Free Handing a Mandala

 

Back in 2013 - that's a long time ago! - I made a couple posts about free hand drawing a mandala. I came across the art journal that holds several of these a few days ago and thought this might be a good time to give this another go. The one you see above is my favorite! Let me walk you through how you can make a similar mandala in your own style. 

I learned this technique from a couple different people and places. I was taking a class on Twinkling H2O paints taught by Dion Dior. She used a free hand mandala in one of the early classes. I also checked on YouTube and found several tutorials. What I am showing you in this post is a combination of all those, not any one in particular. This mandala was the the fourth or fifth one I had drawn. I was still at the point where I was having trouble thinking which little line or squiggle to make next, so I made a chart in my notebook with little sample lines and squiggles. A reference for when I ran out of ideas. 

I would consider color a vital part of a mandala. Of course, I am all about color, so that doesn't necessarily mean a whole lot, hahahaha! When I do use color, I like to lay the color down first. Sometimes it makes a difference in the design I draw. For this particular one, I used simple watercolor pans from the school supply section at Walmart. You can still get beautiful color from lesser expensive products. 

Right about here I realized I didn't take any photos of what I am about to describe. So, I stopped and made a new background for you. Use a good heavy paper that can handle water. I was using my Stillman & Birn Zeta sketchbook. It handles water and color manipulation great! I used a large paintbrush (3/4" wide) and coated the page liberally with water. Then I took the watercolors and with that same large paintbrush I dabbed down color here and there. You can stroke, you can dab, you can splatter, whatever you prefer. Just get 2-3-4 colors that work well together onto the wet paper and let them start mixing. 

This is an excellent example showing how the colors will feather and bleed when you have the right amount of wetness present. Let them spread and mix.

I used four colors. Hahaha! My original post says "I can honestly say I've never used red before. Like ever." Hahahaha! I went for it anyway and used red. If you see you aren't getting enough mixing and feathering, spritz a little more water over the top and wait a few seconds. 

Then, to mix things up even more, tilt your paper to one side and let the colors run. Watch out that they don't get muddy on you. If that starts to happen, tilt your paper in another direction. Or blot with a paper towel. 

Once you get some results you can live with, stop. I love that water line around the left and bottom edge where all the colors ran together. But I thought it a little heavy, so I lightly touched it with the corner of a paper towel and wicked off a tiny bit of the water.

There were a couple areas where I had pooled water that I didn't want to turn into mud, so I lightly dipped the edge of a paper towel along the places and wicked up some color. I like the white lines it laid down, giving some new texture to the background. This doesn't always happen, but it did this time and I liked it. 

And here is the completed background. I just left it sitting on the table to dry. Make sure it is completely dry before you move on. 

Pretend this a picture of my beautiful background. (Because I did this backwards, but it still works.) Before drawing your mandala - start in the center with a dot, or a circle or spiral. Something to pinpoint your center from which you will build the mandala. To help stay on track, make small pencil marks towards the edges of your paper to mark the center point on each side - top, bottom, left and right. This gives you a direction to draw your designs towards, to keep everything straight and somewhat proportional. 

From your central point, draw four lines of equal length like you see in this photo. 

Then draw four adjacent lines. These lines can be any length you want, All lines can be the same length, or the main lines can be longer, or the adjacent lines can be longer. I've done this all ways, but the four main lines all need to be one length and the four adjacent lines all need to be one length. Now, back to my planned mandala.

From those eight central lines, start laying in some patterns. Some designs, some swirls, some triangles, some brackets, some circles, anything works. Just remember what you draw on one line, draw it on all the other like lines. Main lines all get the same design, adjacent lines all get their design. Sometimes you may use that one design on all eight lines, like I did here using betweed inside all eight lines, and the pink brackets connecting all the lines. My brackets are not perfect and they are not all exactly alike, but that is part of the charm in free handing. 

Keep drawing, and adding, until you feel like your mandala is complete. Then, if you want to add more color - feel free. This one's details were colored with twinkling H2Os, but I also like At You Spica pens from Tsukineko and Wink of Stella pens.

If you notice that your color product has covered up some of the black ink lines, you can simply go over the lines with more black ink. Then finish up your mandala like you would any tile you may draw. Add some highlights and some shading. 

This is so much fun to do and easy, too! The hardest part for me is deciding which little lines and squiggles to use. I hope you will give it a try for yourself. I think I will make another one!