Easy Steps On How To Start Drawing A Colorful Mandala

How do you start drawing a mandala? I often receive this question, and there are many techniques you can use to start designing mandalas. My name is Susanne Braun, I'm a Dutch mandala artist on instagram, and in this blog I will show you the steps I use to begin drawing your own unique mandala!

Tools and Materials You Will Need To Draw a Mandala:

• Paper - I chose kraft paper from The Paper Works Sketchbook, it is perforated 8x10 and easy to remove from the book, but you could explore using paper in various colors or thickness depending on your preference (you could even try canvas or wood!)
• Compass and/or a protractor
• Pencil
• Black or colored fine tipped marker or pen
• Ruler
• Eraser

Start Drawing a Mandala by Drawing Circles

From the center of your paper (use a ruler to calculate the center) you start with making the circles for your mandala. Using your compass, you can make beautiful circles, and I recommend you use the protractor on your compass to draw the different sized circles. How many circles and the distance between the circles is up to you. If you use colorful pens, this is a great way to start planning the colors you will add to your mandala too. You could also use black markers to create your circles, and this would give a different feel to your project. I chose to use OOLY Totally Taffy Gel Pens for this mandala because I thought the pastel ink against the kraft paper would give the mandala a really soft look!

How to Draw Designs in a Mandala

Now that you have the circles drawn as the base of your mandala, you can start adding different patterns into your mandala. You can search the web for patterns that inspire you, but I like to create my own unique mandala patterns and keep my creative flow going! If you want to create your own pattern, I recommend you practice on a piece of paper before you start your mandala. You will see that you improve with some practice and before you know it you have made your own mandala pattern. Below are some examples of mandala patterns that I often use.

Adding Several Colors and Using Different Art Tools Can Help You Create Unique and Interesting Mandala Designs

This is the fun part! Giving your mandala some beautiful color and texture! Try drawing your mandalas with these different mediums to achieve different looks:

• Markers
• Fine Tipped Pens/Markers
• Brush Tipped Pens/Markers
• Crayons
• Pencils and Colored Pencils
• Oil Pastels
• Watercolor Paints
• Inks

I absolutely love to use the art mediums from OOLY, they are so nice to work with and the contrast of these colors on the different paper is amazing. Here is the completed version of my colorful mandala on kraft paper using OOLY Totally Taffy Scented Gel Pens! I hope you have fun with this guide and that my tips help make it easier for you create your own mandala! Creative greetings, Susanne