Yucca Background Pattern 1

This pattern was created from a section of a photo of a yucca plant. These patterns magically emerge as we follow the process I have outlined before. I often feel that my job is to just get out of the way and let things happen.

Jumping Cholla/Yellow Prickly Pear Circle

I am not sure if I should call this a mandala. I see someone on Zazzle who calls her creations synbalas. Others seem to like to call their's kaleidescopes. I am considering symmedra. If anyone has a suggestion, let me know.
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This is a different approach to the design process, but it is one I will do more with. It is interesting in that I started with the outside ring and worked my way in, which is the opposite of how I usually work the circle designs.
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Gestation or procrastination or artist's block; it is hard to know. I have intended to revisit my Yellow Prickly Pear/ Jumping Cholla Mandala since finishing it, but nothing had happened. Sometimes, I think we just have to let things gestate and kind of percolate for a while before it is ready to come out. When it finally does, it gives you that aha! feeling; and there is an element of surprise. That star in the center was a wondeful gift, and total accident from my point of view.

Jumping Cholla Background 1

I want to revisit the prickly pear/cholla design. Let's start with a section of a jumping cholla blossom and turn it into a background pattern for our mandala.

YELLOW PRICKLY PEAR BACKGROUNDS

What I am happy with on the mandala designs is the background that I used. There is a lot of potential here and I am excited about the possibilities.

This first image shows the yellow prickly pear blossom I used with the blue outlined rectangle being the section I used to create the background pattern.

In the first background; I duplicated the first rectangule, flipped it horizontally, and duplicated again. I rotated 180 degrees to complete the pattern.

I expanded that to a six element pattern by the same method.

Finally, I expanded the pattern to our 24 element design. I could take it to another level if needed. Do you see how many variations can be done with this?

YELLOW PRICKLY PEAR & CHOLLA MANDALAS

Let me show you my latest experiment. Brian asked me to try a mandala design with larger flowers and no negative spaces. This is my first attempt to work with the concept. While I am not enitrely satisfied with the results, I think this approach has potential and I will continue to work on it.

I am sure there are other ways of approaching this assignment and I will continue to explore those as well. The adventure continues.