Cheriyal Painting - Telangana
Making of Cheriyal Painting:
The making process of Cheriyal painting involves various steps.
They are:
- Preparing the Canvas Cloth
- Preparation of Natural Colors
- Painting
These steps are described in detail below with the exact traditional method of making Cheriyal painting.
1. Preparing the Canvas Cloth:
The preparation of the canvas cloth is very elaborative and it is traditionally very strict and particular about the entire process. The preparation of the canvas carries an even consistency that is prepared at numerous times by the artisan. This process helps in preserving the artwork for several years.
The cloth on which the process has to be done is of khadi cotton material. A mixture of suddha matti (White Mud), rice starch, boiled tamarind seed paste and natural tree gum is mixed in proportion and is made into a slurry kind of paste. The color of this mixture is off white and it is evenly applied with bare hands on the khadi cotton cloth. This process is repeated for three times for each piece of cloth. At every single application the consistency of slurry is made thinner by adding more tree gum into it. After the application of three coats on the khadi cloth piece, it is allowed to dry naturally under the sun and is ready to be used for painting.
2. Preparation of Natural Colors:
Natural colors are prepared for painting a traditional Cheriyal scroll, which are extracted from different elements such as stones and ash of an oil lamp and sea shells. For black color a kerosene lamp is lit and its ash is collected on a lid, further tree gum is added into it to preserve it and to make it a sticky paint. For white color sea shells are used. Sea shells are collected from the sea shore and are individually rubbed on a rough surface like stone. Later water is added to it to ease up the process, further the thick white paste is collected and tree gum is added to it. For yellow, turmeric is used. For blue, green and red colors there are natural stones available which are collected by the artisan. These stones are similar to that of those used in Ayurvedic medicinal purposes. These stones are crushed in the stone grinder and water is added to it to make a thick paste out of the crushed stone. Once the artisan ensures that there are no particles of stones remained in the grinder and it is finely crushed, it is collected into the container. Tree gum is also added to these crushed stone powder to increase its shelf life and to make it stick to the canvas evenly after the painting is dry. In Cheriyal painting, only the primary colors are used. The shades of these colors are obtained by adding either black or white to the primary colors.
3. Painting:
Once the canvas and the colors are ready, Cheriyal painting artist starts with a very light outline with a graphite on the canvas of whatever the scene he has to depict in the scroll. He then fills the color to the background in bright red but excluding the outlines which he has drawn. He then fills the basic colors with thick goat hair brush (which is numbered in the range of 3 to 12) onto the characters and allows it for drying. As it dries quickly, he starts outlining the characters and its features in pitch black color with the help of finer squirrel hair brush (which is numbered as 00, 0, 01 and 02). Artisan then enhances the details such as jewels, hairlines, eyes with much finer brush strokes. He does the detailing part quickly due to the experience he has gained over the years of practice. After the scene is depicted he adds attractive border to the complete painting, which are decorated with flowers and leafs with the finer brush strokes. By this, it completes the process of painting and it is usually rolled and stored. The one which depicts single scene and are of much smaller size are framed.
