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A few days ago, I was at the office and I was in group supervision for some of our graduate-level counseling interns. Part of the best part of my job is that I get to expose people to some great ways of making art, and mandala making is one of the first things I try to incorporate early into the semester. The technique I use is based on a facilitator training I was able to participate in many years ago at the urging and support of my mentor. We attended the Mandala Facilitator Training with Dr. Judith Cornell, along with a group of about 30 other facilitators in training. Judith had provided this mandala training process for more than 20 years, and I am blessed to be able to share some of her teachings with even more people. At this time, Dr. Cornell has since left this earth, but her trainings continue through her books, and through the facilitators that she brought up in this process. One of her closest co-facilitators and friends was Rosie, and you can check out her tribute to Dr. Cornell here. From that link, you can also look into taking your own mandala classes! One of the great things that Dr. Cornell published that makes her process so accessible to everyone, is her beautiful Mandala Healing Kit, and even though it is out of print, you can still purchase the through Amazon here.
the kit contains the book, a CD of meditative music and chants as well as guided imagery, and finally Stencils, because it is not about the product, but instead the process of creating. She wanted to include the stencils so that no one could use the excuse that they “can’t draw” because it really is the meditation that is important.
One of the things I like best about her process, is that you really only need minimal supplies. They are quality supplies however, so if you get the kit, just throw away the pencils that come with it. They are not the intended pencils. You want to get nice quality artist pencils, and she always had us use Prismacolor pencils, for their ability to make really beautiful, bright images. They are made with a wax-y substance that makes them blend easily with one another, and are a bit softer than some of the pencils that you might find. We specifically use only 7 colors, white (PC938), magenta (PC930), orange (PC918), canary yellow (PC916), spring green (PC913), aquamarine (PC905), and violet blue (PC933). Finally, we use a Strathmore Artagain black paper, because it is a smooth, durable surface that can take the repeated layers of the colored pencils. And if you order within the next week, you can get 15% off of any order over $45 through Blick Art Supply!
Now, i decided to keep this picture and share it with you, because one thing that is true of these pencils, and many other types of drawing pencils, is that these leads will shatter if the pencil falls on the ground. It is really annoying to have to keep trying to sharpen them, but because of the wax inside, I have successfully warmed these pencils up and repaired the inner break so that the leads don’t keep breaking off. I have heard that a few seconds in the microwave will do the trick (5 seconds or so, and watch them!), but so will putting them in the trunk of a car in the Texas summer heat!
One of the first things I talk about in this training is that we have to practice slowing down; this is a meditation drawing, and you really need to take the time to get your mind to slow down. It happens very naturally in this process, but in order to have some success, I teach my students to practice their shading. Since we are using white pencil on black paper- it really is a scale of light, and in this next image, you will see that we then layer the color overtop the white. This example was somewhat rushed, for the purposes of instruction, but you really can slow down further, hold the page away from your eyes at arms length, and look to see if you are getting a smooth gradation in the white. Finally, I took each color, and using an intentionally slow, back and forth motion, I added the color, one at a time, overlapping the color to see what it looked like to overlap not only the white, but the adjacent color. And of course, we go in ROY G BIV order. Wait, for our purposes, it is ROY GAV order, lol, see what I did there?
Isn’t it amazing how those colors just pop when layered over the white?
You may also notice that I have some writing up there, and that is because Dr. Cornell also taught us to have intentionality when creating a mandala. It is a visual meditation, and an intention helps you to stay focused, and perhaps to gain some understanding in your life in some way. This wording was from a deck of intention cards that I picked up at the mandala training retreat. And I’m always surprised at how connected the words on the card ends up being to what is going on in life at the time. I just randomly choose one card, and use whatever card I get. Oh, and I generally put a date at the top of the page too. Good practice to know when you made the image.
Once we finish the fundamentals, it’s time to flip over the page, and get started.
I generally start the entire image with my white, and then I add the color later. I go through a lot of white pencils.
And finally…
This drawing was inspired by the sunrise we had the other morning. Such a beautiful phenomenon, with no expectation from us at all, and yet the sun provides so much beauty and life. Definitely Divine inspiration and the epitome of selflessness.
Let me know if you try your own mandala drawing! I’d love to see your images too!