I'm so glad I found this class, been meaning to learn to use the pen tool for so long but it always looked like it would take forever to get the hang of.

Inspiration:

I've been admiring the work of Travis Garner for a while now.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/IAmElectric333?section_id=16016109&ref=shopsection_leftnav_1

Mandala Pin - image 1 - student project

My favourite Apple Metal pin:

It's gotta be this one.

Mandala Pin - image 2 - student project

Sketches:

They're not exactly rough sketches, instead I went with a mandala I drew a couple of weeks ago to use as a guide. I've been wanting to turn a mandala into a pin for a long time.

Mandala Pin - image 3 - student project

Process:

I probably could have done a lot of copying and pasting with this image but I wouldn't learn much that way would I? So it's all been done with the pen tool from start to finish.

Mandala Pin - image 4 - student project

Getting to grips with the pen tool.

Mandala Pin - image 5 - student project

One problem I encountered was overlapping the lines I had previously drawn. I had no idea how to fix this other than expanding the lines and then erasing the bits sticking out.

Mandala Pin - image 6 - student project

Another problem was I kept ending up with these massive points sticking out next to some of my anchor points. I had to mess around with the postitioning of the anchors until I could get it acceptable but sometimes I had to settle with inferior lines.

Mandala Pin - image 7 - student project

Four hours later! The finished line work.

The Final Pin:

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I'm sure I could do better though. I tried adding dotwork shading to it but I couldn't find any way to do it that wasn't extremely tedious so decided to wait until I figure that out. I was thinking this pin would look awesome with gold.

Mandala Pin - image 8 - student project

Mandala Pin - image 9 - student project

Now I'm gonna get practicing and see what else I can come up with! Thanks for the class Jon!

If you want to see more of my hand drawn mandalas, check out my instagram https://www.instagram.com/zkorvin/

Thanks for looking!

Zak Korvin

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