2017-222: Playing with Orange Mandala

My painting and coloring progress for today:

[Select an image for a larger view]

1 – started here

2 – dry coloring with watercolor sticks (blue, teal, light blue)

3 – start adding water

4 – done adding water to background

5 – enhance elements within the orange (darken some areas)

6 – add gel pen details

– add black “leaves” around the outside

8 – add gold to the outside “leaves”

9 – add white to the outside “leaves”

10 – add white dots outside the “leaves”

11 – add orange, yellow, and white wavy lines in the orange

12 – finish off with adding orange, yellow, and white wavy dots in the orange

Last Sunday I played with watercolors by wetting the surface and then dabbing in colors with a wet watercolor brush to see what happens as the colors bleed, spread, pool, and mix with each other. A dear friend calls this style of painting “Happenings” because you never know what’s going to happen.

Image #1 shows what happened on Sunday when I played with yellow, orange, and red. Today I decided to improvise with my happenings result, to just go where it wanted to go. I started by filling in the background (images 2-4). Dry coloring several colors together and then adding water always gives me a lovely surprise, as was the case again today.

From there I fine tuned some of the elements within the orange, giving them more definition and clarity (image 5). Then with the gel pens, I just doodled away as the spirit moved me (images 6-12).

It does our Creative Spirit good to just play with abandon once in a while. And “orange” I glad I did today. 🙂