When I was drawing this mandala, I thought I made it too simple. There weren’t enough layers and the design elements weren’t busy enough to make it a good coloring mandala.
But looking at it now, I think it turned out really well. I like how pieces of each layer layover into the next. And there are a lot of different pieces to color, which I didn’t see at first glance.
The first layer is a bit busy, with all the lines crowding to an almost black ring, but overall I’m happy with the design.
I’m happy with the way this mandala turned out. I wanted a leaf/floral/nature pattern and I think I incorporated some of those design elements nicely.
This mandala also looks complete, in contrast to some of my other recent mandalas. I might even color this one to see what it looks like. I think some of the design elements get lost in the black and white line version.
This mandala suffers a bit from my short attention span. I did well with the inner layers, but couldn’t decide what to do for the outer layers of the design, so I think it ends up looking incomplete.
I was trying for a Southwest/Nazca/Native American feel, and I think I accomplished that with some of the layers. Even though I don’t love every element of the design, I do feel my skills are getting better.
Again, more experimentation with variations of shapes, rather than the more traditional circular mandalas. I think I started off thinking about a feather motif and then it morphed into more leaves and flowers.
That’s all part of the process, I think. Getting into the feel and flow of creating the mandala, rather than being focused on forcing into something preconceived.
I haven’t actually drawn one just for fun in a while, as I’ve been concentrating on producing ones for a coloring book. I think I need to draw a couple that are just for fun – find my mandala mojo again!
