DOMESTIKA COURSE – THE ART OF MANDALA DRAWING – MATERIALS AND SHADING EXERCISES
At last we are starting to put pen to paper in this course! The first two units have been really interesting, though, with the introductions and learning about mandalas. I have really enjoyed the new experience of seeing them everywhere. Beforehand, I had thought they were just the familiar intricate circular patterns. I did not know that the word means “circle,” and split into its two component parts, “essence container.”
Materials
To begin the unit, Lizzie, the teacher, showed us what materials we would need, and these are not at all complicated. Most people who do any kind of art would have them. Pencil and eraser, pens, compass, protractor, ruler, paper. She also suggested that we could use an iPad and Procreate. I have both of these, but will probably combine myself to physical materials, at least for now.
Pen to paper!
Now we began the process in earnest. Lizzie had prepared some practice sheets for us to print out and use. The first was all about different methods of shading. This is second nature to me, as I have done a lot of ink pen drawing already, and know about hatching, cross-hatching, stippling etc. However, I did the practice pieces as instructed.
The sheet had four different sections, one for each method of shading. There were three rows of squares in each section, and she had filled in the top row. We had to imitate what she had done in the blank squares below. She told us we could make the marks as neat as we wanted, or perhaps make them freer and more random. I prefer to be as neat as possible with this. We used a relatively fine permanent black pen.
Here are my shading samples, together with most of the materials required for the course. I didn’t add pencil and eraser but I think everything else is there! As you can see, I have found a slim file folder to keep the printed sheets in. In her “additional resources,” Lizzie also included some mandalas she had drawn, as colouring pages. Apparently she has quite a few of these free pages on her website. I printed them out on my printer-friendly Bristol Vellum paper and will probably use coloured pencils for these.
I love how you can vary the intensity of the shading in each case, by making the marks further apart or closer together. I am going to use the blank paper around the printed grids for further practice, filling shapes and experimenting with gradation of shadows.
The next exercise will involve drawing some of the shapes commonly found in mandalas. That’s for another day!
