The last chakra goddess Svadhishthana (click here to read about Sacral Chakra Goddess) and I had differences in opinions and so I did my best to be humble and open as possible on the next one. Who knew the next goddess would challenge me both personally and artistically.
Manipura is all about personal power and self esteem. Due to her high confidence she doesn’t care about how others view her. She could be tall, short, fat, slim, black, yellow, blue or even covered head to toe in rainbow colors. All she is concerned about is being proud for who she is… no matter what. Freedom from others and shamelessness. This is one power I am learning to harness within myself and it’s great to have this chakra goddess kick my butt whenever I need to be reminded of my own personal power.
When connected to her essence I wanted to see how she wanted to be expressed and there I met my road block. Because of her high confidence it didn’t matter how and what I would paint her, she would be proud. I could even paint her naked and she wouldn’t even bat an eye. Of course, that’s a whole different kind of art series all together.
So what to do? I was literally stuck as I had looked to each goddess for guidance as the intention of this series was to have them express themselves through me. Well, let’s start with what I do know. Her outfit would be yellow to reflect this chakra color. Since this chakra is tied with the astrological sign Leo, elements of the lion influenced various parts of her outfit and head dress. To reflect Manipura’s personality, confidence and high self-esteem I drew her in a strong Wonder Woman power pose. And why not a fiery background to show off the chakra element of fire.
Here’s some quick fun facts about this chakra
Color: Yellow
Position: Third Chakra
Element: Fire
Position: Above Navel
Represent: Relationship with self, personal power, self-esteem, freedom from shame, self worth and self image.
Painting Process:
Manipura Chakra Goddess Pencil Sketch © Divinity Chan
Original pencil sketch of Manipura.
Transfer the pencil image onto white canvas 18″x36″. Finished up with other details I’ve left out in the original sketch.
Painted the background yellow… of course since it’s my favourite color to start with.
Close up of painting the skin color
Painted in the basic color before adding shading.
Added a blue black color to the background to embrace the yellow as part of the fiery background. Why blue black? I love working with complementary colors as it brings out each other’s vibrancy. It’s like a relationship. You want to team up with someone who will bring the best out of you.
Yellow background is now topped with orange. Slowly worked the fiery background as I haven’t decided on how to finish this yet but it’s felt good so far with the orange. Face and the outfit of Manipura is coming along and the painting is now what I call the ‘teenage phase’. It looks like something yet not fully developed. Whenever a painting is in this stage I really wonder how this will unfold as it’s not looking attractive to me.
Here you see the full view of the painting. Red on the fiery background while still keeping some of the orange. Start to develop the yellow outfit to match the color of the solar plexus chakra. Manipura’s lion head dress is coming along nicely. What do you think?
More details to the outfit – shading, dimensions to the sleeves, claw details around the shoulder details with touches of copper metallic paint. Orange fiery detail to outline the goddess. To give the effect of heat emanating applied dry brush effect around the flames while at the same time softening the edges. Lighten up around the mane with yellow paint giving it a nice glow around the edges.
Add more detail work on the mane (lines and textures to give it a hairy mane feel) and face.
Paint black to the whiskers, nose and ears where the blue were. Dark and light browns to the mane adding light and shadows.
More orange to help offset the heavy red. Decided on white sparks from the pencil drawing. Black lines to the mane adding more dimension and definition so it stood out more.
For Manipura’s face made her lips a darker red and her eyes more cat like. More detail work on her jewelry piece hanging around her face and shoulder detail on her outfit.
Finale
Final touch ups on the jewelry piece, add colors yellow and orange to the white sparks as it looks too spark and black line detail to v neck collar, sleeves and pant top. Lastly the solar plexus chakra symbol the navel in yellow and brown colors.
Hello and welcome Manipura.
Manipura, Solar Plexus Chakra Goddess
18″x36″ Acrylic on canvas, painted sides no frame needed
© Divinity Chan
$1500.00
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