruler 2 cm inside the tape, using a light pencil. In the centre, draw a faint circle about 18 cm across to hold the dance. Outside the circle, mark spots for a tree on the left, huts on the right and a river line along the bottom. Plan the composition as a few big areas, not lots of small ones. Press lightly, because pencil shows through white paint if you press hard.
  5. Paint the ring of dancers with white acrylic
    Thin the white paint with a few drops of water until it flows like cream. With the size 0 brush, paint 10 dancers around the circle. Each body is two triangles meeting at the waist, each about 2 cm wide and 2 cm tall, with a round head about 1 cm across. Add stick arms and legs about 2 mm wide. Paint all bodies first, then heads, then limbs, so that wet paint never touches wet paint.
    Tip: Practise one figure on a spare sheet first. Wipe the brush on the plate edge so it holds a fine point.
  6. Join their hands and give each dancer a different pose
    Paint each dancer's arms so they reach to the next dancer, forming one unbroken chain. Bend some legs, tilt some bodies, and raise some arms to give the dance movement. Keep the lines the same thickness, about 2 mm. Add a drummer or a sun in the middle of the ring, with a circle about 2 cm wide and short rays. Wait 10 minutes for the white to dry before painting anything next to it.
  7. Paint a Tree of Life and the animals
    On the left, paint a tree: a trunk 12 cm tall, with branches in pairs angling up, each ending in a small leaf shape or dot. Add birds on the branches, made of two curved lines for wings. Below the circle, paint a bullock and a deer: an oval body, four straight legs, a small head in profile and two horns or antlers. Make animals about 4 cm long. Keep their shapes simple and bold.
  8. Fill the outer areas with village life
    Paint huts as a square wall with a triangle roof, about 4 cm wide, and a small door. Add a woman carrying a pot on her head, with a circle for the pot, and a farmer pushing a plough behind a bullock. Draw a wavy river along the bottom. Space these scenes around the ring so that nothing touches the border. Warli scenes are about everyday life, so keep it simple and cheerful.
    Tip: If you run out of ideas, draw more huts, trees and birds. They fill space easily.
  9. Paint a continuous border of zigzags, dots and diamonds
    Use the pencilled border as a guide. Paint a continuous zigzag line all the way round, about 1 cm tall, with small dots in each gap, or a chain of diamonds joined at the corners. Paint slowly, and rest your wrist on the paper's tape so your hand stays steady. Keep the zigzag points the same height, or the border looks wobbly. A strong border frames the whole painting.
  10. Add the sun, moon and stars, then check every line
    Paint a sun as a white circle with short rays at the top left, a crescent moon at the top right, and tiny star dots between them. Then step back and look at the whole painting. Fix any thin patches or lines that look thicker than the rest with a touch of terracotta or white. All the white strokes should have a similar width. A small mistake is fine, because Warli art is hand-made.
  11. Let it dry, peel off the tape and display it
    Leave the painting flat for at least 3 hours, until no part feels cool or tacky. Peel the masking tape off slowly, pulling it back along itself at a low angle so it does not tear the paper. Press the painting flat under a heavy book if it has curled. Wash your brushes in warm water as soon as you finish. Frame it, or stick it on a wall with tape at the top corners.

Sustainability

Medium - use a reused board or cloth; water-based paints; traditional Warli uses rice paste and mud walls

Safety

Paint fumes, so ventilate; stains; back strain from long sitting; rest your eyes