The Process of Kerala Mural Painting

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By Dhanya Viswanath

11 min read

  • Art
  • Painting
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    Table of Contents

    Introduction

    Kerala mural painting is not a single act of painting so much as a sequence of deliberate, time-tested stages, each with its own name, purpose, and place in a tradition that stretches back over a thousand years. From preparing the surface to the final finishing touches, the process reflects centuries of accumulated craft knowledge, much of it recorded in classical texts like the Shilparatna. At the center of this process sits the panchavarna, the five sanctioned colors - red (kashayam), yellow (manayola), green (eravikkara), black (charcoal) and white (lime) - that give every mural its unmistakable palette, and an underlying philosophy that treats the wall, or, today, the canvas, as a living surface, deserving the same patience and precision whether the work takes place in a temple sanctum or an artist's studio.

    Preparing the Surface - Wall Mural

    KERALA MURAL

    Layers of Lime

    Traditionally, the surface itself had to be built up long before a single line was drawn. Artists applied multiple coats of a lime-and-sand plaster, commonly in a ratio of roughly one part lime to two parts sand, with cotton fiber sometimes worked into the final coat to create a smooth, gleaming white finish strong enough to hold pigment for generations. This surface preparation was considered a craft in its own right, requiring exact proportions and careful application to avoid cracking or uneven absorption once painting began.

    Curing Time

    Once plastered, the wall needed real time to cure, traditionally several weeks, before it was ready to be painted on. This waiting period allowed the lime to fully set and harden, producing a surface durable enough to survive centuries of exposure to Kerala's humid, tropical climate. Rushing this stage was considered a false economy: a poorly cured wall would crack, flake, or fail to hold pigment evenly, undoing the value of every stage that followed.

    Materials and Tools

    Traditional Raw Materials

    Phase

    Traditional Ingredient

    Purpose

    The Base Plaster

    Lime, sand, and cotton fiber

    Builds a smooth, porous wall surface strong enough to hold pigment for generations

    The Base Wash

    Lime and tender coconut water

    Coconut water helps the lime set into a smooth, gleaming white finish

    The Red/Yellow

    Laterite stone and ochre

    Ground into fine mineral powders for earthy, long-lasting base pigments

    The Green

    Neelamari (indigo) leaf extract, layered with yellow

    Produces the tradition's distinctive jade-green tone

    The Black

    Soot from oil lamps

    Pure, fine carbon black used for final outlining

    The Binder

    Coconut water and neem tree extracts

    Natural adhesives that bind pigment to plaster without synthetic additives

    Every one of these steps demands real time, the plaster alone needs weeks to cure before painting can even begin, which is exactly why this process has always been considered as much a spiritual discipline as an artistic one.

    Nature's Palette

    The panchavarna, or five sacred colors, are red, yellow, green, black, and white, each traditionally drawn from locally available minerals and plants: red and yellow from laterite stone and ochre, black from the collected soot of oil lamps, white from lime, and green produced by layering the extract of Indigofera tinctoria (Indian indigo) leaves with a yellow pigment. Coconut water and natural tree gums served as binding agents, mixed in wooden bowls to keep the pigments stable and workable. Every one of these materials was sourced from Kerala's own landscape, making the traditional palette as much a product of the region's ecology as of its artistic culture.

    Nature's Palette

    Handmade Instruments

    Brushes were traditionally crafted from natural fibers such as elephant grass, locally called kuntalipullu, along with ketaki root fibers, chosen for the fine, controlled lines they allowed at different stages of the work. Different brushes were reserved for different tasks, coarser fibers for laying in flat color, finer ones for the delicate outlining and stippling that brought a figure's face to life. Paired with hand-ground pigments and wooden mixing palettes, these tools reflect a craft built almost entirely from sustainable, locally available materials, long before "eco-friendly" became a design consideration anywhere else.

    Traditional Kerala murals are painted using a technique generally described as fresco-secco, applying pigment to a dry, cured lime-plaster surface, distinct from the wet-plaster fresco method used in some other Indian and international wall-painting traditions. It's a slow, almost alchemical process, with every material sourced and prepared from scratch.

    The Six Stages of Kerala Mural Painting

    The Rekha Karma

    Every mural begins with Lekhya Karma, a light, guiding sketch that maps out the composition, figures, and narrative flow across the surface. This is followed by Rekha Karma, in which that rough sketch is refined into confident, continuous outlines, the foundation of the bold linework Kerala murals are known for. Without this stage, none of the color work that follows would have anywhere to sit; the outline is treated as the skeleton of the entire composition.

    Light to Dark

    Color is applied in a strict, deliberate sequence during Varna Karma, generally moving from lighter shades toward darker ones, so that each new layer builds on the last without muddying the palette. This is followed by Vartana Karma, a shading stage that uses subtle stippling and gradation, most visible in the delicate treatment of lips and facial features, to bring a sense of volume and life to otherwise flat fields of color. The sequence closes with a final round of Lekha Karma, sharpening and reinforcing the outlines one last time, and Devika Karma, the finishing stage in which the deity's eyes are completed, traditionally regarded as the moment the figure is spiritually "awakened", followed by a protective finishing coat.

    No Shadows, Only Symbols

    Unlike Western painting traditions, Kerala murals largely reject naturalistic shading and cast shadow. Figures are rendered in flat, symbolic color fields rather than modeled light and dark, because the goal was never to imitate how light falls on a real body, it was to communicate a figure's inner nature directly through color and line. A deity's hue, posture, and expression carry the emotional and spiritual information a Western painting might instead convey through realistic lighting, making every mural as much a coded language as it is a picture.

    Preservation Challenges

    The Time Cost

    A single traditional mural could take weeks or months to complete, once wall preparation, curing, pigment grinding, and the full six-stage painting sequence are accounted for. That pace sits uneasily with a modern market accustomed to instant, mass-produced imagery, and it is one of the main reasons the art form nearly faded during the colonial period, when royal and temple patronage, the primary economic support for this slow, exacting craft, declined sharply.

    Keeping the Chain Unbroken

    The revival of Kerala mural painting after independence depended on formal institutions stepping in to do what patronage once did. The Guruvayur Devaswom Board's Centre for Study of Mural Paintings, along with the Kerala Lalithakala Akademi's ongoing workshops and gurukul-style training programs, have trained new generations of artists in authentic pigment preparation and technique. Restoration projects at sites such as the Ettumanoor Shiva Temple continue to keep original works intact, while research institutions have called for further digital archiving to safeguard this heritage for the long term. Together, these efforts have kept a genuinely difficult, time-intensive craft alive well into the present day.

    Modernisation of the Craft

    The Acrylic Advantage

    Acrylic has played a wonderful role in this evolution. Modern acrylic-based Kerala murals preserve the full discipline of the traditional layering process, the same careful outlining, flat color fields, and fine shading, while offering richer color vibrancy, excellent durability, and a finish that holds its brilliance for years without the specialized upkeep a wall fresco requires. This makes the art form far more accessible: a collector no longer needs to commission wall work or travel to a temple to bring this craft into their own home. It's this winning combination of authenticity and practicality that has made acrylic Kerala murals especially popular with today's collectors, and it's easy to see why they've become one of the most loved and best-selling formats of this art form in the contemporary market.

    Kerala mural painting has always been a discipline of patience, but that doesn't mean it has to stay locked behind temple walls or reserved only for those trained for years in the classical method. This guide walks through both sides of the craft: the traditional fresco-secco process that has shaped this art form for over a thousand years, and the modern acrylic-on-canvas approach that's made it possible for artists, hobbyists, and design students to bring the same visual language into their own homes and studios. Seeing the two side by side isn't a story of "old versus new", it's a story of the same discipline finding a second life on a more accessible surface.

    The Acrylic-on-Canvas Process

    This is where the craft becomes something you can genuinely try yourself. Acrylic paint mimics the flat opacity and vivid color of traditional murals, while cutting out months of wall preparation and pigment grinding, making it the medium of choice for most contemporary Kerala mural artists today, and a large part of why acrylic murals have become such a popular, well-loved format.

    • Canvas Preparation (roughly 30 minutes): Start with a stretched cotton canvas and apply two to three coats of white acrylic gesso, lightly sanding between coats to remove texture, this recreates the smooth finish of a traditionally plastered wall.
    • Transferring the Design (1–2 hours): Sketch the design on tracing paper first rather than drawing directly on the canvas in graphite, which can smudge into acrylic paint. Use a light yellow or orange carbon paper to transfer the outline onto the canvas.
    • The Red-Ochre Underline (about 1 hour): Trace over the transferred lines with a thin brush and a diluted terracotta or burnt sienna acrylic, locking in the composition before any color is added.
    • Flat Color Blocking (3–5 hours): Apply flat color in the traditional sequence, yellow first, then orange/red, then green, keeping the paint thin so it dries flat, much like the traditional palette.
    • Shading and Stippling (2–4 hours): Recreate the traditional Vartana Karma shading technique using a dry, stiff-bristled brush loaded with a slightly darker shade of the base color, tapped lightly along the figure's edges to build gentle gradation.
    • Inking and Varnishing (1–2 hours): Finish with a fine detail brush and a rich black acrylic to trace the final bold outlines, then seal the piece with a matte or satin varnish once fully dry, echoing the soft, non-glossy finish of a traditional wall mural.

    From Sanctum to Studio

    One of the most exciting developments in this tradition's long history is how it has expanded beyond temple walls without losing its identity. Contemporary artists, like Adarsh, V.M. Jijulal, and Shaiju T.K. and groups have carried the same six-stage technique, the same iconography, and the same panchavarna symbolism onto canvas, wood panels, and other portable surfaces, allowing this once wall-bound art form to travel into homes, galleries, and collections far beyond Kerala.

    Digital workshops and online masterclasses have further expanded access to the tradition, allowing people from around the world to learn its principles under practicing mural artists.

    Conclusion

    Every stage of a Kerala mural, the plaster, the sketch, the panchavarna, the final finishing touch, is the product of a discipline refined over more than a thousand years. Whether created on a temple sanctum or brought to life in vibrant acrylic on canvas, each mural continues to carry the same meticulous technique and symbolic richness that has defined this art form since its earliest days, proving that a centuries-old craft can find new surfaces to live on without ever losing its soul.

    References

    FAQs

    1. What are the six traditional stages of painting a Kerala mural?

    Lekhya Karma (sketch), Rekha Karma (outline), Varna Karma (color filling), Vartana Karma (shading), a final Lekha Karma (outlining), and Devika Karma (finishing touches, including the eyes).

    2. What is panchavarna, and where do these colors come from?

    The five traditional colors, red, yellow, green, black, and white, sourced from laterite, ochre, lamp soot, length, and indigo leaves respectively, each carrying its own symbolic meaning.

    3. Why don't Kerala murals use shading the way Western paintings do?

    They favor flat, symbolic color fields and bold linework over naturalistic light and shadow, since color and gesture are used to convey a figure's inner nature.

    4. How long does it take to prepare and paint a traditional Kerala mural?

    Wall preparation alone can take weeks to cure properly, and the full painting sequence across all six stages can add up to weeks or months of work.

    5. Is an acrylic Kerala mural considered authentic, and why has it become so popular?

    Yes, contemporary acrylic works follow the same six-stage technique and panchavarna symbolism as traditional murals, while adding richer vibrancy and easy durability, which is exactly why they've become one of the most sought-after and best-selling formats of this art form today.

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