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.
Did you enjoy this post? Please leave me a comment and let me know!
All glories to this tutorial. It has helped me with very valuable ideas to make my Deities look pretty.
Your servant
R dd
I am so very happy to hear that!
Hello Sita!
I LOVE this website! It’s one of my favourites if not my favourite!
Have an AMAZING day!
Haribol!
P.S The golde RK deities are SO SO beautiful!
Hare Krishna,
Is it okay to use enamel varnish?
Yes absolutely, varnish is a good idea.
[…] If you are looking for info on painting metal deities then you may be interested in this DIY tutoria… […]
Haribol!
Sits ji I need help in painting the eyes of Rama family.
The deities came with factory painted eyes, I need help in painting the eyes with finer details. I live in Bangalore, can you please let me know who I can get in touch with to do this painting on the brass deities for me?
Thank you!
Sitaram
Aparna
Hare Krishna. I had a question if you can please give your guidance…with regards to Lord Jagannath, Subhadra, Baldev who are made with material wood and are chipped here and there small places. How can they be fixed with paint. I also do not want them to loose their original look as and how I welcomed them but do need to mend them a few places. How do I do this? Please help.
YS Pooja
Hare krishna Pooja!
Thanks for reaching out, it will be my pleasure to help.
What I suggest is using small wood putty to fill the cracks, then paint over in a like color so that you aren’t modifying the original look and feel of your deities.
Feel free to email me specific pictures of your deities for more personalised advice.
Hare Krishna
We have wooden Radha Krishna Dieties & want to know which colors/paints we should use for decorating Their faces daily. They should be easily removal without harming.
Haribol what is best to remove enamel paint from marble deity please
Hi Janani,
Thanks for asking! Do you want to completely remove the paint?
You will probably find the best way is to lightly sand it off.
It hardly works to use remover… So I would say very fine grade sandpaper will remove the old paint best.
I Hope that helps! Let me know if you still have more questions and I’ll do my best to answer them!
Love,
Sita
Hare Krishna. Thank you for such wonderful content. I have a question though, how can you remove old chipped paint from deities so that they may be re painted again?
Dear Jagatmohini Devi dasi,
thank you so much for reading my post about painting deities of Radha & Krishna.
It sure is a challenge to take on but SUCH a wonderful challenge.
It’s kind of a complicated question though, how to remove old chipped paint.
Are you going to completely strip the deities?
Is it factory paint (who painted it first off?)
What has it been painted with?
So first I would start by trying to remove it by soaking the resistant paint with an oil-covered cotton wool ball.
If it doesn’t come off like that then you have probably got factory paint which is nearly impenetrable except by scraping 🙂 You can lightly sand this off using the finest grade of sandpaper.
Often removing old paint is the most laborious part of the job!
Sometimes the final and only solution is to buy enamel paint of the appropriate shade (like brass or bronze or silver or gold) and paint over the bits you can’t get off.
Happy painting of Krsna deity!
Love
Sita
Ps let me know if you have any other question or answer to help me help you 🙂
Hare Krishna
Thanks for the above notes , they are useful. I am a painter by hobby and I have oil painted Gaur Nitai deities just once . I have been been checking the web for some guidelines and stumbled upon these notes.
YS
RGD
Namaste Ramananda Gaura das,
Wow, that’s awesome. It’s really exciting to me if my posts can be informative or helpful for my visitors!
One reason I was inspired to start this site was to help people with their own deity and remember Krishna pursuits. There is next to NOTHING about deity painting – a few old posts but as painting all types and varieties of deities is something which I do nearly every week, I thought it might be helpful to share the journey.
Love
Sita
Wo so informative… Please upload the detailed eye painting tutorial soon .
Hare Krishna Aradhya!
I have uploaded a real-time video of painting Krishna’s eyes!
You can see it on my You Tube channel – follow the link at the top of the page to find that 🙂
I hope it’ll be informative! It’s not a TUTORIAL exactly but it really shows you step by step, probably shows you how much I try try and try again, too!!
Love,
Sita
Can you please do a post on how to care for/worship your deities? pretty, pretty pleaseee? 🙂
Oh Yes!!
I’ve been wondering about that but I will need to really work on that!!!
Thanks for the tips. 8 weeks drying time for oil?! Is that how long you need to wait for each layer to dry, or for the whole thing to dry before handling or for washing?
So for oil… Yes if you use straight oil the drying time is variable.
It depends on what you mix with it.
If you use a thinning medium then it can dry much faster. If you are in a hot climate it will dry faster. So i can’t give a definative time.
I have found that using medium to get a thin glaze it will dry in a few days!
If it’s not dry it will lift off when touched. Adding a new layer will disturb the previous