The "Shine On" Mandala - Installation #5

I added a darker wash of ultramarine blue on the striped "snakes" in the outer band of the mandala. Soon the image of the snakes will disappear. During the next session or two I'll be fine-tuning the "snakes" to be more dimensional.

The "Shine On" Mandala - Installation #4

I spent almost two hours on this yesterday and was able to paint the blue stripes, some shading on the yellow stripes, and shading on the vermilion stripes.

When I started painting in the blues, the color combinations in the stripes looked like something I've seen in Egyptian tombs and temples. While the overall look of this mandala is hardly Egyptian, I find it interesting that it has an Egyptian component.

Thus far this mandala has a strong portal feel to me. The green crescents look like they could close or open the portal. At its present position, it is opened (or closed) half way to expose part of what is hidden behind the portal.

The "Resurrection" Mandala - Installment #4

I was able to spend more time on this yesterday and thus was able to finish the first set of cobras and the first scarab in the outer band of the mandala. I'm coloring the small scarabs the same way I did the large scarab in the center.

The "Shine On" Mandala - Installment #3

I've added vermilion red to the stripes of flames around the outside of this mandala. For the flames that are more in the background, I painted a darker wash of vermilion. For the foreground flames, I painted them lighter.

As more of the flame shapes are painted, you'll start to see the flames more clearly. Right now they look more like coral snakes. :)

The "Resurrection" Mandala - Installment #3

Yesterday I finished the indigo blue background for the outer band of the mandala. While I could have stopped at this point for the day, I was just too deep into it to end it there.

In the outer band are two repeated objects: the scarab and a pair of cobras with their ornamentations. I'm using the same palette for these cobras as the ones on both ends of the boat. The significance of the other objects with the cobras is beyond me. I suppose I could research it however I'd much rather color it than research it :) If anyone out there knows, please feel free to share.

The "Shine On" Mandala - Installment #2

Yesterday I was able to start painting in the outer portion of this mandala. About a week ago or so I had this flash of an idea of what colors to use on the striped portions of the pairs of "flames". I saw alternating segments of gold, with light red and blue alternating in between. To create the gold look, I painted a light and medium wash of da Vinci arylide yellow. The right side of the flame pair was done with the darker wash, the left side was painted with a light yellow wash.

The "Resurrection" Mandala - Installment #2

During my coloring session yesterday, I added an indigo blue background on the left side of the outer ring. It's a little challenging to see in this photo. While it looks like it's a light blue, I actually used a small cross hatch pattern with the indigo blue. This gives it a linen material look and lightens the value of the indigo blue.

The "Shine On" Mandala - in the beginning...

I started the "Shine On" mandala early in January prior to starting this blog. The posting will bring you up-to-date with my progress on this painting. For this mandala I'm painting it with watercolors (mostly da Vinci brand paints). The image is 30" in diameter on 40" x 40" 140# arches watercolor paper.

The morning after I had sketched the design onto the paper, I woke with knowing exactly what color the crescent moon shapes were going to be. I saw them clearly as green marble. My challenge was...how do you make something look like marble in watercolors?

During my first session on this painting, I laid down the base coat of da Vinci's hunter green paint, leaving a slight gap between each section of marble. I put in an extra bit of paint to create the shadow effect between the two crescent shapes.

This next photo depicts several sessions...I neglected to take a photo after each session...oops :) I had the idea for the marble section to scratch away the white lines using a razor blade. I had seen this done on an art instruction show on public television. Prior to 'scratching', I added another layer of hunter green, then with a thin brush I painted the black lines.

When it was time to 'scratch' I dampened the section with a moist paper towel to soften the watercolor paper. The scariest thing for me was the first attempt at 'scratching'...it was a major commitment. It was either going to work as I had hoped or I was going to have to start all over again. Fortunately, it worked and my confidence grew with each scratching. Whew :)

For the middle section, I painted the sun with da Vinci hansa yellow light. I used da Vinci ultramarine blue on the center column. The left side was a lighter wash, the right side was a medium wash. The blue behind both suns were painted with a heavy wash of M. Graham cobalt blue. During the next session, I added more yellow to the suns and more cobalt blue to the background. In the center column object, I painted the stripes with da Vinci vermilion and da Vinci ultramarine. I wanted to create a 3-D box-like effect in this section so I used varying values of vermilion and ultramarine to do so.



During my last session on this mandala, I painted the suns in more depth. I added vermilion and M. Graham cadmium red . I then went over the edges of the stripes and the rays of the suns with a Van Gogh water colour pencil, permanent blue violet. I softened the pencil marks by painting over them with a damp brush.

I also emphasized the slabs of marble by painting more hunter green on one side of each slab.

The "Resurrection" Mandala - in the beginning...

I started the "Resurrection" Mandala about 10 days ago. Normally I would be posting what I did for the day with one photo and a description. Instead, for today, I'm bringing you up-to-date with what I've completed so far.

This mandala is my interpretation of King Tut's amulet that depicts him as a scarab being carried off in a boat that takes him to the afterlife. I'm using a limited palette of Prismacolor pencils: indigo blue, copenhagen blue, true blue, canary yellow, lemon yellow, crimson red, dark grape, white, a colorless blender, and a little bit of black.

This photo shows my first day's progress. I completed the gold trim around the main scarab and the start of the blue stones. I achieved the gold by blending canary yellow and dark grape. The blue section is a mix of true blue, copenhagen blue and some white. I use the dark grape to outline the edges of the blue stones.



On the next day, I added the 'true blue' cross hatch background behind the boat and scarab. The orange stone was created blending canary yellow and crimson red with a little black grape in the center. This design is 12" diameter on 15"x15" 1-ply bristol museum board paper.




During my next session, I completed the left side of the boat, mirroring the right side. I then started the right column of the boat using the canary yellow & dark grape combination to achieve the look of gold. The blue stone work beneath the boat is the some color blending I used for the scarab.



During the next session, I was able to spend a lot of time on it and colored in major portion of the center image. For the brown sections, I blended canary yellow, dark grape and crimson red. The lighter gold sections near the tops of the columns, I used lemon yellow and dark grape. For the light blues, I lay down white first and then blend in true blue.



For this session, I completed the entire center section.



This image brings us up-to-date. I finished coloring the three rows of beading around the enter section; each row has 195 beads. The inside row has gold, red, orange, blue and green beads. The middle and outside rows have beads of gold light blue and medium blue. The green beads were colored with a blending of lemon yellow and true blue.

Introduction

My plan is to use this blog to post my progress as I paint and/or color my mandala designs. I'll post at least on image showing how far I progressed and will describe colors & techniques used.