Krishna Drawn in a Traditional Indian Artform – Rangoli

I drew this rangoli on the occasion of Udupi Paryaya.
It took me 5 days to create this, spending 5 hours per day.

The Background

Rangoli is the art of creating drawings and designs on the floor using fine colored powder.

This rangoli is of a black stone murthi (statue) The lore goes as such: It was found by a boatman under the sea in a now-sunken city called Dwaraka. When the boatman was making his way down South, he was stuck in a huge storm. A priest near the coast prayed for the storm to pass, after which the boat was safely able to dock in the beach. As gratitude, the boatman gives the murthi to the priest, who then establishes a temple for it in Udupi.

The Art Process

A close-up of the face

Notice the grey spots on the face which adds the effect of a stone. The small, round, white pearls lining the forehead take some time to accurately make.

Readying the colors

I'm preparing gold colour by mixing red and yellow.

Measurements

Here I measure and draw the necklace, which contains green and red stones.

Dressed up

Here we see the jewelry and dress work begins. On the left, you see a churning tool (called kadagol) which is used to create butter being created. This is because Krishna is said to love butter. For this reason he's also called Benne Krishna (Butter Krishna)

Hands-on approach

The jewelry is taking great shape and now we continue drawing the hands. I polished the earrings by adding more white powder. The powder dulls in color when left like that for a day or so.