This mandala came to be long before I really got into Zentangle, but it implements so many principles of that. This mandala was created a while ago, but I realized I hadn’t shared it yet with you guys. Since my current project is taking longer than one sitting, I decided to share it.
I would love to know what you feel about this piece. Please tell me in the comments below!
So, here I am sitting at my desk again over lunch and of course I have a pen in my hands and I’m drawing on an artist tile. My lunch break is 45 minutes long. If I eat within that time frame, the amount of time I have to draw is much shorter. But I challenge myself over these few minutes to unplug from electronics and be creative.
The first thing that comes to mind, that always comes to mind is flowers. So I start in the center with a circle. As I build out I start seeing multiple types of flowers. Have you ever seen those “What do you see?” pictures, where its either an old woman or a young woman?
This is how I picture this. If I train my eyes onto the center I see a daisy like flower. But the further out I focus, I start seeing lilies at the outermost section. What do you see in this piece.
Oh, Mandala decorated with washi tape. I haven’t used washi tape too much in the past but I really like the way this turned out. This Mandala is really detailed. Even the tiniest flick of the pen created depth.
I did try something a little different in the center. I usually create a larger center. With this mandala, I wanted to take the detail all the way through.
I would love to know your thoughts on this piece, including the addition of the washi tape. Would you like to see more of this or do you have other ideas?
Page 3. I’m loving this one. I wanted to do overlapping mandalas and my original plan was to create one mandala using a half page, and then build another mandala on top of it.
As I was in the middle of the pencil work, I decided to make it look more like an eclipse. And I love it!
Tell your thoughts on this piece!
This was WAY more difficult that I thought it would be when I started it. In my mind it was going to be beautiful and simple and as it progressed I had to figure out what line was supposed to be on which level. I like the way it turned out, but I know that I could do a better job. I know that this is something that I need to work on more and learn more about. Any tips or tricks you have would be amazing.
Tell me if you have any tips on interlocking mandalas or if you have ever attempted this on your own and what were the results. Link your ideas in the comments below.
Sometimes making a mandala simple, and creating a difficult or busy background is more fun, than actually producing a difficult mandala. This was one of those times. I loved creating this piece as it tested my ability to think of different patterns to create the detailed background I was looking for.
Do you like a detailed mandala with a simple or nonexistent background, or would you rather see more detailed backgrounds on a simple mandala like this? Let me know in the comments.
I had completed two separate mandalas this weekend. Although I had a lot going on, somehow I still finished them. Each one took more than 5 hours to complete. I used Staedtler Pigment liners to complete them. As you can tell, this first one took the most time because there are a LOT of dots. But I really like the way that it came out and how the dots helped with the contrast.
This second one was more free-handed. It’s amazing how I can work on two mandalas within hours of each other and they look so different.
On this piece, I used the Art-n-Fly pens that I reviewed earlier. They worked out pretty nice. The smaller tips were perfect for the bubbles. When I first started this piece, I started with just a flower. However, I have just fallen in love with tentacles on flowers, It makes them seem like something out of a sci fi movie. So, Of course being the sci fi fanatic that I am, I just had to add it all in. After I finished the tentacles though, I really felt like something was missing. The bubbles seemed like the most natural answer to the blank spaces between the tentacles to finish out the piece.
I would love to know what you think about this piece. Let me know in the comments below.
I had a friend of mine decide she wanted a tree of life tattoo. Well, although this isn’t her tattoo, it did start out that way. However, I decided to make this one colorful! As everyone knows, I hate coloring my own art, but this one wasn’t that bad. The orange didn’t show up as bright in the scan as it is in real life, but you get the general idea. I used Staedtler fineliners for the lines, which includes the colored lines, and Staedtler color pencils for the coloring in.
Enjoy!
Well today over lunchtime, I was able to start a mandala. It was completely free handed as you can probably tell. The spinning flower was interesting to draw and the biggest problem is deciding where to stop.
This second mandala is one that I did at home with my normal tools of the trade. The wonderful thing about this mandala is the simple fact that my 16 yr old son was drawing next to me. Learning the tricks of the trade to mandalas. I loved it!
So, here I am comparing my mandalas. One completely freehand and one with tools. Which do you prefer? Let me know in the comments below.
Well, today I decided to try something sorta new and sorta old. I started with a circle in the middle. Using some of the techniques and fillers I learned from zentangle videos, I added only three major features to the center. After adding everything up to the tentacles, I decided to finish it off with a circle of sorts. Circles were sorta the theme to this piece and I absolutely adore the finished project. This has to be one of my favorites so far.
I would love to know what you think, let me know in the comments below.
This was an unfinished piece from last year. I decided to just finish it up so that I had less unfinished projects on the table. Why do you ask was this unfinished? I don’t know, anything could have happened, I do have a house full of kids and whatever happens happens.
Regardless of why it was unfinished, I finished it now. I had several people refer to this piece as dancing lollipops and that name just seemed to stick. I love the way it turned out. Let me know what you think about it in the comments below.
Step 1: Create your grid.
I enjoy having my mandala in the center of the page so the first thing I do is draw an X by drawing a line from each corner to the opposite. This is the lightest of lines because it’s literally used just to center my graphic.
I then take my 360° protractor and grid out every 10°. I then draw a line from one degree to the opposite degree. {ex. 0° – 180°} I continue to do this all around. I then take my compass and make random sized circles moving from the center out to show just how big I want the mandala.
Step 2: Line your center.
This part is always the most difficult for me because the center, determines the look of the whole mandala. If you look through the mandalas that I have posted, you will see that the different options are truly infinite. Nothing is right or wrong. With this one I chose a pinwheel of sorts that I built flowers on top of. This set the tone for an organic mandala.
Step 3: Start building outward.
You will see that I used the grid lines in two different ways. the larger flower petals run between the grid lines, whereas the triangular petals use the grid line as a center point. I tried to put more detail in the triangles because they were so large. Some options here are to use your protractor and grid out every 5° to make the get ails smaller, or just do like what I did and follow the grid lines making each layer larger than the layer before it. I have used both methods and both are fun to do.
Step 4: Final and Largest Layer
In this picture you will see that I have leaves that are lining my mandala and bringing the entire organic piece to life! I love how this is turning out and although I say that about almost every one of my pieces, its simply because I am as shocked as everyone else about the end result! I try really hard not to plan too much because I want to be able to adapt to kids bumping the table, pens running out on ink and even surprise sneezes.
Step 5: Putting in little details
Now is the time that you go back and add more details. These can be anything you want. Go wild.
Step 6: Finishing touches!
This is the point where you start from the center and erase all your pencil grid lines and start focusing in on every little detail. This can be as elaborate or simple as you want. That is the wonderful thing about mandalas. They truly change drastically, even with one detail. I will suggest that if you do something to one side, make sure you are consistent if you want it to look uniform. If your mandala is NOT symmetrical than disregard and have fun!
So, Now that you’ve seen the final product, let me know what you think! What would you have done differently? What do you like the most? Do you have any questions, comments, concerns or constructive criticism? Post them below and I will respond as quick as I can.
Often times I find a friend that appreciates my mandalas to ask what they see. This time I was pleasantly surprised to find that several of them saw a spinning flower. This mandala started out as something completely different. I wasn’t even sure which direction I wanted to go. With every passing moment, I saw this mandala morph into something magical and full of movement.
What you do you see when you see this mandala? Let me know in the comments below!
I have to start this blog by giving a shout out to all my fans and followers. The inspiration from you alone is enough to keep me going. I’m so blessed to be surrounded by such encouraging people. Thank you. I wanted to take a moment and tell you a little bit about why I do what I do and where I get my ideas from.
When I am relaxed, and feeling fun and carefree, I mostly draw my doodles. Now I think I do a great floral design, so mostly they stem from that, but I am inspired by the world around me. I watch a lot of YouTube videos and I there are several that I have loved being subscribed to, one of which is KC Doodle Art which you can find here. I hope to one day be bold enough to create videos of my progress, but I have yet to even look into the process. Nonetheless, I am inspired by the videos I see from artists just like me.
Another place I draw inspiration from are my children, who are on the notepad I keep at work, pictured above. I have several “children” that frequent my home that have been attached to me by my relationships. My fiance has 3 boys that are all above the age of 16, my ex-husband has a 16 yr old son, whom I took care of since he was 2, I have a soon to be 8-year-old daughter, and two little ones, a 2-year-old daughter and a 1-year-old son. Every single one of these children have blessed my life and helped me see things in a different perspective. I love spending time with them and I love who I am because of them. The child I find myself being most inspired by though is my oldest daughter. She and I draw, write, and see the world artistically. We were recently discussing a book, Complete This Drawing, that I received from Christmas and her ideas of the drawings were just so refreshing. If you don’t know much about the book, there are a lot of squiggles and some a little more detailed that you have to finish. We both laughed about what we saw in the squiggles as we flipped through the pages.
Another place I draw inspiration from is gaming. I am a veteran World of Warcraft player, as I have been playing for over 10 years. I usually shy away from tv as I feel like I need to be doing something at all times. To be honest, 90% of the time, if I stop to watch tv, I fall asleep. So looking at fan art and the vast world that has been created digitally, It inspires me to think outside the box. It inspires me to put things together, that I may not have previously thought of, such as flowers and tentacles, which happen to be my new favorite things to combine!
I say all of this to say this,
“Look at the beauty around you and always try to see something differently than the rest of the world”
Its like when you are looking up at the clouds to try to determine their shapes. It’s that type of creativity and open-mindedness that the world is lacking in today. So be different, see life differently and inspire others to do the same!
This was so much fun to draw! I love how it all came together in the end. I drew this one day over my 45 minute lunch time. This was very easy to complete within that time frame.
This mandala was completed on a 12×12 sheet of paper. Sometimes I try to bite off a little more than I can chew sometimes. With the amount of grid lines that I drew, this piece became way more detailed than I had originally planned and took over 8 hours to complete.
I do like the way that it finished up. I would love your opinion on this piece, let me know in the comments below!
I don’t really have much to say about these except that I tried a few different techniques while drawing them. I don’t have the exact dates when I finished them because it was over the weekend. So I will share them all with you now. The wonderful about each of these designs is that they are completely different and yet started with the same grids. Each of them developed in their own way and in the direction of my mood.
#1 
#2 
#3
Which one is your favorite? Let me know in the comments below.
What do you get for someone who you know loves dolphins and the color blue, but a dolphin mandala. I love being able to share these projects now that Christmas is over. I wanted to add some special details so I added a few metallic pens to just give a little life to the dolphin itself.
What do you think about the finished product? Let me know in the comments below.
This mandala was loosely based on Metatrons Cube from Sacred Geometry. Sacred Geometry is a very interesting topic as far as Mandalas go. There is way too much information for me to include in a single post, but that may be something I explore more in the future.
This mandala, specifically, was designed after Metatrons Cube, which is one of the vast designs within Sacred Geometry. Because it wasn’t perfectly measured out in the way it should be, I decided to name this one Sacred Mandala, because it is part of the Sacred Geometry shapes. It was one of my first attempts to create something from these shapes I have learned to love.
The fascinating thing about this is, I was drawing Sacred Geometry shapes before I knew that it was called that. I think it has to do with my sensitivity to the universe. I am naturally attracted to the mathematics created by our universe.
This mandala project was so fun to do. it took me over the course 3 days to plan and complete it, but I feel like it is one of my best pieces yet.
Those of you that have been following me may have noticed I have been MIA for a few days. The reason is because we lost my brothers wife tuesday night and we’ve been dealing with all of this.
I was working on this piece during my last conversation with her and when my brother called me in tears. Our family has been struck hard by loss with the passing of my grandmother Thursday morning as well.
I feel like this piece speaks wonders about each person is so complex and unique and yet we all entwine with those around us making each family a beautiful masterpiece.
One of the things that I have found that I really enjoy doing is mandalas. I love how they look more complicated than they were to draw. I love the design and I love how no two are alike. I hope you enjoy this simple mandala I did over lunchtime at work.
So what can I say about this except, my 2-year-old felt like I was doing it wrong? She, in all her glory, decided to “help” me with my project I had already spent 2 hours on. At the moment, in which I noticed, she looked up at me, pen in hand, proud of her accomplishments. Me, on the other hand, wanting to scream.
This teaches us all a lesson. Our kids watch us and want to mimic us. So make sure what you are teaching your kids, is how you want them to grow up. They will learn by example.
As this piece started to progress, I began to see the machine parts coming out of it. When it was done, I felt like a mechanical piece had snuck itself into my mandala. But I love the way it finished.
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