The Mandala basic shapes are organic and geometrical based on flowers, petals, triangles, circles, etc.
In this tutorial, I use the shapes and intersect them in a beautiful way to create a unique mandala design.
Below, I divide the mandala tutorial into two big sections, and each section to a number of steps.
The first section is how to draw a mandala grid.
A mandala grid is a composition of circles and equally separated grid lines that help you preserve the Mandala’s symmetry.
So drawing a mandala is in fact a connection of dots and lines in order to create a design, that most of the time is improvised based on our feelings and moods.
The materials needed in this tutorial are the following:
- 1 white A4 paper or cardboard
- 1 sharpened pencil
- 1 compass
- 1 protractor
- 1 ruler
- 1 eraser
- 1 fine drawing pen
Step 1: Trace a Mandala grid
- Mark the center of the A4 paper by marking a point on the 10.5 cm lengthwise and 14.7 cm widthwise.
- Trace a horizontal and a vertical line crossing the center.
- From this center trace 11 circles with the following radii: 1 cm, 1.5 cm, 2.5 cm, 4 cm, 4.5 cm, 5 cm, 6 cm, 6.5 cm, 7.5 cm, 8.5 cm and 9.5 cm.
- Trace grid line equally separated by 10 degrees
Step 2: Fill the Mandala grid with basic shapes
a- Draw regular petals in the distance of the 2.5 cm circle
b- Draw inside of the regular petals teardrops and lines as follows.
c- Draw regular petals between each drawn petal.
d- In the two opposite petals draw teardrops and a dot at the top of each petal.
e- In the other two opposite petals draw 2 swirls in each and retrace the outline of the circle passing through the petals.
f- Draw more petals between the previously draw petals but this time the petals extend in the distance of the 4.5 cm radius circle.
g- On one side of these petals, draw diagonal lines patterns.
h- draw another outline of the petals starting from the border of the 5 cm circle.
i- Between the big petals drawn in step “h”, draw regular petals up until the limit of the 4 cm radius circle as shown in the mandala illustration above.
j- Mark one point on top of each petal drawn in step “i”.
k- Retrace the outline of the 4 cm and the 4.5 cm radius circle as shown in the mandala illustration.
l- Retrace the outline of the 5 cm radius circle, decorate the inside with curves as shown in the mandala illustration above.
m- Draw intersected regular petals in the distance extended between the 5 cm and the 6 cm radius circle.
n- Draw teardrop leaves at the summit of each intersected petal drawn in step “m”.
o- Retrace the outline of the 7.5 cm radius circle and trace curved lines departing from the summit of each teardrop leaves.
p- Trace 2 arc petals in each grid section of the 8.5 cm circle space.
q- Trace a regular petal above each 2 arc petals.
This is the full tutorial presented to you in steps and images to help you replicate this design easily. No mandala is too complicated to recreate, you just have to respect the steps progressively and you will find yourself recreating the most challenging designs. Remember to watch the video tutorial I shared below to get additional help.
Watch the full video
