Digital Mandala to Colored Zendala

I’ve really come to love doing zentangle, and I’ve found a new love for making mandalas on the computer. Mainly I work on the mandalas at lunch while I’m at work, and I’ve got a goal to release a coloring book of them. However, the idea to make them started with the desire to have clean lines to zentangle in. I know, I know, anyone who zentangles very traditionally is shaking their head because you’re not supposed to be perfect… but I cannot help it. When it comes to doing zendalas, I need them to have that perfect symmetry or it’s just not worth it to me. On the plus side, I get the same state of mind making a mandala digitally as I do adding in the zentangle artwork.

So, if you don’t know what zentangle is, I suggest you Google it. To try and summarize though, it’s essentially using the creation of repetitive patterns in drawing to reach a meditative state of mind. So you’re doodling and meditating at the same time, basically. It’s a lot of fun, and you should try it. You don’t even have to be able to draw, because you’re really just doodling.

The zendala happens when you zentagle in a mandala. Most people will just freehand this, but they’re much more confident artists than I when it comes to pencil and paper. I prefer to use the computer to make my lines, and then color them in.

So I’ve made a lot of mandalas for this purpose at this point, but so far I’ve only colored in one. The mandala itself took me about an hour to complete over two lunch periods, and the zentangles inside the mandala took another four hours almost. I was zentangling alongside Pete, who was working on his first (and it was AMAZING, this man can freaking DRAW!), and it felt good that he was very impressed with my talent with colored pencils. Not going to claim it all as talent though, much of what I can do comes from what I learned in my 9th grade studio art class in high school. Miss. M was a huge influence on my art, and her lessons continue to carry forth.

It is due to Pete’s love for my shading though, that I had the idea to just shade the rainbow around the outer edge of this piece. I wasn’t quite sure what I would end up doing with that when I began, and so I’m glad that he gave me such a wonderful idea before I got there. I’m also very happy with how the colors cycle in this, I feel like I outdid myself on color choice and control. Overall, I’m just really pleased with this piece, and I may go as far as to frame it one day. For now, it’s here for you to enjoy. C: