Reflections

Reflections Project Introduction

Introduction to Reflections Project. During the first two months of the Digital Media class, we were given the assignment to create two mandalas that represent who we are as a person. One mandala was Black and white and would be engraved onto a object of your choice. The second mandala was colored and would be printed on to a plastic circle. The goal of these reflection mandala was to show who you are and present your core values through repetition of shapes, colors, and artistic styles.

My personal Mandalas

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The mandala project was designed to be a calming assignment that will help students transition from summer time back into school. The assignment included using Adobe illustrator to create an art board that can repeat drawings in a circle. For example you could repeat a drawing 8,10, or even 12 times around a circle.

 To answer “who am I?” for this mandala, I used many swirls in shapes of hearts as well as sharp triangles and points. The mixture of round and sharp edges was important for me in tis mandala because when those two opposing drawing techniques combine, it makes a beautiful piece of work.

This piece includes my life cycle, as represented by the round swirls and the rigid lines and points. The hearts and swirls represent the smoothness in my life, when everything is going fine and the cycle is repeating with no bumps or points. I wanted to add triangles and lines to really emphasize the harsh and dramatic changes that happened in my life, such as divorce and family loss. In my piece, the triangles and points tend to be the biggest shape that continues throughout the cycle, reflecting how these rapid changes are huge and can interrupt a smooth cycle.

 The best part of my BW mandala is the blend of different shapes that wouldn’t blend otherwise. this is important to me because when my smooth life gets interrupted by a harsh point, it works out because when put together they make something beautiful.

 The layers around my sun

 For this piece, I first started by making a sun in the center by using gradient colors and vibrant oranges and pinks because those are my favorite colors. This piece is different from my BW Mandala in that it uses colors to really emphasize who I am.

 The color scheme in my piece represents the layers to who I really am. in the center is my heart which is the light of my life. I like to think of my heart as a burning star that keeps me going. The second layer from the center consists of blues of all colors. This is a visual representation of my emotional shield from my heart, kind of like the sky. Wrapped around the blue layer are deep, dark purples with touches of gradient swirls. I feel like purple is such a “strong” color and shows power, kind of like myself. The purple in my life is my ability to stand up for myself nd stay strong even when life gets hard. The outer layer is back to the orange and bright yellow color scheme. I am an aries and I feel like that is the most visible thing about me. I am ambitious and passionate about everything I do and I want that to be the most obvious thing about me. Working with color allowed me to visually represent characteristics of myself that I don’t really show in my BW Mandala.

Other reflections about my colored mandala include the pink and orange color palette (my favorite colors) and each layer having it’s own variation of shapes. I surprised myself with how well I was able to create swirls and patterns that looked professionally done.

Introduce your Mandala Build Reveal Video – what u used to create it

The way of life.

My initial reaction to seeing the final laser engraved mandala on the wood included being amazed by how detailed my mandala was. This piece answered “Who am I?” Because it really shows how much there is to life, and sometimes life can be smooth, but it can also be sharp.

My choice of wood for my laser engraved mandala best represented me because each ring on the wood itself represents a year it has been growing. The more rings on the wood, the longer it has lived. I kind of see myself through wood because each year I grow, but the past years are still with me. My reflections about the entire mandala project from creating mandala templates, BW mandala with pressure sensitive brushed, colored mandala, build reveal video, and final laser engraved mandala include being just amazed at how much work goes into these kinds or art projects. I did not expect there to be so many steps, but I am happy that there are because the project wouldn’t be complete without them.

Through this project, I can apply the skills I learned about pressure sensitive drawing on adobe illustrator to my everyday art projects and make more mandalas in the future.