Good writing is clear thinking made visible. Neat, legible and uniform writing is a challenge and concern for every parent and teacher because a good handwriting has its own perks. It allows you to be more imaginative, creative, enhances critical thinking skills, build's self-confidence and creates better readers.
Handwriting is more than just a form of communication: It reveals our Personality. Print writing or Block letters, which children are first taught to write, are a sans-serif style of writing the script in which the letters are individual glyphs, with no joining. Learning Print handwriting first improves not just hand-eye co-ordination but also adds qualities of restraint and conscious thought.
DEVANAGARI - the script used for writing Hindi, Sanskrit and Marathi languages in popular knowledge, is composed of 47 primary characters including 14 vowels and 33 consonants, is among the fourth most widely adopted writing system in the world which is being used for over 120 languages.
Whether it is wedding or an event invite, font design or typography, original hand-lettered logo design, religious art, announcement, graphic design or a commissioned calligraphic art, cut stone inscription or memorial document; all are examples of the flourishing art of Calligraphy!
Forget the traditional dip-pens and ink! For, Brush Calligraphy by Penkraft is here! While similar in concept to the traditional calligraphy done using a cut-nib calligraphy dip-pen and ink, brush calligraphy differs in the tool being used for writing – a 'brush-pen' or even conventional brushes (the ones you use for water colours) – they are cheaper and easier to get used to!
Learning an art is such an exciting journey. It allows you to explore various techniques, colours and express your innermost thoughts in a sublime manner. In the digital world of the 21st century, the pace of life is so frantic frenetic that each of us is in need of an artistic outlet to vent out their pent-up emotions.
India has a rich tradition of folk art through the centuries history - one such art among these is Warli art. This beautiful folk art originates from the Northern Sahyadri range in Maharashtra, traditionally practiced by tribal women. This art was first introduced in the '70s and after that, it named "Warli" art.
Now is the time to create! An art form that will help you to express your emotions, you'll be more observant to the details and a great stress buster. Madhubani painting originated in a small village, known as Maithili, of the Bihar state of India. Initially, the women folk of the village drew the paintings on the walls.
Each and every art of ancient India has a uniqueness about it. Have you heard about a painting style using dots, dashes and fine lines in it extensively, and that too with an amazing level of accuracy and geometry? There is one, and it is called as Gond Art.Since many centuries it has been the traditional painting style of one of the largest community of central India, the Gonds.
The word decoupage originates from French verb "decouper", meaning to cut out or cut from something. It is the art of decorating an object by gluing coloured paper cut-outs onto it in combination with special paint effects, gold leaf and other decorative elements and then coating them with layers of varnish, the finished product looks beautiful. This simple art form is not just easy to learn, but also can be accomplished with readily available material and substitutes, thus kindling the doer's creativity in many different ways.
Alcohol Inks are brightly colored, dye-based paints that are most often used in creating free-flowing textures. They can be utilized alone or in blended media activities, e.g., printing and stamping, jewelry making, fabric dyeing, and lighting up household objects.
In Resin Art, they say, your creative output is as unlimited as your imagination! Resins, or Epoxy resins as their actual name goes, are a two-component system consisting of resin and hardener. By mixing the two components, a chemical reaction takes place so that the liquid resin gradually hardens to a solid substance. The result is a high-gloss, clear surface.
Fluid art, also known as paint pouring, flow art or liquid art, is a form of abstract art that uses acrylic paints with a runny ( fluid ) consistency. The acrylic paints react with each other when combined together to make interesting and visually organic motifs and patterns.
Lippan Art, or Lippan Kaam also known as Mud and Mirror Work. Lippan or mud washing is an ethnic form of art done on inner walls of houses using mixture of clay and camel dung by making intricate patterns using glass pieces to create designs. This form of art uses mixture of ceramic for different surfaces, shaping clay to create various designs, mirror pieces and acrylic paints.
Image transfer is a wonderful art of transferring your favourite pictures or chosen images on different surfaces. It results in a look as if the image is printed on the surface. The process is simple, interesting and gives a wonderful effect creating personalized products and gifts in a jiffy.
In ancient India, folk-singers wandered from one village to another, narrating stories from the epics, in ballads and songs, to the village folk. In course of time, this tradition of story-telling changed its medium to cloth and canvas paintings and thus was born the beautiful art form of Kalamkari – in the villages of SriKalahasti and Masulipatnam, both in present-day Andhra Pradesh.
Kalighat painting, characterized by its bright colours and bold outlines, evolved as a unique genre of Indian painting in 19th-century Bengal. Done on cloth or ‘patas’, they depicted conventional images of gods & goddesses and scenes from epics such as Tulsidas’ Rama Charita Manas. The artists were village folk who travelled from place to place with their scroll paintings and sang out the scenes from the epics depicted in these paintings during village gatherings and local festivals. These artists were called patuas or ‘painters on cloth’. From the depiction of gods and other mythological characters, these paintings developed over time to reflect a variety of themes.
Knife Painting, or Palette knife painting is a term used to describe the impasto technique of applying paint to canvas using a painting knife. Vincent van Gogh is amongst the famous names known to use this method of art. By applying thick daubs of oil paint on canvas, he was able to achieve the swirling, textural work he became famous for. Today, many contemporary artists continue to use painting knives in the same way to create expressive works that appear to come out from the canvas.
Trucks in India are a psychedelic display of interesting slogans emanating from rustic wisdom, a plethora of colors, an abundance of decorative articles, and countless convoluted symbols. They serve as a 3-dimensional canvas of the ‘mood of the janata’ amalgamated with the influences of different regional cultures and sub-cultures!
One Stroke Painting is a popular and interesting decorative art form where double and multi-loading techniques are used to achieve highlights, shadows and colour changes in a single stroke! In simple words, it consists of loading a brush with one colour and achieving the shading and highlighting in one stroke.
Devanagari, which is also called as Nagari, is the ancient script of India and Nepal. It gives great emphasis on the symmetrical structure of alphabets and the horizontal line that runs across it. Devanagari is a combination of syllables and alphabets and it was widely used to write Sanskrit, Prakrit, Nepali, Hindi and Marathi.
Pichwai paintings reflect the classic Indian tradition of Guru-Shishya as the intricacies of this art are passed down through the generations. Creating a Pichwai painting may take several months because of the intricate designs and embroidery work. Initially, Pichwai were painted on handspun starched cotton cloth, using completely organic and natural colors, paints and even brushes. Over time, and with the impact of commercialization, artists have now started using natural as well as acrylic colours to give the atheistic touch to these paintings.
Cheriyal Painting is a 400 year old art form which originated in the town Cheriyal located in present-day Telangana state. It mainly depicts stories of Krishna Leela, Ramayana, Mahabharata, puranas and folk stories of the Gowda, Madiga and other local communities. It also includes everyday scenes of a simple rural life.
Scandinavian Art is a subset of Nordic art forms which comes from the Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Norway & Sweden. It is famous and loved for its connection to the nature, its minimalism, simple patterns and designs. Scandinavian art motifs are beautiful – full of aesthetic simplicity and elements of nature. The use of pastel colours highlights the beauty of this art form. Patterns are repeated throughout the artwork which are drawn in a symmetrical manner and with clean lines.
Resin Art is created by mixing two chemical components called resin and hardener in which color pigments are added to produce different and beautiful patterns over any surface. When applied directly it creates a transparent glass like surface. With resin, you can create works of art that enchant with their clarity, luminosity, brilliance and depth. Color pigments or other additives are added to the resin for effects. Resin is a great impersonator - it can be colored to look like almost anything – rocks, gemstones, colored glass. Different effects can be created by choosing the painting ground, the type of casting, the colors and the additives. Recently resin art has become popular as it an easy art form to learn and the professional look of the finished resin artwork is what makes it a perfect art piece for home decor.
The Penkraft Online Watercolors course starts with learning how to mix colors with water to get different tones & its different techniques of application and washes, followed by creating basic elements like flowers, leaves, animals, birds, easy human figures and some necessary do’s and don’ts. We then teach step by step on how to create products using watercolor paper and create artworks over it. The course then progresses to other DIY paper surfaces and canvas. Throughout the course, we keep providing tips and tricks to make your experience rewarding and your knowledge of this art thorough!
Calligraphy is the art of writing letters in an artistic style which not only makes the word look elegant but also allows you to see the words as a beautiful painting. Copperplate script is the style of calligraphic writing based on different types of shaded script, most commonly associated with English Roundhand. Although often used as a generic term for various forms of pointed pen calligraphy - Engrosser's script, Engraver's scripts and English Roundhand, Copperplate most accurately refers to script styles represented in copybooks created using the Intaglio printmaking method. It became famous for its easily readable cursive script.
A mural is an artwork or a painting usually done on a wall. While the Kerala region abounds in murals, being the second largest such spread in India after Rajasthan region, the oldest mural paintings in the Kerala region are estimated to have been made during the 9th and 10th centuries. The themes of this art form mainly depict ancient Indian epics such as Ramayan, Mahabharat, the Purans, etc., and Kerala murals stand out for their rich, delicate, and aesthetically pleasing presentation of Hindu gods. The deities are presented in a beautiful stylized manner, with magnified features like wide eyes, elongated lips and particular body proportions.
Pattachitra, one of the ancient traditional forms of scroll paintings, is believed to have originated in the present-day state of Odisha in the 12th century. In form, these paintings closely resemble the murals of Odisha that date back to the 5th century. The name is a portmanteau of two Sanskrit words ‘Patta’ (meaning canvas) and ‘Chitra’ (meaning drawing). This art form derives its themes mainly from the Hindu religious texts and is heavily influenced by the folk tales of Jagannath and Vaishnav sects. The themes of Pattachitra can be classified as: Jagannath paintings, Vaishnav paintings, Shakta paintings, Navagunjara and a few others. The lines of this art form are bold, clean and sharp. Ancient Pattachitra painters, known as ‘chitrakars’, painted using rich, bright colors with typical yet creative intricate designs. Currently, artists use both natural and chemical pigments & materials, acrylic colours, oil paints, and other media too.
Coffee painting is a monochromatic art form which brings joy not just by sight but also by smell! It is simply created by mixing coffee with water and varying the amount of coffee in water to get different tones. Sometimes coffee is boiled to get the darkest shade.
It was in the late 18th century that pencils, as we know them today, were first introduced – they used a mixture of clay and graphite for the core and the cylindrical holder made of wood. The ease of usage of these pencils, and their versatility in creating light and dark tones, that made them popular, and artists started to use the graphite pencil as it easily created grey black strokes which became a good tool for writing and sketching.
Tanjore Painting, as the name suggests, traces its origin to the sixteenth century Thanjavur region of present-day Tamil Nadu. Traditionally, these paintings were two-dimensional with the main figure being in the centre and larger than the other subjects or elements. These figures were characterised by round faces, almond eyes and streamlined beautiful bodies. Drawings were traced with the help of stencil and then painted using all-natural colors made from vegetables and mineral dyes. Real gold leaves and gems were used for areas like jewels, throne, dresses, etc. In modern times, artists use chemical colors and real as well as artificial gold foil & gems to create this art form on canvas, plywood, MDF and other surfaces. This art form is particularly popular for usage during festivities in the southern states, and is used in homes as an art décor / wall piece.