Kid & Grown-up Mode · Painting Studio
Paint a Pattachitra
Pattachitra means painting on cloth. For generations, artisan families in Raghurajpur — a small village outside Puri — have painted scenes of Jagannath, Krishna, and Radha on stiff cloth stretched with tamarind glue. They use natural pigments: iron oxide for red, lamp black for outlines, saffron and indigo for color. Here you can compose one of your own from traditional motifs, palettes, and borders — then save it.
Palette
The natural pigments used by the artisans of Puri.
Border
Every pattachitra is framed by a decorative border.
Centre subject
The heart of the painting.
Motifs around the centre
Eight small panels frame the main scene. Choose a motif for each — or hide it.
About Pattachitra
Pattachitra is one of the oldest surviving painting traditions of India. The word comes from patta (cloth) and chitra (picture). Painters, called chitrakaras, prepare their own canvas by soaking cotton cloth in tamarind seed glue and chalk, then burnishing it with a stone until it shines.
The pigments are all natural. Hingula (cinnabar) gives vermilion red. Haritala (arsenic sulphide) gives yellow. Lamp black comes from oil lamps. Blue is made from indigo leaves. The brushes are made from mouse-belly hair for the fine lines and buffalo neck-hair for the broader strokes.
Traditional subjects revolve around Jagannath — his three forms, his stories with Krishna and Radha, the Rath Yatra, the ten avatars. Every painting is framed by a border, and every scene is bounded by lotus scrolls or fish-scale patterns. What you are composing here follows the same grammar: a palette, a border, a centre, and motifs around it.