Paint an Easy Watercolor Mandala

1. Introduction : Hello and welcome to this fun watercolor tutorial on painting a medulla. That's the closest thing I could think of to describe what we're doing here, It's basically a circle with a repeating pattern inside. It's really meditative. And this is almost just like a fill in the colors kind of thing. I am going to show you how to sketch out the Mandela design, the projects and resources. I actually have three options for you. If you wanna do something a little bit different, you can also trace it if you aren't feeling like drawing it with me today, but we are going to sketch it together. Then we're going to paint all in one color today. I'm choosing blue because it's really meditative and relaxing, but choose any color you want. This is meant to be a fun, short Skillshare class. I know a lot of my classes are a bit longer, so I wanted to bring you something that you could just do on the weekends or after a hard day at work if you're just looking to relax and just have a little bit of fun painting. That's what this class is for today. You'll need a few supplies. The first thing you'll need is a pencil. I like to use a pencil that has an h in it. That means that the LED is going to be a little bit harder. And I'm going to sketch as lightly as possible. I have a, I'm also using a watercolor block, but if you're not using a watercolor block, please make sure to tape your paper down with something like masking tape onto your surface so that your paper doesn't buckle because we are going to be using a lot of water today. I have two water cups here. If you've ever painted with me before, you know, I like to use 21 for cool tones and one for warm tones. It just keeps our colors really vibrant. Today we're actually only going to be painting with one color. So I'm just going to use one of these to rinse off my brush. But really, if you're using one color, you only need one water dish. And then finally, you're just going to need your paints. We are using only one color. So if you have a small dish that you want to put your paint in, that'll work just fine. We're keeping this really simple and fun and relaxing today. So let's get started. 2. Class Project: For our class project, you're going to be painting along with me today. And I would love to see what you create. So please post your end result, just snap a photo and upload it to the class project section. Also feel free to create your own design. I love to see those. This is all about just relaxing and having a good time. So I know you'll be painting with me and I would just love to see what you create. So please post that in the project section. 3. Sketching The Mandala : The first thing we need to do is sketch out our design. And like I said in the project and resources section, if you guys don't feel like sketching today, you can go ahead and print out any of those options. We're gonna be using option number one as our main thing that we're gonna do. But you don't have to do the same design as me. Feel free also to sketch out something different if you don't want to follow along. But I am going to be sketching option one. You have the option to trace it to if that's easier. So just print out that sheet that I provided for you. And you can hold your watercolor paper up to a window and with the design behind it and just lightly trace it with pencil. If you're following along with me and sketching it, grabs something that's circular. This is my favorite salad bowl. That's what we're going to use today, are what I'm going to use. And just lightly trace around it because we need that circle as our bounding box for this design. Okay, perfect. Now, one thing I actually forgot to mention, you are going to need a ruler. We're going to take our ruler and we're going to divide this into four quadrants. And the reason we want to do that is because we want symmetry here. And it's easier to get that when you know where to put things. I'm gonna go ahead and measure this circle and it looks like it's measure your circle to, it's gonna be a different size than mine. It looks like it's about seven and a quarter. So I'm gonna go right over 3.5 here. And I'm going to do the same thing this way. Funny, this was actually bigger. I feel like that's not a perfect circle then. Well, I'm not here to figure out maths. Then just doing this is probably. So I'm gonna make a very light line here. And a very light line here. We're not looking for perfection. We have our four quadrants. And now what we're gonna do is we're going to put the same thing in every quadrant and then we're just going to fill in some of these areas a way that you could, if you don't want to follow along with my sketch, you could gather inspiration from places like Pinterest or maybe you traveled and you've seen some patterns. Italian pottery is usually a really good inspiration place. Or I know we have this tile in our bathroom that kinda looks Mediterranean. That's another way to get inspiration or just follow along with me. The first thing I'm gonna do is make a circle in the middle here. Then I want to do some leaves that are coming on around here. They have a little edge. Then I'm making this white or center, but I'm making it with a space because that's going to come in handy when we're painting. It just looks really cool. Then I'm gonna do a dot over here and a dot over here. And I'm going to repeat that same thing all the way around here. Now, if you guys use Procreate, you can do Assisted Drawing and do a quadrant. And you're able to do this in Procreate so easily. Because when you draw here, it's going to do the same design all the way around. If you ever wanna do this yourself. That's actually how I made the prints that I have for you guys. That I'm going to sorry. I'm going around and I'm doing that same design. It's not gonna be perfect. That's okay. I shouldn't make a shirt that says that because I say that all the time. But just try to get it as close to possible. We're doing the same leaf design with this cutout center. And then we are going to do that same circle over here. We have it over here, and over here, and over here. Okay? Then let's put, let's see, another leaf, but maybe just three over here. And like a little teardrop, kind of. Then we're going to put something in the middle right here. And we're gonna put this on all four quadrants. I don't know if you guys have ever painted. And now we're just going to repeat this everywhere. I don't know if you guys have ever done the Greek tiles painting them. But this definitely reminds me of it. Very similar. Just making that leaf shape. If you're feeling frustrated, feel free to trace the options that I left you in the projects and resources. Okay, we got all those. And now I wanna make, I'm gonna do a circle. And then kind of like these little teardrops. And I'm just repeating that everywhere. It's kinda relaxing to do stuff like this. I mean, at least I think it is. And I think I'm gonna do a circle, circle, circle. Then I'm going to do that leaf one more time. That's kind of our main design focus. I usually like to pick something that's the main thing, whether it's like a flower or a leaf. And then do smaller elements around that. It really works your brain to, to think of something in this way. Now, I think I want to do like a swirly design. Just making a swirl and then making sure I'm repeating it. But like flipped. See I could tell over here. It's not perfect because this is hitting too far down. So I'll make my swirly. Then I have to redo this guy a little bit. There we go. And then one down here. And then let's do just like these little bars. I don't know what you would call that. I just want to add something in here. Okay. I think this looks good. I'm going to put a circle here and the circle here. And maybe one over here and one over here. Alright, now i've, I drew mine pretty dark so that you guys have to be able to see it. I'm I'm gonna be using a pretty vibrant blue will be good here. We don't have to worry about it being too dark, but if you are finding that it's too dark, grab, if you want to use a lighter color to paint, grab your magic eraser. I'm in like Photoshop land in my brain. Grab a gummy eraser and just lightly push down and pull you don't want to scrub, scrub, scrub on your watercolor paper. Are you going to be erasing this texture? And you want the texture That's what we need and watercolor because it's soaks up all the water. I'm just lightly pulling up. I don't want to pull up too much. And you can erase these other lines because we won't be painting over them. You can erase those later after the paint dries. So don't worry too much about those. Now that we have our Mandala design, we're going to come in and we're going to paint. 4. Painting SS: To get started with painting, and I just realized, I didn't tell you guys that you need paintbrushes. Think it goes without saying, but today I'm gonna be using a couple of different sizes, but feel free to use whatever you have available. I'm gonna be using an 864. And what is this? A 0. Just a medium-size brush and a detailed brush would work just fine. You don't need to have all these sizes sometimes I just like to have all these options. I'm gonna go ahead and mix up a blue. I'm going to push this side really quick so I don't get it dirty. I'm going to mix up a really vibrant blue that's that's the color I'm feeling today. No, I'm not blue. I like blue because it's relaxing and tranquil and I need that in my life right now. So that's the color that I want to use. But pick any color you want. Just make sure to mix up a really good amount of it because we are going to be painting a lot of areas. And also you can work in just one color if you want. And you're going to vary the saturation. So we're gonna get some highs and lows inside of each little shape. Or you can also have blue, but then maybe you add a little green to it so that there's a variation that way, totally up to you. No rules about the color that you use here today. And if you've painted with me before, you know that I love to paint in layers. But since this class is meant to be a little shorter, just a fun tutorial where you're not spending an hour painting. We are going to be using just one layer today and kind of using it will not kind of, we are using a wet on wet method. And you'll just be dropping in extra saturated color to give some variation in your painting. Bringing this back over and how this make sure everything is in the screen. And now we're going to start painting. This is the fun part, this is the relaxing part. I'm going to grab some of that color. And I'm going to start on the upper left-hand side because I am right-handed and I don't want to be putting my hand and my paint. But start wherever you're comfortable. I'm coming in here and I'm outlining that shape. Remember we had that section in the middle that was white. Making sure to outline around that. Then I'm rinsing off my brush and grabbing just water and just moving it around in there. And it's going to give you a really cool. If you want to pull a highlight, rinse your brush off, then lightly tap it on a paper towel, and then come in here and press. And you're gonna be pulling up some of that paint. And I just spilled. If you want to add in some little dark areas, just grab a more saturated paint and just lightly tap it in. And I really encourage you to just let the watercolor do the work once it dries, it's going to look really, really cool. So we're just coming in and we're going to paint this whole thing. I'm going to leave this on. I'm not going to zoom through it and going to have you guys paint with me. I know that sometimes on the weekends or even after work, I just wanted to do a fun painting tutorial and I don't want it to be sped up. I don't want to do like an hour long tutorial. So that's my goal for this little class here, is we're just painting together. And you can turn on music if you want. And all of course, like give little tips. I'm going to leave a little white space in the middle of that dot. Now for some of these tighter areas, I am going to get my finer, finer detail brush and just lightly. Maybe tap in a darker color. Another way you could do this is reversing it. So instead of where I'm painting blue right now, I could just paint all the way around all of these things so that my background is blue. That's another way to make it look really cool. I think that a lot of artists, we want to speed this up because. As humans, we're so afraid of silence or like awkwardness. And I totally get that because I'm the same way. And it's hard to just sit and be. And I think stuff like this helps us to be more like that. And I like it because I'm painting at the same time. I'm not not doing anything, I'm just painting and there's silence in the backgrounds. We're so used to all this noise constantly. I know you didn't come here for philosophical stuff, but that's just how I feel. Just outlining. And I accidentally painted over this. So now I only have like one little indention on this side. That's okay. Imperfections make it more interesting to look at. Just filling in with water, letting the water do the work. Don't be afraid to use water like as much as you want. It might get some blockages in it. But that'll look, that'll look cool. Also, if you find that your water is just getting too dark with whatever color you are using. You can either go and rinse it out or if you're like me and you always have to water cups, just switch to your next cup. The fun part about this is really adding in those darker sections, like just tapping it in. I really think it up here. This is already dry so you can see that this isn't going anywhere. You want to poke in the color when things are still wet. That's when you're gonna get that, that explosion. And it's going to look really pretty. Now I'm thinking, is this class going to be an hour because it is kinda taking a little bit of time, but that's okay. And you can also feel free to just turn this off and finish it yourself. I will give little tips every now and then, if one is warranted, leaving some white space every now and then on here. Another thing that you can do is sometimes I'll just outline a couple of them at once. Now this is dependent on where you're living right now. Might be super hot and dry. If it is really hot and dry, you might not want to paint multiple outlines at once because they'll dry super-fast. It's really hot here because it's summertime, but it's really humid. So things aren't drawing that quickly. But you can, this is a faster way to paint, but you can come in and do it this way. You're outlining a couple of different objects at once, and then you're painting them. I'm going to leave that tiny little white spot because they think it adds a lot. Then I'm gonna come in with a more saturated color and I'm just poking it into some of these areas. This is a wet on wet technique because the paper is wet and we're adding in more wet paint. Now, this is a great practice just to relax and paint. But you can also sell stuff like this. I feel like this is really popular lately. Is these kind of repeated patterns. Reminds me of yoga and meditation and Eastern kinda like philosophies. The people like this kind of stuff. So you could sell it as an art print on places like Society six or if you have an Etsy shop. That is one of the classes that is in the works right now, is showing you guys how to make print and sell your own art prints. Just dropping in some color. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid to have some saturation on your brush too. This is really about experimenting and just letting the paint flow. Don't have to be super like perfectionist about it. The only thing I would say look out for is you don't want your brush to the dripping with paint. If it's dripping with paint, you're going to lose a lot of control. You also don't want it to be so dry that you're getting, oops, that was like purple, that your paint isn't flowing smoothly. I'm going to paint this because I don't know what that is. So there's a balance of the water that you have. I like to call it. It's like water control and you learn it after awhile. That is one of the questions I get a lot from students is how do I know how much water to use? And there's the only hard and fast rule is that your water should not be dripping off of your brush. But other than that, you need to figure out what works for you. I can see that this is a very different color from all the other ones. That's okay. Normally that would upset me, but but the rules for using water is there's so many variables where you're living, how hot it is. If you're using high quality or low quality watercolor paper, low-quality wall or watercolor paper is not going to be able to take the paint, or sorry, the water. Like high-quality paper as I'm working on an Arches block right now. And it can take a lot of water because there's like 15 layers of paper underneath that. But if I was working on something like Strathmore or Canson paper, it's going to take a lot less water. So that's something to be mindful of. Make sure you're still coming in here when the paint is wet and adding some of those blooms, just tapping in some color. See this dried if you ever are like, Oh man, I really wanted to add something there. Just grab some water and kinda move it around. I have a few options for you guys. In the projects and resources section, like I mentioned, of sketches that you can trace if you want to. Feel free to use those on your own for, if you just want to do something relaxing and you almost like similar to coloring, a coloring book, but you're using watercolor paint, you can totally use them. The only thing I ask is that you don't sell it because it's not your original artwork. That's kinda like a rule for everything. I hear a lot of artists get asked that when they're doing classes. And if you created something out of my class and it was different from what I created, then of course, you can totally cell that, but just be mindful if you are copying an artist when they're teaching you something, it's their work is copyrighted. So it's not okay to sell it. If you're doing exactly the same thing that they did. It's a hard thing to learn. I remember that I learned that. I didn't know it was wrong to copy. I just thought it was art, but I learned that lesson. There is an element of copying when you're learning, like right now. That's totally fine. It's when you try to sell artwork that you copied. That's not okay. But I copied a lot of, I mean, I think about Disney. I would always draw Disney characters when I was a little kid because that's how I learned and that's totally cool. That's fine. I wasn't turning around and selling my Disney artwork. I just recently did a bunch of Disney paintings just for fun and it was awesome. It actually allowed me to have more freedom because I knew that I couldn't sell it. So I just had fun painting. And sometimes it's hard when you're an artist because you've monetized your art, because you get so used to everything turning into something you can sell. And then sometimes I'll just try to paint for myself. And then halfway through I'm thinking, Oh, I could put this on a pillow or I could put this on a towel and sell this. And I don't always want to be thinking like that because that's not the best way to explore my creativity, right? So sometimes doing something like painting Disney characters are your favorite Pixar characters or whatever. Knowing you can never sell it can be kinda nice. Alright, We're getting close to getting done here. This side is pretty dry. And I think I want to add in some dark areas, like maybe a little bit more here. This guy. And I can see that my color palette kinda changed when I got over here. That's another reason to make sure you mix up enough of one color. I'm pretty, that's actually a big flaw of mine when it comes to watercolor painting is I don't mix up enough color and then I'll see that things are varied in my painting for something like this, that's totally fine. But if I'm working on something like a pet painting, it's an issue. So always make sure that you have enough of the color that you need. Another way is you can test out your color on a scrap piece of paper. I use that method a lot when I don't mix up enough color and then I have to try to match it. Alright, and we're coming around the bend. Maybe move that a little bit. You could come back and add in layers if you wanted to. I'm not doing layers today because I wanted this to be quick for you guys. But here is our beautiful mandalas painting. You, I would love to see what you guys create. Please share in the class projects. It's always fun to see what you guys do. I want to see what colors you use. Maybe you did a totally different design. And thank you so much for watching this. If you guys enjoyed this class, can you please leave me a review also, if you share on social media, I've loved to be tagged because I do enjoy seeing what you create. You can tag me at lavender and C, and I have a bunch of Skillshare classes. So if you'd like to watercolor paint, please check out some of those other classes and if you have any questions at all, feel free to reach out to me.