CBSE Class 12 Painting
Chapters: 3
1. Indian Miniature Painting
Rajasthani school · Pahari school · Mughal school · Deccan school
- Indian Miniature Painting: Small Pictures, Big Detail – Indian miniature paintings are small, detailed pictures painted on paper (earlier on palm leaf) for books and albums. Artists used colours ground from stones and plants, real gold, and very fine squirrel-hair brushes, and they painted in layers. From the 1500s four big families grew: Mughal, Rajasthani, Pahari and Deccan. The Rajasthani school grew in Rajput courts like Mewar, Bundi, Kota, Kishangarh, Jodhpur, Bikaner and Jaipur, each with its own colours and faces.
- Pahari School of Painting: From Bold Basohli to Gentle Kangra – Pahari painting means painting from the small hill kingdoms of the Himalayan foothills, made from the late 1600s to the 1800s. It began with the bold Basohli style: flat red, yellow and blue, red borders and huge eyes. Then an artist family from Guler, Pandit Seu and his sons Manaku and Nainsukh, brought calmer, more natural drawing. This grew into the Kangra style: soft colours, graceful figures, rivers, trees and moonlight, often telling Radha-Krishna love stories.
- Mughal School of Painting: Persian Finesse Meets Indian Life – Mughal painting grew in the courts of the Mughal emperors from the mid-1500s. Humayun brought two Persian masters; Akbar built a large workshop of Indian artists who worked in teams on story and history books. Jahangir wanted true-to-life portraits and nature studies. Shah Jahan liked grand, formal court scenes with gold and rich borders. Mughal artists mixed Persian detail, Indian colour and some European depth, and later spread this style to other courts.
- Deccan School of Painting: Gold Skies and Tall Figures – Deccan painting grew from the late 1500s in the courts of the Deccan sultanates, Ahmadnagar, Bijapur and Golconda, and later in Hyderabad. It mixed Persian and Turkish art, local southern traditions and, later, Mughal ideas. Its marks are tall, slim figures in local dress, rich purple, green and gold, high horizons with golden skies, domed buildings and many flowers. The mood is dreamy and poetic.
2. Bengal School and Modern Trends in Indian Art
National Flag and artists in the freedom movement · Bengal school · Modern Indian art
- The Bengal School of Art – The Bengal School was an Indian art movement of the early 1900s. It began in Kolkata around 1905, led by Abanindranath Tagore. Art schools of that time taught only European oil painting. Bengal School artists turned back to Indian roots: Ajanta murals, Mughal and Rajput miniatures, and ideas from Japanese wash painting. They used soft, thin layers of watercolour (the wash technique), graceful lines and Indian themes from myth, history, poetry and daily life. Key artists: Abanindranath Tagore, Nandalal Bose, M.A.R. Chughtai and Ram Gopal Vijaivargiya.
- Modern Indian Art: Paintings, Prints and Sculptures – Modern Indian art covers roughly 1880 to 1990. Painters went from the European realism of Raja Ravi Varma to the folk lines of Jamini Roy, the Paris-plus-Ajanta style of Amrita Sher-Gil and the bold modernism of M.F. Husain. Printmakers like Somnath Hore, Jyoti Bhatt, Anupam Sud and Laxma Goud used etching, woodcut and screen print. Sculptors like D.P. Roy Chowdhury, Ramkinkar Baij, Amarnath Sehgal and P.V. Janakiram worked in bronze, cement and welded metal. Each found a new, personal way to show Indian life.
3. Painting Practical
Nature and object study · Painting composition · Portfolio
- Still Life Drawing: Light, Shade and Shadow – A still life is a drawing or painting of objects that do not move, such as a ball, a box, a bottle, fruit and a cloth. Set them up with one light from one side and draw from one fixed spot. First block in each object with light lines and compare sizes with a pencil held at arm's length. Then find the light: every lit round object shows a highlight, light, half-tone, core shadow, reflected light and a cast shadow on the table. Cast shadows point away from the light, and grow longer when the light is lower. Drapery folds show light ridges and dark valleys. Shade with soft pencils (B grades) for darks and hard ones (H grades) for light tones, in pencil or full colour.
- Drawing and Painting – Drawing is a way of seeing and thinking: we use it to record what we observe, to remember, to plan designs and to express ideas. A good drawing starts by blocking in: seeing objects as simple shapes (sphere, box, cylinder) and checking proportions with light lines. Line then defines edges, and line weight (heavy or light) shows what is near or far. Light gives form: on a lit object we see the highlight, mid-tone, core shadow, reflected light and cast shadow. Tonal value runs from white to black; strong contrast of light and dark is called chiaroscuro, and a picture can be in a high key (mostly light) or low key (mostly dark). Dry media (graphite, charcoal, pastels, coloured pencils) build tone with hatching, cross-hatching, stippling and blending; wet media (ink, watercolour, gouache, acrylic, oil) build it with washes, layers (glazes) and mixing colours. Linear and atmospheric perspective show space, and figure drawing uses proportion, gesture and foreshortening. Artists record ideas in sketchbooks and use traditional, alternative and digital tools safely and sustainably.
- Art Portfolio: Record, Evaluate and Reflect on Your Work – A portfolio is a collection of your creative work that shows your journey, from first ideas through sketches, tests and drafts to finished pieces. Keep a process record (sketchbook or digital journal) with dates and notes, including failed tests. Describe each work by what it is, how you made it and why you made your choices, using art vocabulary. Evaluate it with clear criteria such as idea, skill, composition and originality, giving evidence for every judgement and a target to improve. Reflect on your development over time and link it to experiences like exhibitions, performances and workshops, and to what they mean for your own cultural growth. Finally, present it clearly as a talk, a short film or a written dossier.