The "Resurrection" Mandala - Installment #11 - Done!

I completed the Resurrection Mandala on Sunday, February 25, 2007. During the final session, I finished coloring the outside row of beads, and did some touch up coloring to the center background, the outer band background, and on the inner three rows of beads.

The next phase of this project is to take it to be professionally photographed and digitized. This will allow me to use this image on prints and greeting cards. Also by having it digitized at a professional shop, I can have them produce giclee (museum quality) prints, which are printed on archival paper and archival pigment (watercolor) inks.

The "Resurrection" Mandala - Installment #10

Today I had a big block of time to color. Yeah! Finally! I finished coloring the sections within the outer band. The march of the cobras and scarabs is now complete and moving forward. I'm going to look into animating this so it rotates; it seems to want to move clockwise.


I finished two of the three rows of 'bead' work around the outer edge. For the gold beads, I used canary yellow and dark grape. The two blue beads in between the gold ones are colored with true blue/indigo blue/dark grape and copenhagen blue/indigo blue/dark grape. I have only one more row of beads to color and they will take on the colors used on the innermost row of beads surrounding the inner circle.


If all goes well, I hope to finish this tomorrow. Earlier this week I received the message for this mandala: "At all times, I choose peace." Since I became aware of this message I have been doing my best to put it into practice. It's very challenging. It's amazing how tense I am most of the time. This message helps remind me to be calm.

The "Resurrection" Mandala - Installment #9

I was able to do a lot of coloring over the weekend and completed three and half more sections of the outer band. I had hoped to finish this week, now it's looking like it will be done by Sunday.

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 "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 "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.