"Shine On" Mandala - Installation #10

This will probably look only slightly different from the last photo. I added a wash of vermilion to each of the 'flames'.
It's been awhile since I've painted this...I've been busy with the "Deco" mandala. I'm submitting that one to a show and it needs to be done ASAP.

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 "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.