July 2013 Mandala a Day Pages

Completed July 2013 Spread (right)

Completed July 2013 Spread (left)

Mandalas drawn with Sharpie Pens, Gelly Roll Metallic Pens,
Office Max Metallic Markers, Tombo Markers, Pitt Pens

Here is my July 2013 Mandala a Day calendar spread.  I must confess that sometimes I've had to play

catch up to keep somewhat up to date.  I've always doodled mandalas like these but have rarely used

them as part of my art creations, so it feels good to acknowledge their importance to me.  I'm part of 

Dion Dior's Wisdom Circles group on facebook and appreciate how she honors the mandala in art.

I think the thing I've learned the most by making mandalas as art on my July calendar is how

to begin to make my favorite pens work together.  I love my sparkly Gelly Roll Metallic Pens but

not all of my usual pens want to write and draw over them.  So here is what seems to work: draw

the basic mandala with the Sharpie Pen (I've got a range of colors) and then next with the Tombos 

and add sparkle with the Gelly Roll Pens.  Tough to use a brush with Twinks (Twinkling H20s) and

Silks (acrylic glaze with mica added) since the mandalas on this page are size limited. I'll post a

picture with all my mandalas completed at the end of the month.  

My birthday month has been pretty good except it's been too hot in Colorado!  As a birthday gift

to myself I got my car's air conditioning fixed--oh happy day!  Started teaching at an additional 

technical college mid-month and have been paying my time and attention to Soul Collage.  It is

really a healing process!  I'll blog about that sometime this week.  Getting excited about my August

calendar spread.  Going to do pages like Georgia O'Keeffe Traveling Above, Looking Below cloud

painting that I often used to visit at the Art Institute of Chicago.  I'm going to attempt to record a

dream each day in the cloud/day shapes.  What image or idea are you going to play with in August?