Drawing Mandalas (Easy, Fun, & Creative Art to De-Stress Yourself)

1. Introduction: Hi, I'm Katie. And today I'm going to teach how to draw Mandala. So for one year I lived in India and I tried to spend 30 to 60 minutes a day doing some kind of reflective or meditative practice. And the thing that I came up with that felt the most natural was drawing them dollars. And so everyday I would sit down at the end of the afternoon and drama dollars. And I'd like to share this with you as a reflective, meditative or almost like an art therapy practice. So a little bit of background on $1 you can say mandala or a Mondo Le. It's a Sanskrit word that means circle and an Indian culture and religion. It has come to be thought of as the universe. It is a visual representation of the universe. And so whatever you're thinking and feeling will come out on the page, and it will be what you're universes for the day. So I'd like to get started by showing you one of the techniques that I use. Because mandalas are circles, I find it really helpful to draw them on square paper. And so most paper that we have laying around his rectangular on the computer people are, and I'd like to show you how I make that into a square. So here I have a rectangular piece of paper. The easiest way to turn it into a square is to take the one corner and fold it down so that it touches the other side of the paper and you have kind of a perfect triangle at the top, and if you fooled it inside, those two triangles will make your square. I will see scissors and cut the edge off, and now when I open it up, I have a perfect square that I could put my mandala inside. Now I like to use the full deadlines for measuring, so I'll continue to make some folds in this paper. This is a particularly helpful practice if it's your first time making a mandala and I'll do four different folds. So it's going from every single way that you can fold the paper and and then I have all these nice lines on my paper that conserves a guy so that I don't have to worry about using the ruler or measuring when im drying woman dollar 2. Class Project : So after my year in India, I realized that I was gonna need some kind of transition Before I came home to the States. I'm from New York. So I rode my bicycle 1000 miles from northern Europe to southern Europe, from Amsterdam to Barcelona. And I had collected these mandalas because I have been drawing one a day for over a year. And on this journey, whatever I'm at someone who was kind to me or help me out or did something nice, I gave them a mandala. And so your class project is to create a medulla and then to make someone's day by giving it away. 3. Sketching & Measurement: so in this chapter will talk about sketching and measurement. Now I generally like to sketch with a pencil, and I also like to turn my paper around as I'm drawing. It helps me make the shape the same exact way each time I make it. But for the purposes of this video, I'm drying on a vertical surface instead of a horizontal surface on, I'm going to use a thick marker so that you can see it really well in the video. Now when we talk about measuring, some people like to use a compass or ruler so they can have, like, perfect circles and perfect line. I think there's a lot to be said for the imperfection, all of the circle and the lines that you could draw with your hand. I think it says a lot about what you're feeling, and I think it's a more exact expression of yourself on the paper as opposed to being really like mathematical with tools. And so, like we talked about in the last chapter, you can fold your paper in a way that gives you got lines to guide you. Sometimes I do this in a pencil, just sort of quickly sketching them FREEHAND and then I'll erase them afterwards. But for now, let's get started. So one of the techniques that I really like to use when im drying Malala's it is I make dots at approximations so that all of my images can look the same. So, for example, if I want to use these lines to create some pedals, I'm gonna measure out about two inches in the middle of each of these segments, and that's gonna be the ending point. For the sake of me, you can see it kind of looks like a circle. Now I really love leave like shapes that you see in nature. And so that's what I'm gonna do for the inside of this first can see how the whole of the paper really help guide this, be it. What is that? But so that it looks like now it doesn't have to be perfect. I particularly like the imperfections, but you're welcome to use pencil and race and go back over. I'm gonna show you another way that I like to measure with the dogs. Um, sometimes I have an idea of the Sheikh, but I'm going to draw and sometimes I don't. And so, using dots measurement workings really help. Sort of inspire what I'm gonna dio. So here I'm just gonna use this first thought connect. Well, hopefully be similar sized arcs behind the puddles. And then I think I'm going to use the next one to create pedals over the ark's. 4. Types: So there are two different types of Mandela's that I'd like to focus on with you today. The first starts in the middle and grows outward. Another kind of model that you can think about making is where designs live within rings. And this is another traditional style. I'm just going to use a different part of the paper, but you can use whatever you like. So lots of minerals have designed, but just live inside of concentric rings. They don't expand little. And this is my example. Inside each of these reigns you could create a design. I'm gonna show you what I mean. Another thing that you could dio is choose some kind off texture and use that inside one of the rings. I'm gonna show you what I mean by that. Now I like weaving patterns. And so, by starting with something simple, I can then turn it into what will look like woven pattern 5. Shape Repetition: So the beauty of a Mandela is that every part of it that goes around in a circle is some kind of shape that's repeating, and sometimes you might make a shape that you don't really like. But trust me, if you continue it all the way around the circle, it won't look as bad as you thought. And oftentimes, the way that it connects to itself create some kind of cool pattern and shape. Let me show you what I mean. Let's say I was drawing and I came up with some kind of monkey roundish uh, turned design that wasn't a symmetrical for its. OK, I'm just gonna go with it again. I was doing the horizontal surface I would be supporting. My people are pounds now. Here I have it all the way. What can I do now? I see that I've created movement. I see that the shapes are turning around and it looks like this is now well, so let's see what else I could do to make this have some more movement. And to go with this seemingly incongruous shape that I've created, the more that you add to design less, you'll see the imperfections and the more Morial see it as one fine opposed to lots of small designs put together 6. Tracing & Line Thickness: Now we'll talk about tracing in line. I particularly like using fine black pens at all different millimeters of thickness. I find that using really, really fine ones give me textures in the background on a softness. And when they're aspects that I really want a highlight or that I really like, I'll use a thicker pen to go over it or color then or did you some kind of shaving inside? So let me show you what I up here. I've created a very simple medulla. It has nothing inside of it. It's just sort of a skeleton. And I'm gonna use just this black marker to create different thicknesses and to show you the beauty of having more than one thing. That's a line. So I really like the middle flower that's four and four, and I did. So I'm gonna highlight that right now with my men, despite going over the outside of it. This also sort of helps me define the shape of it, and it lets me sort of get rid of any imperfections like so, if I had measurement thoughts that were kind of in the way, I could use this technique that so Now that I have that highlighted in the middle, it really pops out, and I think I'm going to use. Some were using different lines to create some more texture. If I was doing this really small, I would make these lines with my very fine pens that it was almost indistinguishable and kind of even like a shadow as an outline. 7. Patterns & Background: I'm a big fan of sort of sketching out your whole mandala and then going back in when you're sort of already in this, like, meditative drawing state and letting your mind just sort of wander as you repeat a pattern . And so let me show you what I mean about this. This is our medulla. I'm just in a sketch it with one something that can really make The standout is adding patterns or texture to the background. And so one thing that you could dio is divide your shapes kind of water. Something else that I like to do is repeat of shape inside of himself, sort of as dimension. I know I'm doing this very fast. I would do this much lower. I was doing this smaller and just for myself and not for demonstration, but for this purpose. I just want to show you another thing that I like to do, and I'm just going to do one of them is used off, and so sometimes I like to do a lot of dots and then sort of let it dressed open, and this can create a really nice, effective movement or a change 8. Layering & Weaving: so layering and leaving is another technique that I've been practicing. And this is also when I'm meditating and sort of reflecting into the dry. It sort of helps me at some kind of like continuity. And so let me show you what I mean. Instead of having shapes just grow out of each other, you can have them go behind each other. So sometimes I like to do what kind of words like pattern that will really go under or behind one of the designs. And then just to, like, reinforce it. I'll pre So there's this idea of it, our existing in another, okay? 9. Finishing Touches: So now that we've talked about all of the major techniques of drawing a mandala, it's important to think about your finishing touches. Finishing touches like little dots or swirls can just add such a difference. Let me show you what I mean. Adding a little swirl right here, maybe even a little bubble or seedpods can help give movement in a sense of finishing toe. Abdullah. I'm also a really big fan of Goths and in traditional mandalas that you would find these a lot. Well, I particularly like, um, points. They emphasize the point. They make it feel tighter, and they also add this idea that I could keep going, but it's like exploding Albert. 10. Color: so in this section will talk about color. You know, I like to draw in black and white most of the time, but I go through phases where I like to draw on color. And since it takes a long time, I thought I would show you up close describing different techniques of using color. I generally use the pen tell markers, but I also use colored pens. And so in this one, you can see that I've layered colors, putting them on top of each other in that spiral, going around kind of like a snail shell in the middle. There's all different tans and graze, and then on the outer rings, the yellow and orange. I use different shades of the same color. And so this is another technique you can use to sort of add depth to your mandalas. Something else I like to do is pointillism. We talked about this a little before, where I was making dots with the black marker, but you can also do it with different shades of colors. Um, this is sort of looking like the ocean and an octopus, and it's the phases of the moon. So I made this one early on over a year ago. But I spent a lot of time thinking about color and trying to make the colors blend into each other on those wave like, uh, swirls. Here's another example of using color. Do you see the gray where there's like cross hatching in the background of the shape? That's another way that you can add texture and put a pattern in by just using kind of like a soft color like light gray. Um, and this one also has the pointillism towards the middle on the pedals. So recently I've gotten into using waterproof or fade proof pens and then water coloring over them. You can also watercolor, and then, when it dries, draw over it with pen and by using the waterproof or fade proof depends, you ensure that there'll be no bleeding. This was a collaboration with my best friend, where she color, she water colored, and then I went over it with a pen. Once it was dry here, I just wanted to show you a simple progression off, going from the black and white drawing that I was adding in some sort of texture and pattern and shadow with different chains of Gray. And then I added some color in just blues and greens at the end. And so if you were wondering kind of what that looks like, here's an example. 11. Inspiration: so everyone needs a little inspiration. Sometimes there's nothing wrong with that. I suggest going on instagram or even doing a simple Google search for Mandela's and finding people you like who make them or just finding ideas of different shapes that you see. Uh, something to note, though, is that this practice is really just for you and so trying to copy someone else's designs. First of all, it's never gonna look exactly the way they do it. Second of all, it's really not going to be yours. It's not gonna be from you. And so I think it's great to look and get ideas. I do it often, but then put it away, turn it off and just like your emotions and ideas. 12. Conclusion: thank you so much for taking the house with May. It is really my joy and pleasure to share man dollar making with everyone I meet. Wherever I go, I host workshops. I do informal sessions in my apartment and I thought that this would be a really lovely way to share that with you and even maybe, have this inspire you to use it as a form of meditation, self reflection or a kind of our therapy. I look forward to seeing all of your designs in the class gallery. I'm sure lemon dollars that you make will be unique to you and really exciting for me to see. And please remember that part of your class project is to give it away, make someone's day, make them feel special. Share this gift. Thank you.