In today's blog post, I am sharing one of my favourite ways to create a mandala design. I find them really relaxing to do and they can make lovely additions to your journal pages.
Start off by using a compass to draw a circle on your page. Then, move the point of your compass to anywhere on that circle. Use your compass to draw an arc from one edge of the circle to the other.
Now move the point of your compass to where your first arc meets the outside of the circle and draw another arc. Keep doing this until you have a full set or arcs, looking like petals, filling up your circle.
Finish off by using your compass to draw some smaller circles inside the first circle. You'll be able to see this more clearly when I move on to using ink further down this blog post.
If you are looking for more mandala examples, you can find plenty in my first book here. I give lots of different decorative examples too.
The next step is to ink in your mandala shape. I am using a Steadtler pigment liner as I wanted to make sure my ink would be waterproof.
You can draw in each of the circles all the way around, or leave some incomplete as they run through the petal shapes.
Once the mandala is fully completed in ink, you can start to add colour. I used my watercolour set from Artistro. I decided to stick to blue colours, but you could pick any that you like. For a fun effect, I also added some paint splashes around the outside.
I also decided to add a circle of gold paint to give some contrast to my piece. You can really have fun picking out different colours for each mandala you create.
The final fun step is adding doodles and decorative elements on the top. I'm using paint pens from Artistro as they show up really well on top of watercolour.
If you would like to follow along with a video tutorial, you can watch it down below:
*Some of the links contained within this blog post are affiliate links. This means that I earn a small commission if you choose to make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
I do hope you've enjoyed this tutorial and that you will have a go at creating some mandalas of your own. I love cutting them out and adding them to my journal pages, or for using as birthday cards. Happy creating, Helen x