Onam, the most important festival of Kerala is celebrated by all Malayalees with great fervour. This Onam, surprise your friends/relatives with an Onam card made on your own and let them see your creativity. Here is a simple way to make a beautiful Onam card.

Materials Needed

Drawing of Kathakali Head
Different colours of Fabric Paint
Brush
Hardbound Paper
Gum

Painting the Kathakali Head

Download/ Print the drawing of the Kathakali head from our website. We need only half part of the Kathakali head to make the card. Here we have used different shades of colours like orange, red, yellow, white and 2 different shades of green to colour the picture. Ordinary and pearl fabric paints are used for painting. It is advisable to use fabric paints as it is water proof. Once you start using a particular colour, finish up all the parts of that colour and then only proceed with other colours.

To download drawing of Kathakali head Click Here

First take green colour and start shading the second semicircular row from the left side of the headgear shown in the picture (row without circles). Paint neatly. Make sure that the colour does not run outside the row.

Red, green and yellow colours are used to paint the parallel rows above the forehead. Accordingly paint the alternate layers with green colour leaving space for yellow and red. After you finish painting with green, let it dry for some time.

Then paint all the dots, fourth semi circular row of the head gear and lips using red colour. The other layers and spaces in the head gear and nose should be filled with golden yellow colour.

Paint the thin lines above the forehead carefully with orange and yellow colour alternately. The drawings in the forehead and the beard should be filled with pearl white paint.

Fabric paint add depth to the picture but it needs time and patience to make it perfect. Touch the eyebrows and eye ball with black. The green shade needed for colouring the face is slightly different from the earlier green colour used. So mix two shades of green colour "dark green 06" number and "green 391number" together and colour the face with the mixture. To make the picture more attractive, add some dots here and there in the head gear with pearl white and golden yellow colour.

Making the card

Fold the paper from the edge of the painting. Using a scissor cut out the painted picture slowly and carefully along the curves of the face and the headgear. All the corners should be cut perfectly. Take a hardbound paper (any colour), fold it in two. Place the painted Kathakali face over the hardbound paper and cut it out in shape of the painted figure. If you find it difficult to cut the paper straight away, just sketch it out with the pencil first and then cut out the figure.

Paste the painted Kathakali figure on the front side of the cut out paper with either fevicol or gum. Your Onam card is ready. You can write your message inside the card.

To download drawing of Kathakali head Click Here