How to draw this beautiful swirly mandala
Mandala Drawing and coloring are very beneficial to one’s physical and mental health. A mandala was first created by Buddha who was inspired by the universe and its circular shape and created this drawing method to help monks enter in a state of mindfulness in order to meditate.
At the time, drawing a Mandala included a number of religious symbols and meanings, but today the mandala is geometrical and we use few shapes inspired by the nature like peals and leaves.
Materials needed:
- Compass
- Protractor
- 12″ Ruler
- Pencil
- Eraser
- Stabilo fine point 88
Drawing technique:
- Mark the center of your paper and trace 10 circles starting from a 1 cm radius circle, then adding 0.5 cm to each new circle (The radiuses are: 1 cm, 1.5 cm, 2 cm, 2.5 cm, etc.)
- Trace grid lines every 10 degrees. In order to do so, trace a horizontal line crossing the center of your circles, and then trace a vertical line that is also crossing the center. Place your protractor main line on the horizontal line and the 90 degrees on the vertical line. The center of the protractor must coincide with the center of the circles. Mark a point every 10 degrees. So put a point on 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, etc. until you reach 180. I’ve already written an article about mandala grids, which might be useful if you need help getting started with drawing the grids.
Then, using the ruler, trace lines joining the center with each marked point and crossing all the circles. - Start filling your mandala with shapes. Two of the basic shapes will be used in this project: petal and arc petal.
- Choose the color order. I have chosen to put the colors in this order: red, purple, fuchsia, pink, orange and yellow. Fill the centered circle with regular petals following the exact color order. In the second circle, draw the first red petal as follows: take as a starting point the summit of your first red circle and an end point the summit of your first purple petal. Then, for the next purple petal do the same: start from the summit of the first purple petal drawn in the centered circle, and end it at the summit of the fuchsia petal, and so on. Follow this method to fill the whole Mandala sections with petals.
- Once your Mandala is filled with shapes, start creating patterns. Decorate each shape with a number of basic shapes in order to create beautiful patterns. Follow the video shared below to see the patterns I used.
- Once the drawing process is done start creating waved shadows using the stippling technique.
Video Tutorial:
How to draw a twisted Mandala (includes mandala grid, stippling technique & more) -MANDALA ART #3
