I started feeling a little bit lost with this project so i decided to go back and do a bit of automatic drawing as this really helped me last time i was struggling. I soon realised what i was drawing and it turned into quite a controlled drawing.
My friend saw my drawing and said it reminded them of henna designs and mandala's so i had a look further into them.
Mandala is a spiritual and ritual symbol in Hinduism and Buddhism, representing the universe. The basic form of most mandalas is a square with four gates containing a circle with a centre pint. each gate is in the general shape of a T. Mandalas often exhibit radial balance.
After doing a quite image search i came across a more colourful mandala which give me an idea on how to incorporate the mandala into my work.
in Buddhist symbolism the lotus flower is symbolic of purity of the blood, speech, and mind as while rooted in the mud, its flower blossoms on long stalks as if floating above the muddy waters of attachment and desire. it is also symbolistic of detachment as drops of water easily slides off its petals.
Because of the clear link within Buddhism of the lotus flower i chose this as the flower to put in my first mandala.
I had to draw the outline for the lotus flower on a separate piece of paper so i could trace them to get the symetry needed with the focal point of mandalas.
After getting the lotus' down i wanted something a little more chaotic for my first mandala to see how they would contrast. I do quite like the finished project but i don't like random placement of the the centre because the symmetry of the mandalas is what originally attracted me to them.
I will looking further into how i can use mandalas within my work.
