Iris Mandala: Day 10

3/27/08: Once again I let myself go several days without coloring. I HATE when that happens :-)

I started coloring the inside petals of the upper left hand iris. I modified the colors ever so slightly. Instead of using lightfast orange, I'm using canary yellow and scarlet lake to create my orange color. It makes it a little brighter & lighter, with some added texture. I'll include a close-up shot in my next entry so you can see what I mean. Otherwise, I continued to use light peach, lightfast peach, and black grape.

My goal is to finish this mandala by April 15; a day I would rather remember as fun versus taxing (sorry, I have a punny disorder).

Happy Coloring,

Maiah

Iris Mandala: Day 9

3/21/08: It's been about 8 days since I had an opportunity to color the Iris Mandala. I've been busy with the business end of things. During this past week I have been sketching some ideas for future projects which look promising.

Anyway back to the Iris Mandala. I finished coloring the side petals of all 6 irises. As before, I'm using light peach, lightfast light peach, lightfast orange, and black grape. I added another layer of lightfast orange over the lower petals. Over all of the petals I added a light 'wash' of goldenrod to warm them up a bit, which at this resolution and distance is a little difficult to notice. I also added a wash of goldenrod to the center gold 'posts', with the warmth of the iris colors, the posts were looking more of a lime green versus the golden color that I intended.

Iris Mandala: Day 8

3/13/08: Today I started on the outer petals. I continued using the light peach, lightfast peach, lightfast orange, and black grape colors and added goldenrod and van gogh orange which is a little brighter than the lightfast orange. Since coloring the upper petals, I've noticed that the lower petals (in the blue section) seem duller. To fix that I added more of the lightfast orange to the upper left iris. I'll continue doing the same to the others the next time I color.

As promised I'm providing a close-up photo so you can see more of the coloring details.

Iris Mandala: Day 7

3/12/08: Finished the horizontal petals of the 6 irises. I colored with light peach, lightfast peach, lightfast orange, and black grape. I'll provide a close-up photo of the petals in tomorrow's entry.
Happy Coloring!
Maiah

Iris Mandala: Day 6

3/9/08: Finished the lower petals of all 6 irises. Started the horizontal petals of irises 1 & 2. All the petals thus far have been colored with light peach, lightfast light peach, lightfast orange, and black grape.

Iris Mandala: Day 5

3/8/08: Continued coloring the lower petals of the next 3 irises. I used light peach, lightfast light peach, lightfast organe, and black grape. It took about an hour to color the 3 petals, 20 minutes each.

Iris Mandala: Day 4

3/6/08: Completed the bottom petal of two irises (for now anyway). The challenge is to play with it without feeling like I have to make it really look like an iris. My left and right brains are competing for dominance. Time will tell as to who will win...I'm hoping for a win-win situation.

For the petals, I used light peach, lightfast light peach, lightfast orange, and black grape.As promised from yesterday's blog entry, I took a close-up shot of the 'gold' bars in the middle of the mandala.

Iris Mandala: Day 3

3/5/08: Finished the blue background (for now anyway) and the golden bars that will connect the 6 irises. I used lemon yellow, canary yellow, and black grape for the gold. This photo poorly represents the gold color. I'll do a close-up shot for the next blog entry. I also started the upper left iris using the color, light peach.

Iris Mandala: Day 2

3/2/08 Day 2: Completed 3 more sections of the background to the Iris Mandala. As previous, I used indigo blue and black grape, in gradient levels of circular strokes. You start to make out the bottom portions of the iris blossom (the white space between the blue sections).

Iris Mandala: Day 1

3/1/08: Started coloring the Iris Mandala. I created this design in2002 and have felt intimidated by it ever since. Most of my designs are patterns and symmetry without any reference to anything in existence. It's difficult to see the 6 irises in this sketch. Because I know the irises are there my logical brain feels compelled to make them look like irises...my confidence level is rather low with trying to accomplish this.

Last week two people were in my studio and had asked about this particular design. They wanted to see a version that was already colored so that they could have an idea of how it could look. I told them that I had yet to color this one; I have about 6 or 7 designs that have yet to be colored and all for a variety of reasons. I explained to the gentleman that was interested in coloring it that all my mandala designs lack any rules; he's free to color it any way he wants. He can even ignore the fact that 6 irises are in the design and color each section randomly, even create new patterns using colors.

As I explained it to him, I realized that I could say the same thing to myself. With that I told him that as soon as I finish the piece I'm coloring (The Celtic Mandala see previous posts), that I would make this design be my next project. I was now excited and eager about coloring the Iris Mandala.

So here it is...Day 1 of the Iris Mandala. I'm coloring in the background of the design first. Using a circle strock, I'm coloring with indigo blue and black grape (both Prismacolor brand pencils).