Phad is a type of scroll painting. These paintings are created while using bright and subtle colours. The paintings depicting exploits of local deities are often carried from place to place and are accompanied by traditional singers, who narrate the theme depicted on the scrolls. The outlines of the paintings are first drawn in block and later filled with colours.
Technique of preparing Phad
The procedure of making Phad is as follows :-
1. A long piece of hand spun and hand woven cloth.
2. All Khadi or Reji cloth is starched with rice or wheat flour.
3. Cloth is then rubbed with a moonstone to impart stiffness and a luminous glow.
Pigments Used
Pigments are grounded by hand and mixed with water and gum. The colors used in Phad painting are:-
1. Light yellow (pila/hartal) – It is made from yellow orpiment. It is used to sketch all figures and structures.
2. Orange (mundo-bharno) or saffron (kesari) – It is used to paint faces and flesh is made by mixing red lead oxide (sindur) with some yellow powder (orpiment – hartal) available in market.
3. Green – It is made from Verdiris (jangal), acetate of copper. It is used to sketch the villains.
4. Red – it is produced from vermilion (hinglu,lal), by pulverizing chunks of cinnabar (mercury sulfide) and the main characters are painted with this color.
5. Black – It is made either by burning coconut shells or by collecting lampblack from burning edible oil. It is used to outline the details of all figures. After the cloth is ready and the light yellow pigment is pre-phaded, the painter sketches the entire program. This is a called making a map (naksha banana) or giving an out line
(Chankana) during the sketching process, the total program is defined. Next, the successive application of colors begins. Each color is applied one at a time directly from its bowl to all the places where it occurs throughout the painting. Coloring starts with filling in faces (mundo bharno). When applying this saffron color, the artist carefully leaves a place for eyes and maintains proper body proportions. Yellow, green, brown, and red are applied one after the other. By applying the lighter colors first, and using. increasingly darker colors with each application, the artist progressively readjusts the boundaries between other colors and the background. In this way, the form of the figures is perfected.
The most laborious task is applying the black outline. This takes days because of the detail required for every figure the black outline is completed, the black and blue surfaces are filled in.When the Bhopa who ordered the painting comes to collect his piece, the Phad is signed, during this short ceremony the Phad is unfurled to expose the cartouche in front of the central deity and the pupil of the main deity is painted, symbolizing the giving of life (pranpratistha) to the Phad.
