Wednesday, October 29, 2008

STEP THIRTY FIVE

This is the completed mandala. It took several steps to get here. First, I cntrl dragged our Sedona bakground into our mandala. I scaled it down to size, rotated it and placed in position. I had to distort the image a little to make it more vertical. So I pulled in on the sides.
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Then I duplicated and rotated to get the ring of eight backgrounds. Next, I used the shape tool to create a deep green ocatagon for the center.
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Then I pulled up the image with the ring of stars. I deleted all the central elements leaving the deep purple circle and the ring of stars. I linked all the elements in the circle with the Sedona background and clouds. I then cntrl dragged it into the ring of stars. I had to scale it down a little and place it on center. I wanted the clouds to overlap the star ring, so I had to restack layers to accomplish that.
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Now we get to admire what we have done. I'm sure improvements could be made, but I am satisfied to where I am ready to move on to other things. Part of the beauty of these programs is that if I get inspired to add or change something later, I can go back and do so. As long as you keep layered versions, it is easy.
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At this point, I make a duplicate image and flatten it, but I save the layered version. I can then save in different formats as needed. I will usaually keep a PDF in CMYK for printing, a hi resolution JPG for viewing in Photo Gallery and so on, and a lo resolution JPG for the web as well as my PSD or CDR files
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I hope you have found these lessons helpful. Feel free to give feedback, make suggestions and spout off respectfully.

STEP THIRTY FOUR

After doing the outline, I tried something different for the coloring. Instead of going to color swatches and picking a color, I used the eye dropper tool and sampled colors from the photograph. I then used those colors with the fill tool. It worked quite well, and I actually kept those colors for the distant hills. Overall, it came out too drab. To fit our design, the colors need to be bright.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

STEP THIRTY THREE

I want to use this photo for our background. Using wide iamges that can fill up a quadrant of our circle was another grand experiment, but I am ready to try going with an eigth. It means we will have to turn the green square in the center into an octagon, but I can live with that.
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Perhaps the wider image could work, or maybe it will work better in a future design; so it is an idea I will keep as a working tool.
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We will start with this image by creating a new layer from background. We can then use the magic eraser to remove the sky. I then create a new layer on which to do my painting. Again we will use a dark brown outline with the brush tool and fill in color with the fill tool.
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It was a cloudy, rainy day when I took a lot of my Sedona pictures. That makes them kind of dull and indistinct. For our purposes, however, that doesn't matter. We can create our own distinct shapes and vibrant colors. Things like the houses in the forground are also easily eliminated. The point is that you can use photos for this that might not be good enough for other uses.

STEP THIRTY TWO

I have been asking myself if there isn't a better way to handle this issue of enlarging the page without merging and shrinking layers. It is an issue that has come up before. It is quite easy to outgrow the page in creating these designs.
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It occurred to me to try linking layers and cntrl dragging them onto a new, larger page. I tried it and it works. Afterward, you can unlink the layers and retain all your editing potential. So what is the lesson here? I mean beside learning that I am an idiot?
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One is that there is often more than one way to do things and that experimentation is part of the learning process.
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Two is that the more you work with this process, the more shortcuts you will devise and the more ability yoy will develop to solve problems encountered along the way. I have only been working with computer graphics for nine months. I have worked out a lot in that time, but I am just begining. Many of you who have more basic experience with computers and computer graphics will be able to take what I am showing you and run with it.
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Three is that we all help each other by sharing what we have learned. That is the whole point of this tutorial. I am sure that some of you are going to say that you know of quicker, easier or better ways of doing things. Brian recently suggested that I check out fractile software. That would open a whole other dimension that could be applied to these designs. I am not ready to go there yet, but perhaps you are.
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In short, take what I am showing you as a starting point and grow your own approach as you go.

STEP THIRTY ONE

I have gone into a former version of the mandala which has the layering we need. It does not have the outer ring of stars of our last version. We will have to add the new clouds and background before we merge the mandala ring and shrink it down. Once we have the circle scaled down, we can add the star ring to it.
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After scaling the cloud to fit and positioning it around the hawk, I had to add some sections to the cloud so that it surrounded the hawk. The trick here is to keep an interesting asymmetrical shape, while fitting it around a symmetrical hawk shape. We don't want the cloud to become an uninteresting blob.
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I had to work with raising and lowering the cloud layer in the palette to alternately bring it in front of or in back of the hawk as I used the brush and fill tools to add sections to the cloud. By zooming in, I was able to get the detail I needed.
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After deciding that the result was satisfactory, I duplicated the cloud around the circle.

STEP THIRTY


I control dragged the cloud into the mandala window. I then scaled it down and placed it over the top hawk to fit. It looks good and I am still feeling clever until I try to put the cloud layer behind the hawk. Because I had merged the mandala layers, I have outsmarted myself.

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I need to put the cloud behind the hawk and in front of the light blue ring, but it can't be done. This is where I start feeling dumb. Being a bulldog, however, I am not going to give up. This should just take soem back tracking.

STEP TWENTY NINE

This is what we get after completing the outline and filling with color. I decided to go with a lavender cloud for contrast. I'm still feeling clever at this point. All I have to do is cntrl drag the merged layers into the mandala.
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One more thing. Making one of these designs generates a lot of files. In labeling and organizing them, I end up with some long file names. Sometimes, I get one of those pesky messages saying that the file name will be truncated. I have started using one little trick to conserve space. To eliminate the space between words or abbreviations, I alternate caps and lower case and run the letters into each other. That way I can read them while conserving space.

STEP TWENTY EIGHT

This is the little trick I figured out. We will outline the 2 sections of clouds on separate layers and then overlap layer 2 on top of layer 1. You could do this kind of thing from separate photos as well.
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This software can make you feel so clever sometimes. In a few minutes, I will show you an example of how dumb it can make you feel.

Monday, October 27, 2008

STEP TWENTY SEVEN

Are you ready to redo the clouds? Let's try using a different photograph. I rejected this one before as not uniform enough in shape, but I have an idea of how to make it work.
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We begin by creating a new layer and doing our outline in dark blue.

STEP TWENTY SIX

Let's move on to adding the poem. Simply use the text tool. I chose to center the type on the page. This is Old Bookman font. You can guess at your type size, because it is so easy to resize your text later. I used a dark blue type instead of black. You can play with all these options.
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I woke up one morning with the image of the man and hawk surrounded by a yellow aura. In my dream, I was creating the piece in tile. I have not done that yet, but it could be impressive. If any of you are good with tile, and want to use the design to do it in tile, feel free. Just send me a photograph of the finished piece. How is that for a Tom Sawyer?

STEP TWENTY FIVE

I am always blown away when I complete a ring like this. That is 48 stars. Do you know how long it would take to do that by hand?
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There is a little guess work involved. If you have a way to make it scientific, let me know.
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I started by duplicating the first star and dragging the copy to the bottom of the circle with the down arrow.
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We know that we want to fit so many stars into a 45° arc of our circle. We want to divide 45 into equal parts. If we divide by 3, we get 15° of arc. That is obviously too much. If we divide that in half, we get 7.5 degees of arc which should be about right. That gives us 6 stars in each 45° arc. That will come to 12 stars per quadrant or 48 stars for the whole circle.
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The question is, how big should the first star be to fit into the 7.5° of arc we need? There may be a way to determine this with a protractor function, but I have not figured that out yet. You could also divide a quadrant of your radial guide down into the 7.5° segments and scale your first star to fit that. The way I did it was to duplicate and rotate my linked pair through the first 45°. When I did so, it was a little too big; so I scaled it down slightly.
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I deleted the test layers and returned to my linked pair. I duplicated that and rotated 90°. I linked those 4 layers, duplicated and rotated 45°. That gave me 8 layers already highlighted which effectively links them. I then duplicated and rotated 7.5°. Then duplicate and rotate that set another 7.5°. Repeat that 2 more times and you will have a complete ring, unless I lost count and you need to add one more set.
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Those of you have ever tried doing this kind of thing with a ruler, protractor and compass will be as amazed as I am and what this software can do.

STEP TWENTY FOUR

I left a previous version of the mandala on screen and created a duplicate image. I then control dragged the central star from one window to the other. I could have done it by duplicating the central layer. I have positioned it at the top of our new ring.
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I don't like the light blue touching the larger circle of the same color, so I see we need to stroke the outside of the large light blue circle with another color; perhaps another 12 pixel yellow ring. Let's come back to that. First, I want to complete our outer ring of stars.
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Of course, we could have added some other element to this ring. I like to repeat imagery like this, so we will go with this.

STEP TWENTY THREE



I am combining several sub steps in this one. First, we were outgrowing our page. Poor planning I know, but showing you what not to do is part of the teaching process. That way I get to show you the fix.

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To fix this I merged several layers. This was a little tricky. I had to move layers around so that the ones I wanted to merge were together. I left out the Sedona background and the clouds because I know I want to be able to edit them later. Had I merged them that would have made editing them impossible. The layers are still there, just hidden.

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Without telling you, I had added the double 8 point stars in the corners around the mandala circle. I left them out of the merge as well, because I want them to stay where they are.

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I then highlighted the layers I wanted to merge and hit merge layers. I was then able to use transform>scale to reduce the size of the circle.

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That left room to add the deep purple circle behind the light blue one. I used the shape tool and the stoked it under layer styles with a 24 pixle yellow border. Cool huh?

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If we wanted to put the clouds and Sedona background back in, we would have to reduce them and fit them back into place. I don't want to bother with that right now, so we will proceed to the next step.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

STEP TWENTY TWO

I created the double octagon in Corel Draw, but it can be done with the shape tools in Photoshop. Scale and place the first one on the circle. I bring the radial guides into view to help get the placement right. Then use the now familiar method of duplicating and rotating layers all around the circle.
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It's starting to shape up. Each element adds more color and interest. The trick is to keep everything balanced and in harmony, so that it has a pleasing impression.

STEP TWENTY ONE

This is what we get. Oops! Someone switched backgrounds on us. I confess; I did it. I thought this one would work better, but I am still not satisfied. Maybe the third time will be a charm. I also think that the cloud is too dark and otherwise not satisfactory. It looks as though we have some editing to do there as well. For now, let's push on.

STEP TWENTY



I duplicated the cloud picture and created a new layer to paint on. Using the paintbrush tool set on 5 pixels and dark blue, I outlined the various shapes that make up the cloud. Then, I used the trusty fill tool to add the colors. Trusty that is as long as you don't have any gaps in the outline. Then you need to hit undo real quick.

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Next I positioned the cloud behind the top hawk. When I did so, I found that I needed to add a little more cloud to the bottom so that it surrounded the hawk. That was easy enough with the help of the eraser and paintbrush tools.

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I just finished by duplicating layers and rotating around the circle. That is becoming old hat by now. I'm kid enough, however, to be continually amazed by the process.

STEP NINETEEN



Now we will turn this cloud into an image usable for our mandala. Are you ready?

STEP EIGHTEEN

Now that you have the hang of this, we will go a little faster. We start with the top image and duplicate the layer, rotate it 180°, and position it at the bottom of the circle. Link the 2 layers, duplicate, and rotate 90°. Voila!
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Actually, this doesn't look as good as I would like. Perhaps we can come back to this and improve it, but for now; let's move on.

STEP SEVENTEEN

This is the result of a couple of hours work/play. Now we take and cntrl drag it onto our mandala page. Then we have to scale it down and position it behind our top figure combo. It was necessary to erase a little off the bottom corners to keep it from overlapping.
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If you look at the Upright Prayer mandala, you will see that I fit a separate background image behind and between each figure. We are trying something new here. We are using one background to spam between 3 figures.
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Keep up the good work.

STEP SIXTEEN

I took this picture in Sedona in 2007. I have tried using photos like this directly in the mandala, but it doesn't integrate well into the kind of design I am using. You may find ways to make it work. If you started with photos of the figure and hawk, then you could make a mandala with all photographs.
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What works for me, is to duplicate the image and do a layer from background. I can then use magic eraser to remove the sky. If necessary, I will use the extraction filter and normal eraser to assist in accomplishing that.
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Next, I create a new layer so that I can paint over the image. If you are good with painting on screen, then you can work with various brushes and filters to create some beautiful pictures. A drawing tablet and pen is a big help. The technique I use is to draw an outline of the main forms and then fill with uniform fields of color. It works well with the geometric shapes I like to use and the simple rendering I use on the figures. Certainly, you could create more realistic and more organic images.
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I start with the brush tool usually set on 5 pixels. Adjust the size to suit your needs. I like to use a dark brown or other dark color for my outline rather than black. If you were doing a seascape, you might use a dark blue.
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Once you have your outline complete, use the fill tool to color your fields.
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Good job!

STEP FIFTEEN

Here we add a dark green square around the center. I added a darker green border. You can do that by stroking the square or by using the rectangle tool to add the border for one side. You can then duplicate it and then place around the the other sides. Another way to do it would be to use the brush tool set at the needed width. Click on one corner and shift click the other.
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There is more than one way to accomplish many of these functions. I am still new to a lot of this digital graphics, so if any of you have better ways of doing some of this design, please share with us.
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I am trying to give you enough detail in instructions to make things very clear. I am assuming a certain level of familiarity with computers and graphics programs. If you need more detail on a particular step, feel free to e mail me, and I will try to clarify as needed.

STEP FOURTEEN

In this step, we simply add a light blue circle behind our figure combos. It will be on it's own layer. You can always adjust a layer so that it is in front of or behind other layers by dragging it up or down the layers palette.
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I stroked this circle with a dark blue, 3 pixel, outside stroke. Adjust those settings to suit yourself.
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Looking good already.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

STEP THIRTEEN

Now we want to color our triangle and octagon. First, I am going to merge the layers containing the octagon and 8 point star.
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There are different ways to handle saving layers. What I do most of the time is create duplicate images and label them as phase 1, 2 and so on. Usually, when I complete a ring, I will merge it and keep a layered version. That way, I can back track and change any layer as needed.
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At one point, while creating the Peace Mandala, I had 131 layers in the palette at once. This was after completing a ring with 72 snowflakes in it, each on its own layer. That is a lot to manage, so I try not to let it get built up to those kinds of numbers.
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Zoom in to the center of the mandala and use the fill tool to add the colors. Of course many different color schemes are possible. I like to use bright, pure colors. You could use a pastel palette or more subued colors for a more realistic effect. I mostly like to keep the whole image bright, but you can make a case for creating more contrast by adding more dark colors to bring out the lights and create more contrast.

STEP TWELVE

Now we can add a complex star. I have created it in Corel Draw and exported it into Photoshop.

STEP ELEVEN

Let's add an octagon in the center.

STEP TEN

Go to layers palette and hightlight the 4 layers. Duplicate layers and choose Rotate under Transform. This time we can't use the Rotate 180° or Rotate 90° commands. When you choose Rotate, you get an option box in the options bar at he top of your window. It will show an angle icon followed by 0.00. enter 45°. The 4 layers will be rotated to give the above view.
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For other mandalas, it is not quite so easy. For example, with a 6 point design; you can't link 4 layers and rotate together. You would link the top and bottom figure combos and roatate the two layers by 60°. Then you link those layers and rotate another 60°. Or rotate the original pair by 120°. You can also enter negative values and rotate in a counter clockwise direction. There will be times when you rotate by 15° or some other value. You are smart, so you will be able to figure out how to enter the needed values in various situations.
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The above view looks good, but we need to allow a little more space between wing tips to leave room for the clouds. So I will reduce the size of the first figure combo and repeat the above process.

STEP NINE

In your layers palette, select the two layers by highlighting them. You may use the link icon to link them, but I find that unecessary. Go to Layers and duplicate the layers. Use Transform and choose Rotate 90°. You will get the above view.

STEP EIGHT

Duplicate the layer. Use Transform to rotate the layer 180°. You can then drag it into position or use the down arrow to move it along a straight vertical line. You can use the radial grid to aid in placement. Sometimes, I will create a circle around which to line up the figure combo. I am not doing so in this case, because we are still guessing on placement.

STEP SEVEN

Use Transform to reduce the size of the combo image and line up near the top of the page. Some guess work is necessary here. You may have to play with the size and placement so that they line up as needed. You won't know for sure until you start duplicating the images and see how they fit.

STEP SIX


Now comes the magic. This is what we are going for. There are choices in all of this. If we wanted to convert this to a twelve point mandala, the hole in the center would be larger and the figures quite a bit smaller. It would create more space for added elements which we will not have room for in the design we are choosing.
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There are dozens if not hundreds of ways we could go from here in creating various versions of this mandala. That is one reason I am showing you all this. I have time to make only so many designs. Feel free to create alternatives on the basic design. If I can show people how to improve on what I am doing, I will be satisfied.
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Let's break it down into the steps it takes to create this.

STEP FIVE

I line the stars up with the guides. Then I use the brush tool to draw lines from one point to another. Click on one point with the brush tool, then shift click the opposite point to draw the connecting radial lines.
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As you build your mandala, you can keep your guides hidden much of the time, but they can be essential at certain times. You may find times that you want the guides to show in front of or behind certain layers. Just raise them or lower them on the ladder of the layers palette as needed.

STEP FOUR


Let's start by hiding our figure/hawk combo. I will assume that you are working in Phoyoshop. Adapt to your program as needed if it is different. Your combo will be on a separate layer. Click on the eyeball to make it and the layer disappear.

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The mandala will take up a square section of your image. If we just wanted to create the mandala, we could use a 13"x13" image. I want to allow room at the bottom of the page for a poem so we have a larger window in vertical orientation.

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We will start by bringing over a vertical guide to the 6.5" mark. Then we bring down a horizontal guide to the 6.5" mark. I start every mandala this way so as to be able to center everything that follows.
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I then like to make a radial grid to help possition the various elements of the mandala. We now have to decide how many elements we want in a ring. I like to work with twelve quite often. On the mandala site you will see the Upright Prayer and Pandas built on hexagonal schemes. The Peace Mandala and Babaji Mandala are built on the 12 point grid. I want to use 8 points or an octagonal scheme for this one. It could be done with other numbers.
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Corel Draw has a function I like called the complex star. You could use the polygon tool in Photoshop to do the same thing. There are plenty of ways to approach this, but the goal is to create a useful grid structure.

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STEP THREE

In this step, we will add a background. I do it by opening a new file. In this case, I am creating an image that is 13"x19" because I have a printer available that can produce prints up to that size. It is best to create the largest image size you expect to use. You can always reduce the size, but you can lose resolution if yo have to blow it up later.
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I choose a white background and a resolution of 300. After creating the file, I then use the fill tool to fix my background color.
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I then use Cntrl + drag to move the figure w/ hawk onto the background.

STEP TWO

This step involves simply using the fill tool to fill in the outline with color. I have stayed pretty much true to my original, but one can make any changes desired at this point. In fact, if you want to match the original colors precisely it can be done easily. Create a split screen by going to Window > Tile > Vertical Tile with your original on one side and your working image on the other. Use the eyedropper tool to sample colors from the original and fill to your new piece.
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I have used mostly Photoshop to create this picture, but I have also used Corel Draw. The principles would be the same for other graphics programs.

STEP ONE

I scanned this outline that I had created for the original painting. If you have something like this, you can create a duplicate image and using eraser and painbrush tools in Photoshop or other graphics program; make changes as needed. I have found that by zooming in to get fine detail, I can improve on the original drawing.

BRIGHTHAWK


We will begin by taking you through the step by step process of creating a mandala I call Brighthawk.

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This is a scanned copy of my original work. I painted this on poster board with acrylics some twelve years ago. I have given away most of my art work, and don't even remember who has the original. I made this copy at the time in a copy shop. Some of the colors are darker than the original.
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That is one thing I appreciate about the whole digital process. It is possible to reproduce color and detail with such accuracy. Some of you who have grown up with Photoshop may take it for granted, but I do not.
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As I work with the software, I keep thinking to myself, "I've been waiting thirty years to be able to do this; or Wow! Did that just let me do that?"
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I am pretty good at drawing people. I am best with pencil or conte crayon, but I like working with color. I have never been great with a paintbrush. Blending and color mixing are not my forte; so while I like the concept of this picture, I have never been happy with the execution.
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Let's face it; this picture is rather ordinary. By turning it into a mandala, however, we can turn it into something rather extraordinary.
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If you are ready, let's get started.

INTRODUCTION

I think I have stumbled onto a creative process that has more potential than I myself can exploit in this lifetime, so I want to share the technique with you in order to inspire you and others to develope your own creations.
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Those of you who are better photographers than I am, could use this technique to create mandalsa from all photographs. So far, I have not done anything with blend functions, but there is lots of potential there. I use a technique of drawing outlines which I then fill with colors. Those of you who are better painters than I am can use a different way of creating the elements for the designs. There is much more that could be done with special effects tools that could give these designs an added dimension. Much can also be done with simple assembly of clip art and scanned images.
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The sky really is the limit, so lets get started.