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).