I went to the wonderful exhibition 'Garden and Cosmos' at the British Museum the year before, and again saw it at the NSW Art Gallery and really loved it, so when I found out the class is being taught at the Prince's School of Traditional Arts, I decided to enrolled immediately.
The course I got enrolled in is a 4 day full day (Saturdays) course starting form 10am till 4pm in a comfortable pace. Our teacher Samantha is a very experienced and lovely lady who is truly knowledgable and passionate about her art, making it a real pleasure to learn.
In our first class, Sam gave us a brief introduction and showed us some of her works. We also got to look through a number of books, to choose work that we would like to replicate for the class in order to learn the skills. I chose a painting with a lady preparing a meal with a brilliant lemon yellow background.
We then got a prepared Wasali paper already stuck on the broad, ready to be used. Wasli paper is a specially prepared paper used for miniature painting. It has a smooth surface and can withstand being painted on a number of times.
1. First thing we did was to brundishing the paper to make the surface shinny and smooth. We each chose a smooth stone and use gently but firm pressure to systematically rub the surface of the paper horizontally and then vertically from one end to the other, until it is reasonably smoother and shinier than before.
2. Secondly Sam gave us a cup of strong tea to brush over the paper to give it some undertone. ( approx 5 teabag in one mug of cold water) We used it to brush over the wasabi paper surface, leave it to dry and then do it again, for about 4- 5 times. It could vary depending on the background colour you have for your chosen painting.
3. The chosen painting is photocopied, then we use pencil and tracing paper to trace over the key main lines of the painting, no details at this stage but to get the proportions right.
4. We then rubbed some ochre powder at the back of the image's pencil line with cotton wool.
5. Lastly we positioned the tracing paper over the Wasali paper and taped them down, and then traced the pencil outline again, this time onto the Wasali paper. At the end we all had a ochre powdered lines on the wasabi paper.
6. We then got introduced to the squirrel brush used specifically for Indian miniature painting. It has a nice curve and tapers off to a sharp point so can shade and draw on really minuscule details. To begin off we learn to draw small delicate circles and practice using it again and again.
7. Once we feel we are comfortable with the brush we then use very pale brown ink to seal the ochre lines on the Wasali paper, as these are merely powdered lines etched into the paper and needs drawing over, otherwise they will fade further before our next class.
