I want to create some mandala fabric on Spoonflower but first I need a repeating pattern. My first attempt was the good old fashion way of creating a pattern in the middle, then cutting up the paper, rearranging it and finish up the pattern in the middle. Next I scanned this pattern and cleaned it up in photoshop. When I attempted to repeat the pattern I realized I had NOT scanned the entire image! It was off enough that the mandalas didn't line up properly. Sigh.
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| Image before I finished coloring. I'll need to try scanning it again and see if I can get the entire image. |
Once upon a time I remember learning to create a vector image with Adobe Illustrator. I don't remember it being very hard, but I also don't remember how to do it. I need to learn the process again. In the meantime I decided to create individual mandalas that I can convert in to vector images and then creating repeating patterns digitally.
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| Each mandala is at least a days worth of drawing and coloring. |
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| I take photos as I go in case I want to use smaller versions of a mandala. |
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| Finished mandala. |
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| I usually draw a guideline in pencil, and then create the mandala in ink on this guide. I decided to try out something a little different and so it required drawing the entire mandala in pencil and going over it with ink afterwards. You can see where I was trying out a couple different designs on the edge of this one. |
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| And here is the final drawing. I'm just figuring out how to shade with the markers. |
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| I've made a lot of blue and brown mandalas and decided it was time to draw something in the red/violet family. I really didn't like it at first. |
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But it's growing on me. I also figured out I can grab some of the ink from the pens with a wet paintbrush to create some of the shading. I'll keep making more and see where this goes.
In the meantime I've also been doing a little sewing. A quilt top for my grandson, a bucket hat for my daughter, and the hand embroidered quilted Spring Queen.
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My husband modeling the bucket hat.
It's a little big. Need to make the next size down.
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