For this project, I created two mandalas and a video that shows the process of making one of them. If I were to redo my black and white mandala, I would have experimented more with varied pressure brush strokes. I think they could add intriguing detail to my piece that makes it less uniform. I would also change my colored mandala, as I had a lot of trouble coloring it. Because I used white to “erase” black strokes, I couldn’t just make a colored layer underneath my lineart layer and instead had to set my colored strokes to the ‘darker color’ effect so that the white wouldn’t show up. Sadly, this caused a lot of the colors to look darker or dimmer than I wanted them to be.
I really enjoyed the Mandala Project because I had a lot of fun trying to work in really small details that referenced my hobbies, likes and dislikes, and personality. Some of the things I added are so personal that only I understand their meaning, but I like it that way because it makes the work feel more vulnerable.
The overarching question of this unit is “Who am I,” so I tried my best to infuse my art with as much of my personality as possible. However, it can be very difficult to express yourself in simplified symbols. I learned that above all else, I wanted to be honest in this process, because my favorite works of art are raw and tell the truths about the artist.
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