2-9-24: website updated with the patterns and mandalas and discussion: mandala or not: part 1
This post to keep up with the recent release of some material on the website: (https://sites.google.com/view/artgraphic-db/)
- 100 mandalas, document patterns and mandalas (project mandalas) put online
- project catalogue: cat1861-grasslandcameroun-head, shared online
Project mandalas
I have been glad to keeping up feeding my blogs about my project mandalas, consisting:
- in a publishing activity (I put online some original designs that I have created);
- and giving more explanations about my understanding on the same (trying to understand and relate the popular side, decorative and entertaining, to the meaningful anagogic side) in a verbose activity (like this post);
Starting with the entertaining side (the today's post), I have found websites proposing mandala creation tools. These tools can be used by kids.
Non-exhaustive list:
I used the tool proposed by Staedtler (the famous marker manufacturer) to draw the mandala below. The logo can be removed eventually, especially if you save the picture on your device (then, you can use a tool like the eraser tool of MS Paint).
Mandala multigon
As a starting point about what is a mandala, I found that interesting that the notion of symmetry is important. All the drawing tools online, quoted above are designed based on this notion.
Personally, I used Google Slides to design my mandalas because I used existing patterns as basis for most of them. On this basis, I have just drawn and extrapolated patterns with an image in background. I am not sure whether the above tools can allow to draw on a pre-existing material.
Just to mention that the duplication of a basis pattern can be done by rotating a copy or a set of copies according to some geometrical properties.
For instance, a mandala with six slices uses a basis pattern repeated (by rotation) six times. The rotation angle is 60 degrees, and the center of rotation is the center of a figure called an hexagon (six-sided polygon), as shown on the next figure.
Mandala hexadecagon
I just count the number of repetitions; in this case 16 reps (slices of 360/16= 22.5 degrees of angle).
Then, I pick up the name referring to the match with the number of slices or sides:
Example: hexagon for six-sided; hexadecagon for sixteen-sided (in fact, hexakaidecagon)
And below, a sketch showing an hexadecagon, the geometrical basis to construct a 16 sided mandala (22 degrees and 8/16 of degrees stands for 22 + 0.5 degrees) :
I show below two slides, an hexadecagon used as a POC (slide1) shown with a basis pattern, and a google slides shape used to define a figure center and a frame; and an hexadecagon mandala (slide 2) drawn in Google slides (16 repetitions; In Google slides: Format Options>Angle> [set an angle]):
Conclusion: Even if a mandala has a decorative purpose, it follows a construction methodology. A mandala is supposed to show a symmetry.
However, I have created some of my own mandalas that are not symmetric in a 2D pictorial sense. This allows deviating from the geometrical framework and allows the mandalayaner to find paths beyond the geometry, I guess.
Thus, the use of colors, as some references can mention or the use of figures for some devotional meaning can transcend and also outclass the geometrical exercise regarding the purpose of meditation.
Example: The quick mandala below shows a sort of symmetry. Blobs of colors are placed in a sort of circle, defining, or showing a center in the figure. Second, the colors themselves are organized in some way; the blobs themselves have same Hue and Light, and differ in saturation only. Third, two devotional mandala colors are used, blue and red (magenta is mix between blue and red).
Is it a mandala?
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