DOMESTIKA COURSE – THE ART OF MANDALA DRAWING – BEGINNER PRACTICE SHEETS
The second part of the preparation unit continues with drawing practice. Having done the shading exercises, we could now move on to do some actual mandala drawing.
Sheet 1 – mandala elements
Lizzie, our teacher, had prepared some sheets for us to print out to work on, as she did with the shading exercises. These consisted of several rows of images. The first one was a completed drawing by Lizzie. The following few were printed faintly so that we could trace over them. The final spaces were marked “freehand” with no outline to trace. Very good practice for getting our hand in!
I obviously can’t show you the entire sheets as they are reserved for course members only, and the first drawing in each case was Lizzie’s own original. However, Lizzie encouraged us to add our own variations as we worked through the practice boxes, and I can show you those. I kept the basic shape the same in each case.
This shape seems to be very popular in mandala drawings. I believe it is representative of a lotus petal.
I find it quite difficult getting the two sides absolutely symmetrical but I think I’m getting better at it with practice.
The first row were fairly simple, with the internal lines following the basic shape. I kept the theme of the spirals going in the second row. The third row had some elements of negative drawing, filling in the background, and I carried on with that for most of them.
Sheet 2 – small complete mandalas
These really were very small. The only way I could manage to draw them was with the aid of my magnifying lamp. I think it would have been better to print them out larger. Again, I am just showing my variations of the original designs.
Each one had the grid lines drawn in faintly.
Again, the first row was relatively simple. I decided to weave the elements of the outer ring in each case, to make them more interesting. I’ve had a fair bit of practice with this with my Celtic drawings.
The mandalas in the second row all featured spirals, and I did struggle a bit with those! I drew the basic shapes in pencil first, for all the drawings on the sheet, and this certainly helped.
The third row emphasised filling the negative spaces again.
One thing I found quite difficult was to draw the circles accurately. If they are slightly off, it really shows! When I start drawing full-sized mandalas, I am sure I shall be using a compass for this.
The third stage of the unit – deciding on a theme or concept
In the final lesson of the unit, Lizzie explained how we might choose something on which to base the design of our mandala. Themes might be something like floral, or geometric. Concepts could suggest an emotion, or the idea of community, and so on. We could combine both a theme and a concept in a single mandala. Deciding on this before beginning, would result in a more cohesive result, perhaps. She went on to explain how we might depict these things in our art. As always, she said, “There’s no right or wrong.”
When I’ve drawn mandalas in the past, I’ve never thought about them in this way. I’ve just chosen patterns I liked, and which seemed to work well together. Incorporating an idea or theme into a piece of abstract art is not something I am very familiar with.
My only experience of “concept” drawing
The only time I’ve ever done this was in my Zentangle-inspired drawing commissioned by a Zentangle teacher for a book she was writing. She had discovered my Zentangle pattern “Y-Ful Power,” and asked me to make a drawing which displayed this pattern. Having chatted on the phone, she was aware that I was undergoing cancer treatment at the time, and suggested I drew a picture illustrating my cancer journey. This was a huge challenge for me because I’d never done anything like that before.
Initially my approach was far too literal and illustrative. I had to abandon that, and start to think more abstractly. It was a journey – a progression. At the beginning there was a great deal of shock, confusion, and fear of the future. Everything was unknown and beyond my experience. Somehow I had to navigate through this and take very positive steps, being confident of a positive outcome.
After a lot of thought about this, I came up with the idea of a spiral staircase rising from a dark and chaotic beginning, moving towards the focal point of light. The journey was one of the heart as much as of the body, so I suggested this shape. It was also about transformation, because cancer does change one. It confronts one with one’s own mortality and changes one’s outlook on life in a way I did not expect. I represented this with the presence of the butterfly.
The spiral staircase design was inspired by a photo I found online of the most beautiful golden one somewhere in the Middle East. There were no details about it but I loved its fluid design.
Here is the finished drawing, as published in Jane Marbaix’s book. I was so thrilled that she gave me a whole double-page spread, and published my story without amending it in any way. I hope it brought inspiration and help to other cancer sufferers.
That was a bit of a digression, but it may help to explain what Lizzie is teaching us to do. It is all preparation as we move forward to the next unit, when we will begin our final drawing of a mandala.
It’s taken us a while to get there, but I think the different stages of the course so far have been good preparation. We have learnt what mandalas are, and how we can spot them everywhere, once we have eyes to see them.
Looking forward
I am very much looking forward to getting down to the final drawing, which is the ultimate destination of this fascinating course. I am hoping to complete it by the end of the month, as my aim is to work on one course per month through the coming year.
