STEP TWENTY NINE

I used the star tool and the complex star tool in Corel Draw to create this star background. It could be done in Photoshop with the shape tools, but it would be more work. I created each kind of star in Corel and exported to Photoshop where I was able to duplicate, scale, rotate and change fill color to create the variety you see here. Just keep adding layers to the bottom of the layers palette so that new layers sit behind the previous ones.
This gets a little tricky with the parts that go off the page, but you'll be able to figure that out.
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This kind of background is something I am sure to use again.

STEP TWENTY EIGHT

Going back one step, I created a star background and dragged our mandala onto it, but found that it was too light; so I created a new layer from backgorund and went to image>adjustments>hue/saturation. The bottom slider in the dialog box is for lightness. I slid it left -50 to darken the background to what you see in the previous post. I think you will agree that it is much better than this.

STEP TWENTY SEVEN

Let's revisit this mandala one more time, again. I created an alternate background and dragged our mandala onto it. Let's see how we arrived at this point.

STEP TWENTY SIX

I decided to revisit this mandala one more time. Sometimes, I wonder if I'll ever really be done with any of these. I added flowers inside the star points and darkened the background. I think this is an improvement.

STEP TWENTY FIVE

We have one other option before class is dismissed. Here, I have superimposed text over part of the image. This is especially useful for card designs.
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Visit my Brightlight Mandala site and see if you don't get more ideas and inspiration for ways to expand on what I have shown you here. If you have specific questions about how something is done, put it in an e mail, and I will be happy to respond.
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Enjoy!

STEP TWENTY FOUR

The next step is to change our backgorund. We could just fill with a different solid color. In this case, I use a textured pattern with the gray to add a subtle effect that makes the flowers float on top of the background. Dark, neutral colors will bring out the color in the blooms well, but sometimes I like a brighter background to add color to the total image; especially when I am creating a card design.
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I have also used foliage backgrounds and will do more of that in the future. I got a very nice effect with that on my poppy line mandala. You can take a small image of a piece of foliage and tile it to create an almost kaleidoscopic effect.

There is plenty of room for you all to add your own approach to all this and to create your own style of flower mandalas. I hope you have as much fun with it as I do.

STEP TWENTY THREE

Once our mandala is done, we have the problem of what to do with the rest of the page. We could do a square print, but if we want to go with standard size prints and not waste paper, then we have page to use up. I have worked with this in several ways.
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In some cases, I have moved the mandala to the top of the page and added text below it. We could keep adding rings to the mandala so that they fill the whole page. With my first calendula mandala, I added just one extra ring that ran off the page. Photoshop has all the data to recreate the whole ring, including the elements that don't show on the page; truly amazing technology. If you create extra rings expanding off the page, you could even shrink them down to fit if you wanted to for some applications. The idea is that you would fill the entire page with mandala that simply gets cut off at the sides. It can be a nice effect. I have seen people do it with their fractal mandalas.

The solution I use the most is to add individual flowers or flower composites above and below the mandala in a symmetrical arrangement. It gives me a chance to give the viewer some large flower images to appreciate for their detail. I think it makes a nice balance to combine the pure beauty of the flower with the grace of the geometric mandala design. I'll let you be the judge.

STEP TWENTY TWO

OK. Let's shrink the mandala down enough to add some individual flowers at the star points outside the outer ring. We will label this as phase7.

STEP TWENTY ONE

This is phase 6. I have duplicated, saved, merged and labeled as usual. I began by expanding the polygon a little. We had created 2 lavender line elements, now we add 2 pink lines. We will use them to create a 12 sided polygon around the star. By now you know the drill on how to get that done. This completes the mandala itself, but we could keep going and add more rings, more elements and more complexity if we wanted. Our mandala has expanded beyond the sides of the page, but it is a simple matter to scale it down to fit. If we wanted to add another ring or two, we would scale this down as needed first.

STEP TWENTY

Now, we are going to bring in a whole new element to create a star. So far we have been able to let Photoshop do most of our placement for us in creating perfectly concentric rings. This time, we need to give our program a little help. I use the polygon shape tool set to 12 sides to create a yellow polygon surrounding our outer ring.
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In some mandalas, I will take a shape like this and make it a design element. In such a case, I will usually stroke it with a contrasting color so that it has an outline. We could create a series of such shapes concentrically, each with a different color; so as to add more color to our backgrounds. See some of my mandalas with figures.
We now take 4 flowers and create what I call a "line element". Arrange the flowers in a line as seen above and overlap them to create the line. Play with it until you get a design you like. You can then duplicate your image and flip it horizintally so that you have a pair to work with.
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Scale the lines down and drag to the top of our outer ring. Rotate them, position and scale until you get the star point you need. Link the layers and duplicate. Follow the preceding process to complete the star all the way around. You may need to readjust if the points don't quite fit. In this case my points were spaced out too far, but came together as I wanted, so I linked all the star layers and scaled them down for a perfect fit.
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If we wanted to, we could put a small flower at the tip of each point to create a sharper point. We could also place a larger flower in the center of each point and another between points. I am going to leave this more open look, but you are free to experiment.
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When we are done with them, we can hide our line elements. Hidden layers will be deleted when we flatten our final phase.

STEP NINETEEN

This is developing nicely. The beauty of all this is that if you don't like how it is turning out, you can go back and change things so easily.
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I like to set up a varied rhythm between the concentric circles. To do this, I vary the size and spacing of the rings and in this case; we are alternating between the pink and lavender flowers. We are going to create a ring of 24 blossoms and set them just outside our ring of 12.
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We choose a pink blossom and place it above our previous ring. Proceed as before through the first 4 layers. Now duplicate and rotate 45° creating a set of 8 layers. Duplicate and rotate 30°. Repeat. This gives us a ring of 24. Amazing, eh?

How about we add a smaller ring of flowers and layer it behind the ring of 24? Now we have a double ring with 48 blossoms. Are you starting to get the picture and see the potential in all this?
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Save, duplicate, merge and get set to tackle phase 5.

STEP EIGHTEEN

In this lesson, we will create another ring, but it will echo the cross shape as well. We have duplicated our image, merged the 16 layers of ring 1 and labeled this as phase 3.
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We now select a lavender blossom and create a ring of 12. When I am tansitioning from a ring of 8 to 12, I like to leave sufficient space between the rings so that the eye is not offended. Proceed as previously duplicating and rotating through the first 4 layers. Now, however, instead of rotatin 45°, we will rotate 30°. Duplicate those layers and rotate 30° again. Presto! We now have a ring of 12 flowers. Again, we have some big gaps. We could adjust scale and positioning to convert this to a ring of 24, but I want to try something different.
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Select anothe flower to fill in gaps and scale to a little smaller that our exixting blooms. Rotate so that it fits into ring. Duplicate and flip horizontlally. Duplicate and proceed as before to create the image you see here. We could duplicate our first smaller flower, rotate it to fit and fill in the gaps to create an unbroken ring. I am choosing to leave the gaps and create an echo of our central cross.
The mandala designs are about repitition and symmetry, but we need to add interest by breaking up the sameness and incorporating some elements of surprise.
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After you get through staring in amazement at what you have just done; duplicate image, save original, label duplicate as phase 4, merge layers of ring 2, and fasten your seat belts for lesson 19.

STEP SEVENTEEN

We will start this lesson by duplicating our previous image and merging the 4 layers of the cross and label the resulting layer as cross.
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I do this as I proceed with my mandala creation. We can keep the number of layers to a manageable level, but retaining all layers between the various phases, so that any step can be changed or recreated as needed. This takes a lot of memory, but gives us a lot of flexibility.
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Label the new image as PH2 for phase 2. Now we will kick it up a notch. Let's create a ring of 8 blossoms. Select the flower you see here and positon it above the cross allowing some space in between.
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We could choose other numbers of flowers for our ring, but 8 is the easiest to work with and we want to ease you into this. We could create rings of odd numbers, but even numbers are much easier to work with, so I usually use rings of 8, 10 or 12 and multiples thereof.
Duplicate layer, then go to edit>transform. You can rotate 180° or flip vertically. You could drag the duplicated layer to the bottom of the cross and it would be quick, but I usually use the arrow keys, because it maintains one axis of movement, which aides in positoning. So use the down arrow until you have your duplicate layer in positon. Use your grid lines to help in this.
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Select these 2 layers and duplicate. Rotate 90°C. Now select the 4 layers and duplicate. Go to layers>transform>rotate. Up in the tool bar, enter 45° in the angle box. Watch the magic. We now have a ring of 8 flowers. Click the check button in the tool bar to apply the changes.
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If the flowers overlap or don't have a symmetrical arrangement, then click on the cirlce with the diagonal slash in it to deny application. Go back and redo as needed. You may need to rescale the flowers up or down or positon closer to or further away from the center.
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In this case, we have some pretty big gaps, so we are going to fill in with new blossoms and convert this to a ring of 16. Are you ready for this?
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At this point, we need to create a circle to use as a guide. I go to the shape tool and select the ellipse tool. By alt shifting from the center, I drag out until my circle just surrounds my ring of flowers. I have chosen yellow, but there are other choices. This layer can be hidden and won't show in our final image. It can also be expanded to serve as a guide for succeeding rings.
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Select a new flower and drag onto page. Position between the top flower in our ring and the one just to the left and roate so that it fits. We could scale these flowers down so that they don't touch or barely touch. We could also let this new flower overlap the first 2, but let's put this layer below the first 8 in our layers palette so as to position it behind the first 2. Our circle comes in handy in guiding our positioning of this flower.
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There are a couple of options here. We could rotate 180° and proceed as before with duplicating and rotating layers as with the first 8 flowers. I want to show you and alternative, however.
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Duplicate layer and go to edit>transform>flip horizontal. Use your right arrow key to position this flower just to the right of our top blossom. Now, we select the 2 layers and duplicate. Rotate 180° or flip vertically and move to bottom of the ring with the down arrow key. Select the 4 layers and duplicate. Rotate 90°. Now we have a ring of 16 blooms. Isn't this fun?