Many of us may know mandalas from coloring books for adults. Despite their complex appearance, ANYONE can draw a mandala.

Drawing a mandala is a form of therapy and meditation both in the East and the West. Since the mandala reflects the person who draws it, said person gets the chance to know themselves better and pay attention to themselves while focusing on drawing.

Each mandala is unique. Even if you want to draw the exact same mandala you’ve drawn before, a simple shake of your hand makes it different from the one before. After all, none of us are computers, the copy-paste technique doesn’t work so well in freehand 🙂

Since each mandala is unique, it’s wrong to call them “good”, “bad”, “beautiful” or “ugly”. There’s nothing to compare it to. The mandala is similar to humans in this manner as well. The adjectives we use for ourselves (or for others) are there according to the norms of society. You see a girl passing by and say “How beautiful”. According to what? To whom? We find ourselves (or others) ugly. Why? These are wrong, because just like a mandala, every person in this universe is unique. The more you draw mandalas, the easier it gets to understand and accept this. Mandalas help people accept themselves (and others) as they are.

Right, let’s get to the tools we need to draw a mandala.

• Paper
• Pencil
• Eraser
• Pen (black or colored)
• Compass
• Ruler
• Protractor

What makes it easy to draw a mandala is the guide you draw before starting. This guide helps us divide the drawing into small parts and fill each of them separately. After my training and research, I came up with two different techniques of drawing the guide. Basically they are the same, but the path they follow is slightly different. You can find both methods below. Use whichever suits you the best.

Method 1: Starting with circles

Place the compass approximately in the middle of the paper. Without lifting the needle, draw several concentric circles. To avoid the needle from moving, put some pieces of paper below the one you’re drawing on and push the needle into the paper.

Take the protractor and place its midpoint to the center of the circles.

Now we will start dividing the circles. This determines how many slices your mandala will have. Remember, if you divide it evenly, your mandala will look more smooth.

45 degrees is good for a start. Take your pencil, and mark 0, 45, 90 and 135 degrees on the paper with a small line. Try to make these lines as light as possible.

Turn the protractor upside down and do the same for the other side.

It’s time for drawing the guidelines. Keep in mind that all lines should pass through the center of the circles. Put your ruler on one of the marks, adjust it so it passes through the center, and draw a light line to the matching mark. Do this for all the other marks.

The line should connect two dots and pass through the center. The image on the left is how it’s supposed to be. The image on the right is how it’s not supposed to be.

And your guide is ready! You can start drawing your mandala.

Method 2: Starting with lines

Find the midpoint of the paper. Using your pencil, draw a light horizontal line from one side to the other.

Put your protractor in the middle and mark the angles of the slices. I will be using 45 degrees like the previous example. Mark 0, 45, 90, 135 and 180 degrees with your pencil.

Do the same thing for the other side.

Use the marks and the center point to draw your lines. Remember, all lines should cross through the center. Draw light lines using your pencil.

 

Draw your lines.

Your guidelines are ready. Now take your compass, put it on the midpoint, and draw concentric circles of different sizes. To avoid the needle from slipping, draw in a notebook or place some pieces of paper under yours and push the needle into them slightly.

Your guide is ready. Now you can start drawing your mandala!

Drawing patterns

Mandala is an artform that allows you to draw any and every kind of pattern you want. They can be abstract or instantly recognizable. What matters is that you relax while drawing your mandala, relieve yourself of stress, and enjoy yourself.

Usually you start drawing from the center outwards, but it’s not a rule. If you like, you can start from the outmost circle as well. In this example, I’ll start from the center and go out.

Take your pen and draw a shape in the middle.

Repeat drawing the shape until you complete the circle. Remember, it’s important to focus on what you’re drawing at the moment. Don’t think about what you’ll draw next or how you drew the previous one. Also, you will be more comfortable if you rotate your paper while drawing.

The central pattern is finished. On to the next circle. Like before, draw a shape or pattern you like.

Continue drawing on the rest of the slice.

If you like, you can re-draw one of the guide circles with a pen and get a darker circle. This can act as a border, too.

Try something different in the next step. For example, instead of taking the guidelines as your boundaries, take their midpoints.

Fill in the rest like before.

Let’s continue. You can make some of the patterns darker, or fill them completely to create contrast from time to time.

If you think the shapes you use are too simple (or too empty), fill them. Remember, you are free to do whatever you want.

The compass you have may not allow you to attach a pen to it. In this case, you’ll need to draw the circles freehand. Yes, they will not be perfect. But don’t let that stop you, because what in life is? Besides, you’ll see that the more you practice, the easier it will become to draw circles freehand.

Let’s say your hand shook and a part of the circle looked crooked. If that bothers you, take a thicker pen and draw another circle on top of it, hiding your “mistake”. If you don’t have a thicker pen, you can use the same pen to do this, too. This bold circle will also create contrast in your drawing.

As you approach the outer circles, you’ll see that the area for the pattern increases. Just because the area is bigger, it doesn’t mean the pattern has to be bigger, too. You can divide that part into two, three or four. Do this either by using your protractor, or just your eyes, it’s completely up to you.

If you like, fill in the rest of the space however you want.

Your mandala can be as big (or small) as you want. Even if you drew eight circles initially, you can say “This is enough” when you’re at the fifth. You don’t have to fill in all the circles.

I will be finishing mine at this point. You can go on if you like.

If you want a cleaner look, erase the guides you drew with your pencil. After that either leave it as it is or color it.

What to do and what not to do after drawing a mandala?

Look at your mandala. By using very simple shapes, you managed to create a complex drawing. The “mistakes” you made aren’t visible anymore, or places where you thought you screwed up. You reached your goal. You wanted to draw a mandala, and now you have. Congratulations!

There’s a tradition of creating sand mandalas in Buddhist temples in Tibet. Yes, it’s exactly how it sounds, you create mandalas using sand. After it’s done, it’s ceremonially destroyed. They do this to emphasize that no matter what we do, we will all end up in the same place, and that nothing is permanent. What matters is the journey, not the destination. The result isn’t important, the steps you follow to reach it, is.

Now, you can tear up your mandala, gift it to someone, or put it on your wall. If you’ll excuse me, I need to contradict myself. I’m 100% sure that what you’re holding in your hand is beautiful.

Because YOU made it, and just like you, it’s unique.