Oh no! Another hobby in the making!
This one is an offshoot of the mandala rock painting, but it also seems to be every bit as addicting! I sat down yesterday with the intent of spending "just a few minutes" playing with a Helix Angle & Circle Maker to experiment with dividing circles evenly for mandalas. The next thing I knew I was drawing a mandala with little doodles.
I thought I was finished after a few minutes when I got this far, and I left it sitting on the kitchen table.
But as the day wore on, and in between other activities, I kept coming back to add "a little more". It gradually got more and more detailed and a little larger in diameter.
Those penciled concentric circles and wedge shaped divisions provide a guide for placement of repetitive yet simple doodles. resulting in a more organized structure, symmetry, and a look of complexity that really was not difficult.
Here it is before I erased the guidelines.
I don't even know what I would call this activity. It's not "Zentangle" which, according to my brief research has rules that are followed, recommended tools, and set patterns. It's not strictly a "mandala" in the traditional sense either. I've come across "ZenDoodle" in my research but ZenDoodle is less structured. I'll call this ZenMandala until I find some word name that is a better fit.
4 comments:
I'd call it ORIGINAL mandalas! Since YOU came up with the design!
The word mandala simply means circle. So anything you put in a circle qualifies. I do these and celtic knots (which are addictive too). So I call them my "meditation in motion" along with my knitting which is also tiny circles. You can see mine on instagram if you care to. @cyndiinbc
I think that doodling is great for the brain. I have been doodling again and life just seems a lot better when I do it.
Yes I suppose you're right PJ. It is 100% original. My husband has asked me a couple of times if I am doing them free hand. Well, yes, completely freehand and just as I feel inspired in the moment, but I do use a compass or the Helix circle and angle maker to draw guidelines and then place my little doodles aligned with the lines.
The common use of the word 'mandala' does refer to a circle, Cyndi. I've even seen people refer to doilies and dream catchers as mandalas, but when I said it wasn't a true mandala I was thinking more of the dictionary definition which is: "
Any of various ritualistic geometric designs symbolic of the universe, used in Hinduism and Buddhism as an aid to meditation.". Although I do find them relaxing to do I don't create them as a spiritual exercise. I loved looking at your beautiful art!
That's really good to hear Gene. The whole world could use a generous portion of "a lot better" these days and many people seem to be drawn to creating mandalas and/or doodling in many different forms.
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