Since I have in mind some ideas for another Mandala I finally had the motivation to push through and finish the one above. It is done, or as done as I am going to make it, it is even sprayed with its protective coating.
The art work was done using colored pencils on Bristol Board Smooth, with pen and ink outlines, size is fairly small as far as my Mandala's go, when I started this one I didn't want to commit to a lot of time, so it is only about 7.5 inches in Diameter.
I use various types of Derwent pencils (Artists, Colorsoft, Studio and Signature) and my newer PolyChromos. I usually layer all of my colors though the outer band blue is just one of the Poly's. Flowers are semi made up but mostly based on real flowers, daisy's, roses, pansy's, and poppies.
This is actually my 7th Mandala, though I only have 6 in my possession as I somehow managed to loose the first one I made back in 2009. For some reason this type of art work appeals to me. I usually choose a theme before I start working then select images to illustrate and expand on that theme. As for colors I seem to pull in a wide range, for this one there are a lot of complementary pairs, blue/orange, yellow/purple, so it makes a fairly dramatic statement.
The beagle above is from a Challenge reference photo in the WetCanvas Pen and Ink Forum. Because of #inktober I did not managed to work any of the October images, but really liked this reference of a Beagle for November and wanted to see what I could do. I used my 4x0 technical pen for this work.
The important part of this drawing to me is actually the paper. On one of my trips into Boston with the subsequent visits to Dick Blick I found and purchased a couple of pads of Strathmore 400 toned papers. Strathmore makes both a grey and the above tan. The paper is a lighter weight (only 80lb) than I would prefer for pen and ink, but the surface is fairly smooth and hard so it takes ink fairly well. The paper is slightly lighter in real life than in the above scan, but I really like the contrast of the black ink against the toned paper. I can envision using both black and white conte crayons on it, fun stuff.
Not sure what I am going to do with the above drawing on a 6 x 2 inch piece of the Toned Grey Strathmore paper, maybe make a bookmark out of it, though it needs to be backed with something more substantial as the paper itself is a bit too light to make a bookmark with. I was just doodling with various pens including some with colored inks, can you see the green? Again the scan makes the paper look slightly darker than it is in real life. Still I like the colors and am happy to have this option to work with.
Even though it is getting late in the year there are still a few trees around me that have color and leaves. The above photograph was made in a local park last Saturday. Love how the sun was lighting up the upper left area of the tree. The sky could have been a darker blue, but one takes what one can get.
That is it for today, per usual comments are welcome.
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