My first scheme was the Tetradic Rectangle (first vertical squares). I chose purple, brown, green and blue. I then adjusted the hue and greyscale to lighten each tone to make it comparable to the black and greys on the first line.
Then I experimented with Complimentary colors and applied the same strategy of adjusting the grey as the tetrad rectangle. This was interesting because I noticed a pattern forming. I noticed that I can combine the shades in any order I want- horizontally, vertically and diagonally.
At this point, I still wasn’t satisfied with the combination of colors I had, so I started playing with Analogous combinations, with both the warm and cool sides of the color wheel.
My previous discovery about the different combinations was becoming more and more apparent, the combinations were also looking more appealing.
Monochromatic combinations were the most interesting in my opinion because I was able to feel movement and a sense of flow with them. the various combinations intrigued me and I could really use these tones to show intent in various ways.
These were Split Complimentary color combinations. I found these really interesting, mostly because they are a combination of 3 different colors, and the colors combine together to make several hues. hoever when I tried them on my mandala, I just wasn’t able to achieve the movement and fade that I was going for.
I chose an analogous colors scheme for this mandala. I decided to use a warm and light combination because I wanted the colors to fade into the background and I was able to achieve that with the yellows and oranges. The line weights worked in my favor, its most apparent in the middle circle where the bottom “feathers” fade away subtly. I had to make some changes to this mandala- adjust line weights, remove the “swiggles” on the feathers and correct some inconsistencies that were causing the mandala to be less coherent. In this version, I made the tip of the pinecone “darker” and made it lighter as it moves inward.
This accurately portrays my process when I was creating this scheme. I moved the circle in the directions to create these shades. In my final mandala, I decided to use the diagonal combination of shades because they were the most diverse and allowed me to intentionally create movement in several different parts of my mandala.
I had to decide if I was going to preserve the style of my initial mandala or if I wanted to fill it in. Since I turned my Analog version into a raster, I had more flexibility in making new decisions when it came to experimenting with different colors. After filing in the lines, I decided that I wasn’t able to truly express my intent with just the lines with this specific scheme.
For this Mandala, I decided to alter my original lined composition. With this decision, I was able to portray my intent a lot more apparently than with the first one. The way the hues of blue move inwards really completed the original composition. I still changed the little inconsistencies and redrew the “feathers” to make them more symmetrical and cohesive. I really enjoyed creating contrast with the dark and light shades. The monochromatic tones worked really well with creating movement the several different parts of the mandala working together to make a cohesive whole. The pinecone successfully acts as a background for the center piece because of the lighter cone and the darker and wider piece.