Star Butterfly
Today I worked on a new mandala. I call it "Star Butterfly." Its
tip-to-tip diameter is 12 inches. It took about 8 hours to draw. As with
most of these "mandala-like" creations, I am never conscious of how
they will look on completion -- which is the really fun part. I call
these 'mandala-like' since, as you will note, the center symmetry
usually shifts (due to some impatience?) to a somewhat random inner (and
outer) detail. One other point about this piece is that the image only
shows the star-butterfly itself. In reality, I chose to have a lot of
illustration board white space surrounding the piece -- 15 inches by 15
inches is the final image area. I think it would look best with a thin
black metal frame (not glossy) -- with no mat. It is signed and dated.
Eventually I will place this and other mandalas on my brother Lee's
server with prices. This piece was done with 4 different pens. Three
were Micron pens of different tip size. One was a Sharpie fine point.
All ink is permanent black. White gouache was used to conceal some
errors. As with most mandalas, I used a compass and a 360 degree
protractor to develop (in this case) 12 radial lines traveling through
the center and 8 circles each of which had the following progressively
larger radii: 1/4 inch, 1/2 inch, 1 inch, 2 inches, 4 inches and finally
8 inches. The 8 inch circle was drawn using something called a beam
compass -- which I just happen to have. All light pencil lines and
circles were erased in the end.
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