These are inspired from a pocket book on Kalighat Patachitra (Aditi Nath Sarkar and Christine Mackay, published by Roli Books) and Romantic era paintings. The first set is from Eternal Love 三生三世十里桃花

Kalighat Pats are fast to create- I imagine this is because they used to be mass produced even before mechanical reproduction and there is not much background with a focus on form and colour. Pat pantings serve as both record keepers and myth makers so they’re literally perfect for wuxia/slice of life period dramas

I noticed that Kalighat patachitra has the unique quality of volume added to the shapes-This may be because many patus were also sculptors and potters. They were replaced by oleographs by the 1930s though Patachitra is still a very popular, modern, and syncretic art form.

Ming Lan and her grandmother from the drama adapted from Guan Xin Ze Luan 关心则乱

I am currently reading about artist Hemen Majumdar (1894-1948) and his disapproval of the historical orientalism of the Bengal School of Art at the time, which used to package Hindu mythology into Chinese paintings. They also exercised strict control and excluded academic artists like himself. Meanwhile folk revivalists like Jamini Roy also attached to the school for sometime was very much inspired by Pat paintings. This fan art exercise has taken me down a very interesting rabbit hole