"The Guardians"
60 x 60cm (23.5 x 23.5 inches)
Acrylic on canvas.

Original Sold

Even though I have so much to do (:)) - I have started a new work - 'The Guardians'.

New glass tile necklaces and bookmarks in my shop :)!!

"Suzanne and Zariya"
50 x 50 cm with 40cm diameter
Wax based pencil, gouache and oil pastel on paper.

Original sold.

Continuing on from the last post about my mandala making process... After painting the base of the mandala I outline the images in black pencil to give a little bit of definition. It is done quite quickly and I tend to go over it later on as I move around the mandala. I then use Faber Castell Polychromo pencils to colour the whole mandala in. The pencils are very soft and smooth to use. The colour is rich and the texture waxy. I press heavily to get a solid block of colour in all of the areas. This is a lengthy process (!! :)) At this stage I am still quite sloppy as I will be going over all the areas in detail with other mediums later on .


Once I have coloured the mandala in I start to add highlights with gouache. I mainly use white and gold. Sometimes when I paint the white in I then go over it again with pencil to soften it or push it in the background - only to redefine it again later on if I need to. What this does is give the mandala lots of textures. The gouache, which I don't dilute with too much water, comes out with a slightly raised surface adding subtle dimension to the whole mandala.


When the mandala is nearing completion I start going over all the edges with a dark pencil and touching up the colouring in from earlier so that everything is looking full and tidy. The final thing I do is to go over larger ares of the mandala with oil pastels. This emphasizes the colours that little bit more and adds extra texture to the mandala. They are pretty messy to work with so I only use them sparingly to add highlights. Once that is done I spray the mandala with a fixative to keep all the different mediums in tact and non smudging.