MANDALA - Digital Designs

 

 After drawing out some of my mandalas by hand, I wanted to develop them further using my digital design skills to redraw and colour the design. The beauty of the mandala is that there is no rules, just your mind and the medium, they can be created in what ever way that you want. 

 The mandala is supposed to be a reflection of your sub conscious, but what ever way you want to look at it, spiritually or artistically, it is still a really therapeutic technique which stimulates the mind and brain and helps to get the creative juices flowing.

The creation of the mandala is like a journey which starts at the center and expands outwards growing and changing as you see fit. I will include the mandalas I have created throughout the book as examples and colouring in tasks etc, it was important to draw my own mandalas to see how it affected my practice.

One of the things about the mandala is that it can be extremely complicated, the more you progress with it, there are countless overlaps within the geometry you can use and sometimes it take you a while to figure out what the best option is, Here you can see how this mandala changed and progressed as I went along. I tended to just stick to my gut instinct and let the rest happen.

Of course mandalas don't have to be digital in fact is is a very hand crafted style of working traditionally but I wanted to apply my knowledge of digital appliances to create my mandalas, I think this says something about my practice. My combining digital methods with traditional art I am exploring the boundaries of mandala making and also staying to true to my interests and passions.

  

I found that when I created mandalas at first my mind came up with quite simplistic forms, but as I carried on and progressed with my designs, they became more complicated and interesting and it started to become easier to visualize what I wanted to create. 

One aspect of the book looks at the use of mandalas in religion, here you can see a christian mandala in the form of the stained glass window at church. To represent this in the book I will create a laser cut out wall silhouette like on the left, the following pages with be printed on acetate to represent the glass, I am considering layering up a few pages to get the mix of colours in the window. It might be more appropriate to just have the 1 sheet, However this might not work in the book signatures.

The fruit of life pattern will be in the book as a guidline for people the user to work with, This allows them to use this as a tracing element which will make it easier for the user to pick out shapes etc.

I still have allot to do with this brief and really need to get underway. I have planned out the content for the book but still haven't experimented with alternate designs. I also have to write the copy for the book and also photograph some of the tasks at various stages. I also need to consider what stock I will use and also design the box and source the equipment needed for the kit. I have quite allot of work on my plate, but I shouldn't have too much of a problem completing the brief. I need to book the laser cutter and some print slots too.