Shining Up Those Reds

Yesterday I posted a tutorial on free-hand mandalas. Halfway through I realized I had not taken some critical photos, so I stopped everything and made the above background.

It looked just like the picture above - without the mandala drawn on it :). Then I went back and finished the post with photos of the other mandala. So, today I picked this back up and completed the project. With just a few simple lines and strokes, we have the basis of a new mandala.

The background colors were made with a Koi Water Colors Pocket Field Sketch Box from Sakura. Once I finished drawing the mandala, I used my twinkling H2Os to add the design color.

The H2O colors I used are: majestic blue, sky blue, key lime, poppy red, persimmon, mango mamba, pearl green, pearl red, Egyptian gold, and autumn butternut.

Can you see some of the shine starting to show? It's really hard to photograph and capture the essence of the twinks. I love these colors so much!

There's that ring around the edge where I tipped the sketchbook and let the water colors run and spread. Love it when that works!

To finish my mandala, I used a white gelly roll pen for highlights, and a pencil and tortillion for shading.

Voila! Finished project that includes red, a color I don't like and swore at copic training that I would never use again. Haha! I actually like it here! I hope you are able to try a free-hand mandala. They are so much fun and you never know what it is going to look like until you are finished.