Mandalas – Round Decorative Designs

These days, I’ve been working on a series of mandalas or round decorative designs. I’ve always been fascinated with floral and swirl designs. I think it is because of the organic feel, the fluidness of the lines and delicate appearance that appeals to me. Throughout my years of drawing and sketching, those are the themes that often sneak into my work. You can view them at my drawings page.

Recently, I’ve been working on a series of round decorative design. Which is slightly different from what I usually do. Although it has some of the aspects of floral & swirl design, it is more rigid, symmetrical, clean and repetitious, which is very different from my usual drawings.

    

Floral Designs with a Twist

A while back, I started posting my drawings and sketches on Instagram. And while I was randomly looking through Instagram to follow people that I found interesting, I stumble upon Stainswirls. She is a Henna artist and I just love her work. I started to draw my own “Henna” inspired designs.

      

Then I moved on to these…

      

And then it evolved into this.

     

I think I changed and started creating these round decorative designs because of the simplicity of the image, which is a round image that holds inside of it a complex arrangement that is also simple of its own because of the repetition of the patterns as it moves from the center to the outer edges. It is kind of how I wish my life can be or what I strive for. Something where, at first glance, it may look chaotic and random but as I look closely, it is very simple and orderly, everything has its place. And when I move back to look at it in a distance, I find the beauty of it.

So, basically what I’m trying to say is wanting something is simple enough. But as I start to work on it, there are so many complications and moving parts, that it becomes chaotic and arbitrary. I have to remember that it is okay to think big and plan head to the end, but I need to focus on the first step, to start small and slowly move from the center to the end. And in the end, when I look back, I will realize I’ve achieved something great that I didn’t think was possible.

What inspires you and your work and why?