Painting the Goddess of Fortune

Hello everyone! Now I know its been a long while but due to some technical difficulties I couldn't post the three important posts I wanted to share. However, now I can. The first post is something that personally was quite of an achievement. Not too fancy but still amazing. This is painting Goddess Lakshmi-Hindu Goddess of Fortune.                                                                                                                 Now, in previous posts I've shared my paintings that are paintings that aren't detailed. One example is my Ganesha which was an artistic way with his head and hands along with a mantra. So this was my second approach-the first being Shirdi Sai-of painting a deity with full details and from my last try I learnt a few tips.                                                                                                                                         The items I have used are

•  Acrylic paint colours-Titanium White, Yellow Ochre, Vermillion, Black, Light Blue and Dark Blue (from Artists Loft)
• Watercolours (from Artists Loft)
• Watercolour pencils-pink and black (for outlining-optional) (from Artists Loft)
• Pencil (for sketching)
• bowl of water (for washing brush)   
• A canvas

First came sketching/drawing. I personally like to plan out paintings when it comes to detailed ones unlike before where I just let my brush lead the way. Remember that you want to make sure you draw what you can paint-for example, draw small little details on the crown if you think you can paint them with the brush. You can always use watercolour pencils of course, if you have them.

  Now I decided to use watercolour pencils to outline the eyes and hair. The colour I used was black.

 I then proceeded towards painting. I started off with the hands and head using a mix of yellow ochre and titanium white.

  Then using merely yellow ochre I painted the crown and jewellery. Using pink watercolours I painted the lotus.

 Now using a pink watercolour pencil, I outlined the lotuses.

The paint started dripping as you can see. Now came painting the Sari with Burnt Sienna and Vermillion as red is usually identified with Lakshmi.

I painted the clothes a long with the crown. In the back I added a coin/sun (yellow circle) with a mix of Yellow Ochre and Titanium White. Watercolours were used as well. 

Now using blue both light and dark blue, I painted the ocean 

 Finally I added a background with Green/Blue and Burnt Sienna/Yellow Ochre. The second mix is one of my favourite  background mixtures. Painting backgrounds itself are favourites. 

As you can see above now I painted some gold pots with coins inside including showering coins along with some clay lamps (diyas) on lily pads. I had to cover up the yellow circle thus making some yellow stick out.                                                                                                                             Well thank you for reading this post. I am hopeful that you to will try to paint as well. This was a fun project and I loved it. 

Om Namastestu Mahamaye, Shri Pithe Sura Poojithe, Shankha Chakra Gada Haste, Mahalakshmi Namostute 🙏ॐ