DIY Mandala Stones with tools you have at home

1. Introduction To Mandala Stone Art: Hello and welcome to this Skillshare class on how to create beautiful Mandala stones without using any professional tools. I am giving this class because I can vividly remember how I saw my first Mandala stone on Pinterest, and I just really wanted to create one myself, but I did not have any professional dotting tools yet, which artist normally use to create Mandala stones. But luckily, there is an easy way to try out the technique without spending any money or getting new tools. Today, I will show you how to create a beautiful yellow and blue Mandala Stone with using only tools that I have found in my home. Creating Mandala stones is the perfect way to relax, focus your mind, and be creative at the same time. Mandala stones combine two of my favorite things, Mandalas and Dot art. Mandalaz are great tools for meditation, increasing self-awareness, and to focus your attention. Many different cultures and religions around the world use Mandalas in their spiritual practice, such as in Buddhism and Hinduism. And it gets even better. Creating dot-art can also have a variety of benefits for you. The small size of the dots and of the stone, even when it has a rather large surface, forces you to be there, fully in the moment. It gets really difficult if you try to share your attention with something else, like somebody talking to you or listening to a podcast or audiobook. Freehand, non sketch dot Mandalas, which we will create today, are the best kind of Mandalas to practice and maintain a high level of consistency and accuracy. It all depends on you to maintain the size and the distance of the dots equally, to ensure it stays symmetrical. This art form is so much more than the end product. It's a meditative process and a way to express yourself. So please don't compare your work to others because that can even hinder your progress. And don't stress yourself about the outcome too much. Don't forget to breathe while you are at it, don't hold your breath. The calmer you breathe, the more relaxed you will be, and the more control you will have over your hand. First of all, we will discuss what materials you will need to create Mandala stones. After this, I will show you the basic dotting technique that you will also use to create your project. After this, we will dive deeper into the topic, what items you can find in your home to use as a stand-in for dotting tools. And lastly, we will start with our project and we will create a fun and easy Mandala stone together. So let's get started! 2. Materials For This Course: In this chapter, we will discuss what materials you will need for making Mandala stones. And what you will need to complete the project of this course. So first of all, you need to stone. The size and the shape of the stone don't matter too much. But painting on a smooth stone is much easier. If you don't have a stone then you can also paint on a canvas, on wood, or even simply on a piece of paper. When you paint on a large stone, you have the advantage, of course, of having more space to paint on. And we'll also be using a compass to measure the circular background of the Mandala, and a brush to apply paint onto that background. If you don't have a compass, you can also get the circle shape from a jar or from a small cup. Apart from that, you are going to need acrylic on multi-surface paint. I will use paint in four different colors for this project. I chose blue acrylic paint, which is called Prussian blue, And then this nice bright yellow, white paint from mixing the color and black paint for the background. But you can choose any colors that you like. And if you have it, acrylic medium to bring your paint into a nice flowing consistency. Otherwise, you can also use a few drops of water. The right consistency of your paint is one of the most important things when using the dotting technique. I will show you how to mix your paint properly in the coming chapters. And lastly, I will be using a little tray to pour the paint into and a damp cloth to wipe down the tools. And of course, you will need some tools to create the dots on the stone. In the next chapter, we will talk about those tools in detail. 3. Dotting Technique and Tools: So as you can see here a dot a mandala stone is made up of dots of many different sizes. To create a perfectly round dot, I normally use these so-called dotting tools, which I think you can also use for nail art and other craft projects. Mine look like this. They all have a round head in varying sizes which create differently sized dots. I will show you how it works. I have acrylic paint in the tray and I dip my dotting tool into it. Then I gently touch the surface with it. Don't press down too hard and try to hold the tool perpendicular. I will do it again. The same method you will use with the improvised tools. Here i have changed the pressure and angle and the dot size is a little bit off. And we don't want it. When I use the bigger tool, I will get a bigger size dot on the surface. I can also cheat a little bit and move the tool around to create a larger sized dot. After using the tools, I clean them on the damp cloth to get rid of any acrylic paint stuck to them. So when you look for items in your home that you can use instead of these dotting tools, you have to look for things that either has a pointed end, like a toothpick or like this knitting needle. Or items that are round and have a flat end, like this piece of wood. They both create great dots. Also something rounded like this cotton swab can create neat dots. I will show you what I have found in my house to create this project. I hope you will also find a few of these items in your house. I will start with the smaller items and then continue with the bigger ones. I will also create myself a list of the different sizes and try to organize them by size so I have a reference for my project. I advise you to do the same. The smallest dot I get with the knitting needle. As before, I dip the knitting needle into the paint and touch the paper with it. At leaves behind a tiny dot, which is maybe around one millimeter in size. A slightly bigger dot I can achieve with the pointed end of this small nail. This also leaves a tiny dot. Then the next biggest size I've found with this screw. This also looks fine. You can also use a sharpened pencil or the back end of the pencil, especially when they have this little erase on the end, as a dotting tool. I just didn't have a good one at home at the moment. Toothpicks also work great. You can even use sandpaper to make the tip smaller and more pointed. This one makes about the same size dot as the pencil. I really took a good look into my toolbox. As you can see, I am also using the tip of the screwdriver as a dotting tool. If you have any paint brushes at home, then you can also use the backside as a dotting tool. They often have either a pointed or a rounded end. I have three different brushes here, and they all give a differently sized dots. You can also use a cotton swab. They give a rather large dot, but you have to make sure to only use them once or twice before you have to use a new one. Because the cotton doesn't like to stay in the same shape. The shape is pretty good, but I will just redo the middle part of the dot again, just adding some more paint. We can also remove all the cotton and use the shaft of the cotton swap as a smaller dotting tool by the way. The next one is the same screwdriver as before, but this time I'm using its back site. Even though it has this little marking in the middle, it we give a really nice dot. that normally works really well for me, but this one came out a little bit messy. I smushed it when I raise the screwdriver. I'll just do this one again. This one is much better. Then I will use the back of this screw. Even though it has this cross-matching in the middle, it gives a really nice dot. This is about the same size as the last dot I would say. And the last one, my biggest dotting tool, it is this big wooden block. I have no idea what this was actually for, but it's perfect for dotting. This one has a flat surface. So now my list is finished. I will give all the different dotting tool sizes a number, so I know which ones to use when. You can also mark your tools with a piece of tape and write the number on it, so you don't mix them up. Just try all your possibilities out, check their sizes, and see what works well for you. I have 13 different sizes in the list, but I'm not going to use them for my project. Also, some have a really similar size. Out of the 13, I chose eight different ones. As dotting tool for this project, I chose the knitting needle, the screwdriver from both sides, a toothpick, and the backside of all three brushes. Before we can start using them, you have to prepare the background of the stone, which we are going to do in the next chapter. 4. Background Preparation: Before we start using the dotting tool is I will paint a black circle as the background of my Mandala. You can also use a different color or you can leave the background natural. I normally choose a black circle as the background because that makes the colors of the dots stand out more. And it emphasized the symmetrical pattern of the Mandala, and also helps me with the consistency of the design because I have the circular shape to orientate myself on, while painting. As I said before, I'm going to use a compass to get the circle shape onto the stones. Check how much space you have on your stone and choose the size accordingly. My circle is 3.5 centimeters in diameter. I prefer it when you can still see the natural stone, when the design is finished, so I'm not using the whole surface of the stone, but maybe about 80 percent of the upper site. If you find it too difficult to use the compass on the uneven surface, you can also make yourself a little stencil from a piece of paper, like this one, and poke a hole through the middle point. You can use this paper as the stencil and paint around it while holding it onto the stone. That might be a little easier for you. Now I would fill out the circle with black paint. As I said before, you can also use a different color, but a darker color makes to colors of the dots pop out more. Only apply a thin layer and make sure that the paint doesn't build up, especially towards the edges. Make sure that you can't see the stone underneath the paint anymore. Otherwise, you can apply another thin layer. Then you have to let the paint dry fully before you can continue. That can take between a couple of minutes and half an hour, depending on the outside conditions and how thick you have applied your paint. While we wait for a background to dry, I will show you how to mix your paint into the right consistency so we can use it for our project. 5. Paint Mixing: In this chapter, I will show you how to mix your paint into the right color and consistency for dotting. I already have my yellow color in the tray that has a good consistency already. And I'm going to mix the Prussian blue with white paint to make it lighter. The whitee paint has a good consistency already, but the blue paint is very, very dense. You can tell because it does not lose its shape at all. So I will have to add acrylic medium or water to it to thin down the paint. I will mix all of this up with a toothpick. When you paint is too thick, it is really difficult to make nice uniform dots. The best paint consistency in my experience, has the texture of buttermilk. If it leaves behind a spiky middle, then you know that you need to add medium to it to thin it down. I want my color to be a little darker, so I will add some more blue paint. Okay, now this is nicely mixed. I can test the paint consistency with the toothpick also. That looks fine. Nice. In the next chapter, I will finally use my home made dotting tools to dot the Mandala onto the circle. 6. Dotting the Mandala Design: I have waited maybe about ten minutes for the background to dry. And now I will mark the middle point with the pencil. So I know my to start. As a reminder, I chose the knitting needle, to the screwdriver from both sides, the toothpick and the backside of all three brushes as dotting tools. If you want to follow my lead closly on the design, it would be ideal to have seven different sizes as dotting tools also, the smallest one is about one millimeter, the biggest one about six millimeters in size. You can also improvise and move the dotting tool around to get a bigger dot as I have shown you in the third chapter. I will begin with a large dot in the middle of the background. Mandalas normally start in the center and then radiate outwards. For this, I will start with the backside of the screwdriver. This is the largest dotting tool I chose for this design. I dip it into the paint like this. Half of the head is covered. And now I gently touched the surface in the middle of the background. where my pencil marking is located, that is my center point. Your big dots should always look like this. Either completely flat, or like here with this little round mountain in the middle. That will dry out flat. When you have a spike in the middle, that tells you that your paint is too thick. For me, getting the center dot right is the most difficult part of the mandala. If you want to try again, you can take a damp cotton swab and remove the paint of the dot completely. That is only possible though when the paint is still wet. Or you can use the same color as your background and cover up the dot. But keep in mind, don't stress about it too much and try not to be a perfectionist, especially when this is your first Mandela stone. I'm quite happy with the middle dot, so now I will start with my first row of dots. In total, I am planning to create seven rows. I want to create 16 dots around the center dot. If you center dot is smaller, you can also create only eight dots. Now, I will show you an easy technique how to stay perfectly symmetrical without using any guidelines. I'm using my smallest dotting tool, the scrwdriver and dip it into yellow paint. The first dot, a place on any sides close to the center dot. Then I take new paint onto the needle and place the next dot on the opposite side of the middle dot. Like this, just eyeball it. The third one goes exactly in the space between these dots. And the fourth one on its opposite side, like south, north, east and west. Now we have a kind of grid laid out. On this grid, we will orientate our whole designer on. The next four dots go in-between the first four dots. They always have a dot on the opposite side of the center dot. Always take new paint onto the tool and wipe it in-between dotting on the damp cloth so the paint won´t built up. If you have space between the dots like I do, you can place another eight dots in the spaces between these dots. Like I am doing know. When you are not happy with a dot, you can wipe it away with the cotton swab. Or when the dot is a little too small, you can simply go over it to make it look a little bigger. Now my first and most important row of dots is laid out. For the second row, I will use the toothpick and the same blue color as before. I will again create 16 dots. If you have started out with only eight dots, then you will also only create 8 dots right now. There's an easy technique when you are creating a dot Mandela. And you want your dots to look really densely placed. And you want to keep the same symmetry that we have established with the first row. For that, I dip the toothpick into the paint and place the dots in-between and above the dots of the first row. So you don't place a new dot above the yellow dot in a straight line, but in the middle of two yellow dots, like this. Places this row as closely as possible to the previous row. Like this, you keep the same number of dots as before. The further you get away from the center, the more space you have. So you can use a bigger dot size because the radius of the dotted circle increases. Don't forget to clean your dotting tool in between. The third row, I will dot with the same technique. I will use blue paint, but I will mix a small amount of white paint into it to make the tone a little lighter. This time, I'm going to use the screwdriver again, but I'm going to use the top end of it to create these dots. I'm dotting the same amount dots as before. Every dot goes into the next row, and exactly in the middle of two dots of the second row. Now I want the blue to be an even lighter tint, so I add more white into it. And I'm going to use my smallest brush and you guessed it, I'm creating 16 dots again. Now you can clearly see the little ombre effect with the blue paint. This next row we are going to mix up a little bit. I add some more white again. And with the end of the bigger brush, I am creating a 8 dots this time, not 16. Always one between two dots. And then I will leave one out. When you have eight dots in your first row, then you will create only four dots right now. So now we have these gaps in between the blue dots. We are going to fill them with the same dot size but this time with yellow paint. Make sure to clean your tool property and then add the eight remaining dots. For the next row of dots, my sixth row, I will go back to the 16 dots scheme. With the bigger end of the brush and light blue, I will place the 16 dots as before, above and in-between the dots of the previous row. Now my background is nearly filled up. This row is going to be my last row. We are going to try something new for this one. So first with the same blue tone and the dotting tool that we used first, the end of the screwdriver, I dot eight dots in between every second dot as we did before. The dots can be on the background or on the stone. That depends how big your background and your stone is. Mine are about 1 third on the stone, the rest is on the background. The remaining gaps, we'll not filled with regular dots, but with drop shapes. Before I show you how to do that, I will mix a little bit of blue paint into the remaining paint to make it darker. So we have a little bit more contrast. So what I will do now, I will first add a normal dot with the back of the screwdriver again. And then I'll take he knitting needle, my smallest dotting tool and then I drag the paint down coming from the middle of the dot, into a spike. I drag it in the space between two dots of the previous row. Then I make the edges a little bit more rounded here to form a drop shape. You can also try this technique on a piece of paper first to practice. I'll show you again. First I create the dot and then drag it down into a little spike. And then I round the edges. I will use the same technique for the remaining gaps. Now the base of your mandala stone is finished. If you want, you can add some details to make it look even more interesting. For this, we first need to let the paint dry before we can continue. Like that if you make a mistake now, you can easily erase it with a damn cotton swab without destroying the design. So you can take a small break and come back for the final chapter to finish your Mandala stone. 7. Details and Highlights: Now that the Mandala has try it, I will add some small dots with the white paint. Only do this when you feel comfortable with it. Because now the dots are going to be very, very tiny and it's going to be a little bit more difficult. I start out with the knitting needle needed again, and I add some small dots in between the blue dots of the fourth row. The spaces between the first, second and third row are too small to do this. I add a dot on the upper side inbetween two dots of this row. This technique will make the mandala look more complete and the design will look tighter even when the dots in this row are not position that close together. In the fifth row, I create two dots in between the yellow and the blue dots. One on the upper side and one on the lower. Stacked over each other. Same I do with the next row, but only between every second dot. The other spaces should be occupied by the tails of the drops. Now I will show you another intermediate technique you can easily do with improvised dotting tools also. I take this smallest brush tip and add a so-called double dot in white paint onto the large yellow dots in the fifth row. For this, you have to take a smaller dotting tool than the base dot size and add a second layer in a different color onto it. I will place the top dot right in the middle of the yellow dot. Like this. You can use the double-dot technique to highlight a certain part of your painting, to make it look more interesting and to give it a little bit of a 3D effect. I also add top dots in white onto the 8 drops in the last row. For this, I use the biggest brush size. The other dots in the last row get a top dot in the darker blue shade. I spilled some paint here So I quickly wipe it away with a wet cotton swab, as I told you in the previous chapters. I think the large blue dots of the last row to look a little bit plain, so I decided to give them a kind of outline with some smaller white dots. I use the smallest brush and the toothpick for that. First, I add two dots on the upper side of the blue dots right next to each other. Then I used the toothpick to create two small dots above these dots in a straight line. And then I do the same down the left and right side of the blue dots. Now, our first Mandala stone is finished. You can just set it aside for now and let it dry. If you want, you can seal your stone with one or two layers of protective varnish, especially if you want to keep it outside. But you can also leave it as it is. That's what I'm going to do. 8. Outro: Congratulations, you have made it to the end of this class. I hope you have found well working dotting tools and you are inspired to continue with dot mandalas. You can use the techniques you have learned in this course to create your own unique mandala designs. For some more inspiration, make sure to check out my Instagram. It was really nice working with you and I hope you had fun. For more mandala ideas and tips, make sure to check out my other course on Skillshare. I see you there.