STEP FORTY ONE

Here, we have duplicated the first pair, rotated it 180°, and moved it up adjacent to the original pair. Wow! But we are not done yet.

STEP FORTY

Here, I have duplidated the square, flipped it horizontally to create a mirror image and place it to the right. You can already see pattern developing.

STEP THIRTY NINE

I have taken the cutout and place it on my 4x6 grid on the poster size page.

STEP THIRTY EIGHT

I want to demonstrate how I have created a new background for my new pincushion cactus mandala. I am offering it here, because it is a technique that has potential for widee ranging applications.
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I start with this photo of a pincushion cactus. Note that I have outlined a square section in blue which I cut out using PSP(Photoshop).

STEP THIRTY SEVEN

CENTERING
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Keeping the rings of the mandala centered is crucial. Everything depends upon being within a pixel or maybe two of center so that we can maintain symmerty of design.
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For me, the trickiest part is when I add my first new element to a ring and then duplicate it. I usually start at the top and rotate the first element 180° and then drop it to what I want to be the bottom of the ring. I will use my grids and design landmarks to get the new element into approximate position and then I will check my positioning by selecitng both elements in the move mode. This will give you a boundinng box around those two elements. Check that the central circle that goes with your bounding box lines up with the crossing of your central grid lines. Adjust and recheck as needed.
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If you get this alignment precise, then adding additional layers to the ring is easy.

STEP THIRTY SIX

I thought I'd use a square of gravel to create a backgroumd pattern, but could see right away that it was not going to create the same kind of symmetry as the other experiments I have done. I decided to continue on, however, thinking that I might come up with something useable.

After filling the page, I applied Gaussuan Blur to the image and some symmetry appeared, but it also got rid of the hard dividing lines that showed pepples being cut in half. I proceeded to darken and increase contrast until I ended up with the image you see here. I think this is interesting in its own right although not as dramatic as the last patterns I have shown.

APPLESAUCE BACKGROUND

Applesauce anyone? I'll bet you didn't know this was hiding in your applesauce.

STEP THIRTY FIVE

We can use the same technique to make this pattern out of a close up of a slice of bread. The possibilities are endless.

STEP THIRTY FOUR

Let's play with the patterned backgrounds some more. Here, I have taken an X and turned it into 8 radiating lines. By duplicating and repeating, we create this simple pattern. Now let's put Photoshop to work. We duplicate the pattern and shift it over and down until we get this more complex design.

We could probably make the lines thinner and repeat the process to create an even more intricate design; but I'll leave that up to you.

Now let's add a remake of our previous jumping cholla mandala. Each one teaches me something new. This one is about improving the spacing of the rings. I also did not expand the mandala off the page as far which left room to make the corner duplicates larger.

STEP THIRTY THREE

This mandala is made with bouganvillia flowers. I use what I call a wave effect in many of the rings. Rather than creating even concentric rings, I get the undulating motion you see in this composition.
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In the corners, I have placed reduced versions of the central mandala.

Now, let's talk backgrounds. For posters on Zazzle, I use dimensions of 23" x 34.5". If I divide that up into four segments across, I get 5.75". If I divide the 34.5" by six down, I also get 5.75". So I can make a pattern of 5.75" squares. Here I created the blue circles and fit 4 in a square of those dimensions. I then duplicated across and then down, until the pattern filled the whole page. One can then play with color, contrast, brightness and so on to get the desired effect as a background.

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Next, I did the same thing with these celtic knot designs. The possibilities are endless.

I then took the calendula mandala and put it over each of the backgrounds. Here, I show it over the celtic knots.One neat feature of this design involves the reduced mandalas fit into the corners. While the large, central mandala expands off the page; the smaller ones include the whole mandala. I am impressed by the software that allows that.

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I liked the wave efffect I got with the bouganvillia clusters. The calendula flowers are small, and suited to curved combinations that work well for the waves. Because they don't grow in clusters, however, I needed to create my own combinations. Before assembling the mandala, I created this page with individual flowers and mirror image pairs. I then created a second page with a series of curved combinations as you see below. Together, the two pages offered a large variety of elements to work with in composing the mandala.My thought is that with large blooms with a lot of detail, the concentric circles of individual and paired blooms is best. With smaller blossoms and especially the clusters, then a larger number of concentric rings is called for, and the waves add interest to the design.

Here, I give you the same mandala over the circle pattern. You can let your imagination run wild with this stuff.

STEP THIRTY TWO

Here, we have used the flowers to create a mandala with the open star which you see here. I like the way the open area changes the rythmn of the concentric circles. On the other hand, the empty spaces almost beg to be filled. For that reason, I offer a second version with extra flowers added. I would appreciate getting feedback as to which you prefer as the star is something I can use in other designs.

STEP THIRTY ONE

I have reworked the daisy mandala to utilize the mirror image elements. I started by creating this page of flower elements to use in the design. To the individual blooms, I have added the pairs of mirror images.
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In some cases, I have created double pairings in which I reverse the left and right images to create more than one version of the same pairing. By rotating the indvidual blooms and pairing them up in various ways, I could create and alost infinite number of elements to work with.
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The page also includes some line elements. That too, could be expanded. Now with the photos of a single bloom, we have created quite a wide variety of elements to work with. It is enough to create an interesting design.

STEP THIRTY

I have made enough changes in my technique to warrant an update as a new lesson. With this mandala, I created more symmetry and created interesting negative spaces. Instead of using individual blooms for the concentric rings, I paired mirror images all the way around.
I think this adds a whole new dimension to my designs and I will be doing a lot more of these. I have also started expanding the mandalas out to the edge of the page. I think this gives a suggestion of growth out to infinity.