All posts tagged: patterns

Art Journal ideas and progress.

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This week I started to fill a book with patterns and doodles just to see how many ideas I can come up with. I want to fill pages with stripe ideas and then more with dot ideas until I can’t think of any more, then fill some extra pages. For this I am using an old library book which I bought for 25 cents from our library’s sale cart. ‘The Shelf Book’ is my pattern sketchbook, I will try anything in it, it is not precious.  So if I don’t like a page, never mind, turn to the next page and carry on.  It is very freeing to be honest, I have only just started to fill the book and hopefully by the end I will have a nice collection of ideas for journal pages, backgrounds, colouring sheets and maybe a post card or two. I started a new spread in a new sketchbook too which is a wonderful thing.  I am so happy to have filled one sketchbook and to be onto the next …

How to draw a freeform Mandala

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Today I am going to show you how I made this mandala.  Hurrah! I have been enjoying drawing a few mandalas this month and I have been really surprised at how effective they are once they are all done.  Working a step at a time really makes the layers work together and flow outwards beautifully.  Like most things, one step at a time works best! Previously I have been making the base lines by measuring with ruler, compass and a protractor which works great and I have loved the mandalas I have made like that.  I also wanted a nice quick and easy way to get started on one without all the equipment, so I just drew out the basic lines – horizontal, vertical and the two diagonals, the only rule being that they must cross in the middle.  This way I can make a mandala anywhere, all I need is pencil and paper.   I drew in the circles, not worrying one jot about them being perfectly round or spaced apart.  In fact I …