Although by no means an expert, it’s been my pleasure and challenge to be given deities to paint. The first step before painting your deity is cleaning the deities.

As I have spent copious amounts of time researching and adore talking about all aspects of deity care please read on for my guide to cleaning your Lordships.

This advice encompasses metal vigraha forms.

This is a nice way to polish up your installed deities, and doesn’t leave nasty residue or make them experience an unpleasant odour or process. It can be like another beautiful form of worship.

I usually clean my Lords at the sink, first cleaning the sink! then laying down cloth and having plenty of cotton wool or cloths at hand, as well as a pitcher to pour over them for rinsing.

HOW TO CLEAN YOUR DEITIES:
Cleaning deities is best done with the following methods.

Fresh Lemon juice

Gopi chandan (tilak)

Polishing cloth( paper towels, cotton cloth, or cotton balls)

Soft cloth to dry

Or

Fresh lemon juice

Tamarind paste

Polishing cloth( paper towels, cotton cloth, or cotton balls)

Soft cloth to dry

Notes on which one to use, and benefit:

I find that tilak paste is superior in removal of dark tarnish, but you may need to spend longer removing the paste from the deity form and occasionally use a soft new toothbrush to remove white from crevices.  It’s still superior to using any commercial brasso or other tarnish remover brands.

Tamarind paste leaves zero residue and is perfect for gently polishing.

I tend to use whatever I have at hand.

Important notes;

As you polish the deities you should keep away from eyes inlaid with conch. These can have soft black gum paste filling the iris/pupil socket which will be removed by vigorous cleaning. Should you have an emergency and need to repair such a loss, I have successfully used a wood putty to fill both a missing iris AND a missing conch eye. You never know the state of some deity forms – they can come to your care with numerous little challenges.

Applying paste;

Combine to a frothy smooth paste and apply using a soft cotton cloth or cotton wool balls or pads.

As you polish the deity forms any tarnish will transfer to the cloth as black marks.

You can wash the deity form under warm running water to clean, or stand the deity form of the Lord and pour water over murti to remove polishing paste.

Gently dry.

Admire.

Now you are ready to paint your Lords – please see here for some advice on painting metal deities of Nitai Gaur, or Krishna, and Radha.

Brass or metal deities; guide to paints. What do you use to paint on metal murti?

The following paints have been tested on numerous deity forms (by me), and will be ideal for Ashtadhatu* deties (A combination of 8 metals) and will also work on marble deities as well as wood or resin deity forms.

You will need:

Enamel oil-based paints OR oil paints – see notes on where to purchase
Turpentine for brush clean up and thinning.
Fine brushes – .07 watercolor or acrylic brushes

The following basic colors:

White
Black
Red

Optional Extra colors which are nice to have:
Yellow
Gold/ bronze/ silver
Pink (you could mix own)
Blue
Green
Peach (mix from red and yellow/white)

One off the charming benefits of metal archa vigraha forms is the potential for bathing the murti. So that you are able to do so, they need to be painted with water proof paint. Oil based enamel can withstand many years of daily bathing, although it is prone to chipping.  Oil paints are slightly tougher and if you have the patience to sit out the requisite drying time are ideal.

I’m not famous for my patience and generally use enamel which dry waiting 2 hours (each layer).

Oil based paints can take up to 8 weeks took dry but this depends on the thickness of the applied paint and the climate.  Dry climates will hasten the drying process.

A few random notes painting aesthetically:
If deities (metal/ brass combo) are a warm tone it can be complimentary to use a warm peachy tone for hands/eyelids/lips and feet.

When painting eyelids I suggest a gentle eye lids color, not bold, for a mellow look.  I never use a blue eyeshadow on lids, but will sometimes use it to indicate the lid crease.

See my future tutorial (coming soon) for painting deity eyes, and check out my guide to cleaning metal murti (coming soon).

*Ashtadhatu is a pleasing combination of metals including gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, tin, iron and mercury that has been traditionally used for deity creation in India and is still used to this day.  While this author is not a Vedic scholar and cannot answer at this point to the benefits of mixing metals, modern scientists are extensively trialing different combination of metal alloys and state, interestingly, that
“At the atomic level, pure metals have a regular crystal structure that stacks layer upon layer of identical atoms. Often, these layers slip past each other easily, which makes the metal too soft to be useful. That is why pure gold is rarely used in jewellery: it cannot survive much wear and tear. But if a metalsmith mixes in an element with a different atomic size, the interloper will randomly disrupt the layers and reduce their tendency to slip, which creates a much harder alloy. The correct choice of compounds can enable metallurgists to tailor other properties as well, such as corrosion resistance or melting point.”

So it can be understood that deities created from this combination of metals will be superior, given their basis in Vedic history!  Nevertheless, Krishna is kind enough to accept worship even in a printed paper format, so don’t stress, we just thought it was a fun fact.

**You may have to hunt around to find where you can purchase mini enamel paints. Try hobby shops, or toy shops often sell enamel paints for model painting. You always have the option of ordering online. You can use the enamel house paints which are available from hardware stores but generally these are sold in larger containers than required, and you can end up spending more than you would need to. I can’t vouch for whether they are stronger or not.

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