MANDALA / STEP BY STEP TUTORIAL / BEGINNERS/ MANDALA ART #26

Good morning!!

Today's tutorial includes a youtube video and illustrated instructions. So you can read the article, look at the detailed illustrations and watch the video to get a perfect idea on how to draw this beautiful Mandala flower.

Adding shadows to your Mandala gives it an extremely beautiful finish and a professional look. In order to create shadows with ink pen there is a number of techniques. In this tutorial, I will show you three techniques, while, at the same time, showing you how to draw this beautiful Mandala flower.

The three shadow techniques used are: Stippling, hatching, and cross hatching.

In order to get a great drawing experience you have to have the proper tools for it and especially the proper pens. The thickness of the ink pen used here is 0.2 and I use this thickness a lot as it satisfies my goals in pen drawing.

If you need a list of drawing tools you can check the following link: https://mandalabymaria.blogspot.com/2020/07/required-materials.html

Materials Needed:

A4 Canson (white)

Black drawing pen (0.3)

Pencil

Ruler

Protractor

Compass

Directions:

To get a nice finish you must build your Mandala on a grid, and in order to draw this grid you must have in your mind the design you intend to create.

If you don't have a particular idea of a Mandala, like me :) -as I never know what I will be drawing and I leave myself be inspired by the moment- then trace a mandala grid with random measures and the design will come to you spontaneously.

What is a Mandala grid and why use it?

A mandala grid is a base structure composed from circles and lines that will help the artist achieve symmetry in an easy way.

In order to trace the grid you need a compass, a protractor, a pencil and a ruler.

In this tutorial, the Mandala grid is simple and quick.

Start by tracing 2 circles (8.5 cm radius and 9 cm radius), then trace lines separated by 10 degrees.

How to trace the grid lines?

Draw a cross in the center of the circles.

Place the protractor on the horizontal line, in a way that the black horizontal line of the protractor coincides with it.

Mark a point every 10 degrees; meaning put a mark on 10-20-30-40 etc.

Then join each marked point with the center of the grid forming lines that goes across all the circles.

For more on Mandala Grids click HERE

Step 1:

Starting from the center of your grid, trace a curve from the center towards the nearest grid line on the right, as shown in the illustration. Repeat until your whole grid is filled with curves leaning towards the right.

Step 2:

Repeat step 1, but this time the curves must lean towards the left.

Step 3:

Stippling. The first shadow technique we will use is stippling. We create a shadow effect with dots.

The part we want to fill is the intersection between each 2 petals.

Start by filling this intersection with distanced dots, just a few. Then, the more you approach the center the more dots you will draw, until the part near the center becomes almost fully dark.

Step 4:

Retrace the outline of the 8.5 cm circle.

Step 5:

Fill the space between the 8.5 cm radius circle and the 9 cm radius circle with small circles.

Step 6:

Retrace the outer outline of your Mandala and fill the blank spaces between the small circles with black.

Step 7:

Hatching. In this step, trace lines at the summit of each petal to create a shadow. This technique is called hatching.

Step 8:

Cross hatching. In this step we will use the third shadow technique that is defined by tracing crossed lines and we refer to it as Cross hatching. In order to give depth to our Mandala, cross hatch the space between the summit of the petals as shown in the picture.

For more on how to draw this Mandala flower, watch the youtube tutorial:

Besides drawing, coloring a Mandala has proven to be an extremely relaxing activity that lowers anxiety and depression and helps stimulate your creativity.

I have two beautiful Mandala coloring books published on Amazon that I would love to introduce to you.

During the Mandala coloring workshop I held in Beirut.
These Mandalas are taken from my first book.

The first Book is "Mandala coloring book by Maria Hajj"

This book is very precious to my heart for two reasons: one, fo being my very first book to be published, and second because I have included my 2 very first Mandalas in it.

You can get it here:

Mandala Coloring Book:

Amazon.in: https://amzn.to/2UOe574

Amazon .com: https://amzn.to/3dWeBat

Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/2UuPcx1

DE: https://amzn.to/2BQo5Wy

FR: https://amzn.to/2XQy6vv

IT: https://amzn.to/3fd9BhZ

ES: https://amzn.to/3hqjV8r

AU: https://amzn.to/3cUnnVl