It’s been a while since I last painted a mandala, and also a longer while since I last painted “big” and standing.

I grabbed my easel, and very quickly realised why I hadn’t painted that way for a long time – my easel is the total opposite of stable. Every stroke I made made my easel move to a dangerous fashion. I will need a more stable easel (better start saving as they are pretty expensive!).

Despite the instability, I did manage to create this mandala “out of the mess” – both literally and figuratively.

My first step was to create a very messy background with black and white gesso and heavy body acrylic paints on a piece of cardboard; I also added some pieces of scrapbook paper to add different accents (glued with my trusty Mod Podge) –

I then created my mandala and blanked out with white paint the sections I would later add colour and patterns to –

I added some gold outlines and accents with my Posca paint pen for my mandala to stand out a bit more –

I let my white paint dry overnight and, first thing in the morning, added colour and patterns to my blanked out sections. I also added some green accents with my Posca paint pen to introduce a new colour and bring more pop –