Rangoli-4

Till now, we have covered designs drawn free hand or drawn with help of lines. Now we have come to the most important and vast section of Rangolis. Well in this post I want to cover the designs drawn with the help of "Dots". The designs using dots as guidance are the most popular ones. We have so many motifs, and designs drawn this way. I will try to post as many designs as possible but one by one.

Now the designs drawn using dots can again be classified into two types:

• Designs drawn with out touching the dots or encircling the dots. Here you can see the dots clearly after finishing the design
  
• Designs drawn by connecting dots. Here you cannot see the dots after finishing the designs. In fact its a challenge to draw designs in such a way that the people looking at it should not be able to decipher how many dots have been used and how these have been connected.

OK! I am going to show you from very simple to complicated designs  of the first category where designs are drawn in such a manner that they do not touch the dots but circle it. These designs are very complicated and intricate. Its really thrilling to draw these ones. I am addicted to this particular style. No matter how skilled one is, if we loose our concentration while drawing these, we will lose the track and end up messing with the design. There were times when I had almost completed the designs but in the last moment I made a mistake and had to again re do the entire thing, by washing the floor and starting the design from the beginning. But then the end result is so beautiful that its worth it.

Some of the important things to remember with designs drawn using dots are:

• Placement of dots should be even and neat in rows
• They should be equidistant from one another
• While drawing the designs the curves and lines should be drawn very neatly

Now here we go....

In the above you can see how a row of dots are used to draw the designs. These are actually used as borders in front of doorways or on the stairs or as borders to encircle the finished Rangolis.

In the third and fourth designs you can see that first a row of dots are placed and then the in the next row, dots are placed in between two dots.

 

  Here again see how the dots can be used to create the designs.

 

Now here we start our journey into the intricate design world. These are called Melicka Muggulu or the curvy designs.

 

See how with the same set of dots we can draw so many designs.

 

This again can be used as a border.

 

Just by varying the set of dots one can create new designs, as shown in the two designs below.

 

 

So with the same set of dots but a slight variation you can create so many new designs. Why dont you try and send me some of your creations. I will post them here.

Oh by the way you have to forgive me for my not so symmetrical drawing of the designs. Its real difficult to maintain the balance or symmetry.

I would be glad if you let me know how my tutorials are and any suggestions for improvements are welcome please.

Rangoli-3

Friends, I want to share you some of the Rangolis drawn in front of my home now and then. These are free style or free hand drawings, or have been drawn using small lines as base.

 This is a simple design drawn using the mesh of four lines in the center.

 

 This was also drawn using the mesh of four lines in the center.

 

This ia a free hand design.

 

This has been drawn using the four lines in the four corners and the top. I am not so very skill full. So my design is not that neat.

 

Here is a closer look at the bottom portion of the design.

 

 This is again free hand design drawn with coloured powders.

 

This is a 6 petaled Lotus. This is considered to be very auspicious and denotes Goddess Lakshmi (wealth).

The center has been filled with turmeric, vermilion, marigold and chrysanthemum flowers and also berries known as Regipallu in Telugu or Ber in Hindi. These are offerings to Sun God and Lord Vishnu.

 

This is a closer look.

I will be back next time with more complicated and intricate designs. Please leave your suggestions and comments.

Rangoli-2

Friends here is some more about Rangolis.

I am sorry I could not post these before Sankranthi. It could have been helpful to some of you. But I have decided to post regularly some of the designs I know. That way I can build up a bank of designs, which would help people looking for them.

This time I am going to show you about the designs which are drawn using lines. Well these are almost free hand but use the help of strategically placed lines for guidance.

Strictly speaking these are what the puritans call the real Rangolis.Some of these are used for special rituals, or say occasions like the festival of Sankranti.. These are also known as Dravida Muggulu or the Dravidian style of Rangolis. But I find many similarities between these from South India and  those free hand designs from Bengal and Gujarat etc.

Here the basic guidelines for the design are the mesh lines as drawn in the last picture. With these four crossed lines, we can create so many designs.

 

This is one of the simple ones. Note that the 4 crossed lines in the center using dark blue are the guidelines or the base for drawing the designs. Now see how the different designs have been drawn using these four lines.

 

 

 

 

So just try out new designs, experiment and create your own designs. I will be posting some more designs as when I put them on the paper.

So what do you thing?

Please do leave comments and suggestions if any.