Day 4 

Mandala

 

Day 4 Supplies:

Canvas:

Your Mandala

Oil Paints:

Raw Umber (any brand)

Titanium White (Williamsburg preferably)
Your mixed value series

Brushes:

You will only be using brights during this part of the Mandala.  I only had 3 bright brushes to work with (1/4", 1/2" & 3/4" Wash/Shaders).  I recommend having a couple of smaller brights as it will help getting into the corners.

Misc:

T-shirt rags

Palette (round or square - whichever you prefer) or

Palette Paper (grey - not white)

Vegetable oil for cleaning brushes

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Mandala Shading (cont'd)

Shading: 3 Triangles Connecting Crescents

This part of the Mandala is a little different.  Instead of just a couple of corners being darkened in, in this part - one whole edge and two corners are dark.  Remember to start with the mid-tone, leaving the upper edge and the three corners empty.  On this one I filled in my white first, giving it the arch to mirror the white arch in the triangle below it.  Then I applied raw umber to the outer corners and along the top.

When applying to the top, these areas were just 1/8" thick with each shade.  This allowed plenty of room for blending.  Here is where I found it really challenging to be stuck with only 3 brushes.  I did nearly this entire section with my 1/4" bright.  Because of this, my paint ended up streaky and I lost some of my good edges to blending with too large a brush.  Trying to get a smooth transition into the corners was a challenge as well, but I really liked the end result.

To clean up edges I used the tiniest amount of oil on a clean brush.  This isn't always possible when you are trying to clean up an area where the underlying paint is still wet.  Luckily, though, my adjacent layers had dried in this case and I was able to come off with a nice, crisp line.

On a different note...

The subject came up about brushes.  It seems it is not always easy to tell what kind of brushes you are using as  every manufacturer has their own way of labeling and it's not always written on the side.  For this beginner I got a lesson in the difference between brights and flats.

Brights are what we are using on the Mandala as they are shorter than flats and thus give you more control.  The width and length of the hairs are about equal on brights.  These are good for short brush strokes.  Flats on the other hand have longer hairs and are better for long, sweeping strokes as they can hold more paint and maneuver more easily.