The fact remains that most of the paintings that exist today are not even a hundred years old. The making of a Tanjore painting involves dedicated labour. Each painting is done stage by stage. In the first stage, layers of cloth are pasted tightly over wood to form the base. A paste is applied on the board to soften it for the drawing.
Relief work is done with a paste on top of which wafer like sheets of gold are pasted.
The remaining areas are painted using bright colours. The size of the figures in the pictures are usually not relative, with the main figure usually being the largest. Faces are chubby and cherubic, figures usually rounded. All figures are usually heavily decorated with jewellery. With the passage of time, in an attempt to revive this dying form of art, the usage of materials not used traditionally is common.