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.

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!