Behind the Brush stroke - How an EthniiChic Piece Goes from Concept to Your Wall

What is the process of commissioning hand-painted Indian art?

Commissioning hand-painted Indian art is the process of requesting an original artwork made specifically for your space, story, and aesthetic — rather than choosing from existing inventory. The process typically begins with a conversation about the space (dimensions, light, colours), the tradition preferred (Pichwai, Madhubani, Gond, etc.), and any thematic or iconographic wishes. The artist designs a composition, shares preliminary sketches for approval, then executes the painting using traditional techniques and materials. Lead time is typically 4–8 weeks depending on size and complexity.

Statistics

• A detailed large-format Pichwai (24×36 inches) takes approximately 3–6 weeks of studio time — representing 120–240+ hours of focused work per piece
• The surface preparation for Pattachitra-style work alone involves multiple layers of chalk and tamarind paste applied over several days before a single mark is made
• Traditional stone pigments used in Pichwai — lapis lazuli, malachite, gold leaf — are sourced from mineral suppliers and prepared by hand, adding to both material cost and working time
• EthniiChic has shipped commissioned work to clients in UAE, Singapore, UK, USA, Canada, and Australia — demonstrating the viability of international remote commissioning
• Custom-commissioned art retains a higher resale value than standard collection pieces because of its unique provenance and documented creative dialogue with the artist

People often ask me what the process looks like.

They're holding a piece they've just received, or they're looking at something on the website, and they want to understand - not just what it is, but what it took to get there. What actually happened between the blank surface and the finished painting?

It's a question I'm always happy to answer, because the process is part of what makes the work worth what it is. And because most people, once they understand it, look at hand-painted art differently. Not with more reverence, exactly - but with more respect for what a human hand is actually doing when it makes something.

This is the honest account of how a piece comes to life at EthniiChic. The commissioned work and the collection pieces. The parts that are planned and the parts that aren't. The things that go exactly as intended and the things that surprise even me.

Where It Starts — The Conversation Before the Canvas

For commissioned work, everything begins with a conversation. Not a brief, not a form, not a mood board - a conversation.

I want to understand what someone is actually trying to create in their home. Not just "a Pichwai for the living room" but what that living room feels like, what the person wants to feel when they walk into it, what story they want the art to carry. Sometimes people know exactly. Sometimes they have a feeling they haven't yet put words to, and part of my job is helping them find those words.

The questions I ask are specific. What's the light like in the space - does the sun come in the morning or the afternoon? What colours are already in the room - not just the walls, but the textiles, the furniture, the floor? Is there an event, a person, a tradition, a memory that this piece should connect to? What feeling should someone have when they're standing in front of it?

These questions aren't just practical. They're telling me something about the person. And a piece that actually belongs to someone - that feels made for them rather than acquired - has to start from that understanding.

For collection pieces (work made before a specific buyer, which goes up on the website), the process is similar except the conversation happens internally. I'm designing work that has to speak to someone I haven't met yet, which means it has to be specific enough to be genuinely interesting and open enough to be genuinely liveable.

The Design Phase - Where My Role Is Biggest

Once I understand what a piece needs to do, I design it.

People sometimes assume that traditional Indian art is mostly copying - that there are fixed compositions that get reproduced, and the artist's job is mainly execution. This is true of factory-style work, and completely untrue of serious practice within a tradition.

The traditions themselves - Pichwai, Madhubani, Gond, Warli - provide a vocabulary. A set of motifs, a visual language, a compositional logic. Working within a tradition is like working within a musical form: the form is given, but what you say within it is your own.

When I design a Pichwai composition, I'm making decisions about which festival or season it depicts, which motifs are foregrounded and which are background elements, how the figures are distributed across the canvas, what the colour palette does to the mood of the piece, how the border relates to the central composition. None of these decisions are made for me by the tradition.

For a commissioned piece, these design decisions are made in dialogue with the client. I'll share preliminary sketches, discuss proportions, talk through the iconographic choices and what each one means. Some clients want to be very involved in this. Others say "you know your work - I trust you" and give me latitude. Both approaches produce good work. The key is that by the end of the design phase, we both know exactly what's going to be made before a drop of paint has been applied.

The Surface - Before the First Mark

Most people don't think about the surface a painting is made on. They think about the image. But the surface is half the work, and sometimes more.

For Pichwai work, the surface is typically a cloth - usually a fine cotton - that has been prepared with sizing (a thin layer of natural gum) and sometimes a ground colour. Getting this preparation right determines how the paint will behave. Too much sizing and the paint sits on top without bonding properly. Too little and it absorbs unevenly.

For Pattachitra-style work, the surface preparation is even more involved - layers of chalk and tamarind paste are applied to cloth, dried, and polished repeatedly until the surface has the smooth, slightly burnished quality that gives the tradition its characteristic look.

For work on paper or archival paper board, the choice of paper weight, sizing, and preparation all affect how ink and pigment behave, how colours dry, how lines hold.

This work - preparation, sizing, grounding - is often done by the team. It's not glamorous. It takes time. And it's completely invisible in the finished work. Which is how all the best preparation works.

The Drawing - Before the Colour

In most of the traditions we work in, the composition is drawn before colour is applied. Not traced - drawn. Freehand, with a brush or a stylus or a reed pen, depending on the tradition.

This is where the years of training become most visible, and most necessary.

A Pichwai composition might have dozens of figures, an elaborate border, intricate background patterning, and a central focal image - all of it drawn in proportion, in correct iconographic relationship to each other, before a single colour is applied. If the drawing is wrong, the painting is wrong. There's no correcting the composition once the colour goes on.

In Madhubani, the bold outlines are drawn first in black - these define the entire image. The quality of the line matters enormously. A confident, consistent line reads as skilled even before the colour appears. A hesitant or variable line undermines the whole.

I draw most pieces myself, at least the initial composition. For larger works, the team assists with background elements and repeat patterning, but the central drawing is mine. This is where my design sensibility lives - in the quality of the mark before any colour is applied.

The Painting - Layer by Layer

Colour in hand-painted Indian art is not applied once. It's built.

Background colours go on first - large areas of flat colour that establish the ground of the composition. In a Pichwai, this might be the deep blue-black that much of the detail will be painted over. In a Madhubani, the colour fills of the major figures. These layers need to dry completely before the next stage.

Then come the mid-tones and secondary colours. Then the fine detail. Then highlights. Then - in some traditions - final detail work done with the finest brush available, sometimes a brush made of just a few hairs.

The layering matters because Indian painting is typically opaque, not transparent (unlike watercolour). Colours don't blend by being layered transparently - they cover. So the sequence of layers is the sequence of the painting's visual logic. Get it wrong and you can't go back.

Stone pigments - when we use them - behave differently from synthetic paints in ways that take experience to manage. They're grainy. They don't flow the same way. They require more water at certain points and less at others. Lapis lazuli ground to pigment has a slight sparkle that pre-mixed blue from a tube simply doesn't have. Getting these pigments to do what you want them to do is a skill in itself.

The Team - Who Else's Hands Are on It

I want to be honest about this, because I think it matters.

I design every piece and paint the majority of most pieces. For larger or more complex works, I work alongside a team of trained artists who bring their own skill and, in some cases, their own traditional training. For a large-format Pichwai, I might paint the central figure and the major compositional elements while the team works on background patterning and border detail.

This is not a division I hide. It's the way serious traditional Indian painting has always worked - in studios, in families, in temple workshops. The master artist designs and leads; skilled assistants execute under direction. The work is collaborative, and the quality of the collaboration shows in the final piece.

When I say "hand-painted by EthniiChic," I mean made by human hands, in our studio, under my direction, with my design. It does not mean that I am personally responsible for every single brushstroke. And I think that honesty is important, because the alternative - claiming sole authorship of every mark - would be dishonest and would also misrepresent how this tradition actually works.

Drying, Review, and Finishing

Once the painting is complete, it dries. This isn't a quick process for work using traditional materials - some pigments, particularly stone-based ones, need several days to cure properly.

During this time I review the work. Not once - multiple times, in different light conditions. Natural morning light shows things that artificial light hides. I'm looking for evenness, for the quality of the detail, for whether the overall composition does what the design intended.

Sometimes pieces need further work. A colour isn't reading correctly at a certain scale. A section of fine detail needs refinement. This is a normal part of the process, not an indication that something went wrong. A painting is done when it's done, not when the projected time has elapsed.

Then comes finishing - varnishing where appropriate to protect the surface, framing if the client has requested it, and any protective backing for work that will be shipped.

The Shipping - Possibly the Most Anxious Part

For anyone who has made something by hand and then watched it go into a box, you'll understand this: the shipping is where I hold my breath.

A piece that took weeks to make goes into packaging that has to protect it across any distance - from Mumbai to Singapore, from Bengaluru to London. We've developed our packaging over time. Multiple layers of protection, archival materials that won't react with pigments, structural reinforcement for the corners that are most vulnerable.

Every piece is photographed before it's packed. Every piece is trackable. And every piece comes with documentation - information about the tradition it comes from, the materials used, any specific iconographic notes that will help the buyer understand what they have.

That documentation is something I feel strongly about. Art without context is just an object. Art with context - with a story attached to it, a tradition explained, a meaning articulated - is something you can actually have a relationship with.

What Happens After It Goes on the Wall

The relationship doesn't end at delivery. Or it shouldn't.

With commissioned work especially, I follow up. I want to know how the piece looks in the space. Whether the proportions work as we anticipated. Whether there's anything in the way it's hung or lit that isn't serving it well.

Over time, pieces from EthniiChic become part of homes in ways that collection pieces from stores often don't. Because someone thought about them, made decisions about them, had conversations about them. They arrived with a story and they continue to accumulate one.

I hear from clients years later about a piece they bought. About how it's moved to a different wall. About how they've started telling guests the story of the tradition it comes from. About how their children ask about it.

This is what it means for art to live in a home rather than just hang in one.

What You Should Know Before You Commission

If you're thinking about commissioning a piece from EthniiChic, here's what the process looks like practically.

We begin with a conversation - by email, WhatsApp, or a call depending on what works. I'll ask about the space, the story, the size, the tradition you're drawn to. If you're not sure about the tradition, that's fine - I can guide that conversation based on what you tell me about the mood you want.

I'll prepare a design brief and share preliminary sketches. These are working documents, not finished drawings - they're for discussing proportions, composition, and major decisions before we commit to them.

Lead time for custom work ranges from four to eight weeks depending on size and complexity. Larger pieces take longer. Pieces with very high detail density take longer.

Pricing reflects the time, materials, and skill involved. I don't have a standard rate card because no two commissions are the same. What I can tell you is that the price you're quoted covers work that someone has thought about carefully and will care about until it reaches you.

If you're curious about commissioning a piece, the first step is just reaching out. No commitment, no pressure — just a conversation about what you're looking for and whether what we do is the right fit.

[Start a commission conversation → Click here] | [Browse existing collection → Click here] 

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How does commissioning a hand-painted artwork work?

The process has three stages. First, a conversation: you share your space (wall dimensions, existing colours, furniture), your preferred tradition, and any thematic wishes. Second, design: the artist creates preliminary sketches or compositional notes, shares them digitally, and incorporates your feedback before any paint is applied. Third, execution: the artist prepares the surface and paints the work in layers, with drying time between each stage. You receive the completed work with documentation about the tradition, materials, and process. No two commissions are identical.

2. How long does it take to commission a hand-painted Indian painting?

Lead time for custom commissioned work at EthniiChic is 4–8 weeks depending on size and complexity. A small to medium piece (up to 18×24 inches) in a tradition with clear compositional conventions takes approximately 4 weeks. A large-format work (30×40 inches or larger) with detailed composition takes 6–8 weeks. Pieces requiring very fine detail work — intricate Pattachitra or dense Pichwai patterning — sit at the longer end of this range.

3. Can I request a specific Indian art tradition for a commissioned piece?

Yes. The most common commission traditions at EthniiChic are Pichwai, Madhubani, Gond, and Warli. If you have a specific tradition in mind, the commission starts from within that tradition's visual vocabulary. If you're unsure which tradition suits your space, the design conversation helps identify the right fit based on your room's character, colour palette, and the mood you want the art to create.

4. What information should I provide when commissioning Indian art?

At minimum: wall dimensions (height × width of the intended wall), the space the work will be in (living room, bedroom, study), existing colours in the room (wall colour, main furniture colours), and your preferred tradition if you have one. Beyond that: any specific iconographic wishes (a particular festival, deity, motif, or scene), any colour constraints (colours to avoid or emphasise), and images of your space if possible. The more context you share, the more precisely the design can be tailored.

5. Is a commissioned Indian painting more expensive than a collection piece?

Yes, typically. Custom commissioned work requires additional design time, preliminary sketch work, client communication, and the production of a single piece that cannot be replicated for other buyers. The premium varies depending on complexity, but commissioned pieces are generally priced 20–40% above a comparable collection piece of the same size and tradition. The value delivered is a piece made specifically for your space and story — which a collection piece, however beautiful, cannot fully replicate.

6. Do commissioned paintings come with documentation?

At EthniiChic, every commissioned piece comes with documentation covering: the tradition it belongs to, the specific iconographic content (what it depicts and why), the materials used, the general process, and the artist's background. This documentation serves as provenance — important for the long-term value of the work — and as the story you can share with guests.