Mandala/Zendala Playing

I love mandala's/zendala's!  I love making them from scratch and doing the pre-strung zendala tiles from Zentangle, Inc.  Sooooo, when I saw that Geneviève Crabe of Tangle Harmony fame announced her mandala stencils, I knew I had to give them a try.  I love these stencils!  As Geneviève explains, when making mandala's from scratch, you always need a ruler, compass, and protractor.  Then its on to drawing circles, angles, all that math stuff, ugh.  Well, Geneviève created these stencils with lines and circles of dots (at all the intersecting points) a half inch apart, and gives you 3 different stencils, each angled at different degrees.  The first mandala pictured is one I made with these stencils, and it was so cool to make a mandala without using any tools.  That's right, I didn't even use a ruler once!  This is really a cool tool if you love making mandala's from scratch.  Check it out at this link and watch her video:  http://www.amarylliscreations.com/zentangleharmony/shop/mandala-stencils/. 

The second zendala is one of the pre-strung zendala tiles that come in that wonderful tin, from Zentangle Inc.  I was in a Paradox mood when I did this one. 

Last but not least, I got my first set of Tombow markers!  I just got the very basic color set and I can see now that I will need to order more colors.  Keep in mind, I am just learning to work with color.  I tried using the indirect approach on the first one and got the colors too dark, so I added a white gel pen on top. I did the direct approach on the second for more vivid color.  I have a ways to go learning color, but I know this is going to be fun and like I tell my students with Zentangle....practice, practice, practice, it just keeps getting better!