Almond blossom mandala

I've been drooling over mandalas for some time now, so yesterday I decided that today's art project as part of Art Every Day Month would be a mandala.

I had no idea what I was doing other than I was doing it. It needed to be round, so I dug up my compass set and went a little crazy drawing circles within circles. I had a vague idea of the direction I might go in, but I let the design tell me what to do and went with it.

Almond Blossom Mandala, work-in-progress, pen and pencil on fineliner paper, approx. 200 x 200 mm.

It is still a work-in-progress. At this point you can still see the pencil work underneath the skeleton pen. I won't attempt to remove that until tomorrow to make sure the pen is fully dry (a lesson I learnt the hard way a very long time ago :D).

I'm thinking I will take this up to full colour by photocopying this version and tracing it down onto some illustration board so I can use paint or ink or even watercolour pencil. I'm unsure how the fineliner paper will react to the eraser.. If it can do it's job, I'll turn this original piece into a black and white version.

Why almond blossom? The compass drew six petalled flowers and I knew almond blossoms had six petals from a previous project I have yet to complete, so I thought I would use them here. Their significance is important as they are a reminder of my childhood - story to follow when I finish the thing :D

So there you have it, today's work for Art Every Day Month.  Hope you are all enjoying yourselves with your AEDM creations. Thanks for all your lovely comments on my oil pastel experiments yesterday. You've got me all fired up for more :D

Nutty
(determined to go to bed before midnight tonight)