Friday 22 March 2013

how to draw a mandala...


Colouring mandalas is a fun & relaxing way to spend an afternoon (or morning) & it doesn't matter if you are a child, a grandparent or any age in between. You can buy colouring books, or find designs on the net.....or you can draw your own - it's pretty easy & lots of fun...


Supplies needed: Paper (square is good, but you could just draw a square on regular paper), lead pencil, compass, ruler, eraser, black pen (I use a really fine (0.1) pigment liner), colour pencils


1. First you need to draw you guidelines - draw a line (in pencil) from corner to corner, making an 'X'. Find the middle of your page top, bottom & sides & draw a line from top to bottom, then across the page, making a cross (make sure to go through the centre of the X). 
2. Open your compass to half the width you want your finished mandala to be, place the point in the middle (where the lines meet) & draw your circle.
3. Start drawing! Begin in the centre & work outwards, until the tips of the last layer are touching the circle.
4. Once you are happy with the design, go over the outline with the black liner - you need to decide whether or not you want the circle to be part of you design, if you do, mark that in black too.
5. Give the pen a minute to dry (just in case), then gently erase the guidelines & anything else you don't want.
6. Now for the fun bit - start colouring! You can use any colour combo you like, as you can see, I'm rather partial to rainbow colours...


The method above will give you a four or eight point (in each layer) mandala - if you would like a six or twelve pointed one instead, here's what to do: Draw a circle on your page & without closing the compass, mark a spot on the edge. Put the point of the compass on the mark & mark wherever the compass reaches - repeat until you have six evenly space marks. If you want twelve, close the compass half way & draw in between the marks you already have. Join the opposite points & proceed as usual.


As you can see, the possibilities are endless (most of the mandalas below are eight point, the one in the top right corner is a twelve point). If you'd like to colour your mandala more than once, just scan or photocopy it first. It would be lots of fun to give a group of people the same mandala outline & see what they come up with.


Have fun....


No comments:

Post a Comment