Tutorial: How to Illustrate 'Goddess Durga' with Basic Guidelines!

Meditation, Motivation and Manifestation are the 3Ms that Lovely Kukreja, relies on while illustrating. Taking us on step-by-step approach through his painting Goddess Durga, he explains the basic guidelines that play a pivotal role in the final outcome..Meditation.Nowhere related to the spiritual practice, meditation, here is the thought process, creative thinking before starting any project..Step 1.Great ideas start as random scribbles (thumbnails, rough drawings and armatures). This will help in deciding the posture angle and composition. While doing these initial sketches, it's important to mull over the subject aka meditate to set the mood; the vital areas to focus on to bring in freshness..Step 2 .Once satisfied with the sketch of Goddess Durga, start blocking tones in the grey-scale mode with the basic air-brush. You don't really have to go fancy by trying several textured brushes. Just do the basic block-in while keeping the area to be focused well-lit..Step 3.Convert your painting to RGB mode and start adding colours on a layer overlaid on it. Choose colour palette as per the theme. For the Goddess Durga painting here, I chose the unsaturated soft shades. Close your eyes and try to see the picture you have in your thoughts..Tip.Stay away from textured brushes as it may blur the edges of your drawing..Motivation.Never search for style, but study. This is where research comes into the picture; the motivation gained from creative intuition, studies and reference materials. At this stage, it is important to collect facts about the subject of creation..Step 4.Once the basic look and the feel of the painting is established, bringing the volume on each object can begin with the direction of light decided in the very beginning. At this stage, it is important to collect facts about the subject of creation..Step 5.Detailing the elements e.g. water, foliage, trees and grass. Motivation is the key, to paint better with each stroke passing..Step 6.Now it's time to break the barriers and go beyond the sketch. After deciding the intricate details (cloth texture, ornaments, fur and hair), paint over the sketch on a new layer with free-hand for each subject..Tip.If you are in process of learning to paint, try not to use any image..Manifestation.It finally boils down to manifesting all the effort, knowledge and studies into strokes of brush applied. This is when you bring ideas to life. Those final touches, elaborating it with all those tiny details is vital to make it your personal piece of work..Step 7.The working area is closed and fine details are added to each object after thorough research..Step 8 .Tonal values, sharpness and colour balance is adjusted..Tip.Stay away from textured brushes as it may blur the edges of your drawing..Step 9.Adding foreground elements gives a sense of depth to the scene. Elements like foliage, leaves and any life-full character create liveliness..Tip.I suggest you to always keep the subject close to its originality. You are allowed to bring freshness while you keeping it intact within logical boundaries.