01 Introduction
02 Relevant Inkscape Tools
02-01 Drawing Tools
02-02 Selecting Tools
02-03 Aligning and Distributing Tools
02-04 Transforming Tools
02-05 Grouping Tools
02-06 Coloring and Outlining Tools
03 Guide Lines Setup
04 Symmetric Object Creation
05 Ring Creation
06 Coloring
01 Introduction
Mandala art is very popular today. Most mandala artists describe the process of creating a mandala, usually drawn by hand with an ink pen, as a relaxing and meditative process. Modern mandalas are generally radially symmetric and often contain floral and/or geometric elements. Mandala designs range from very simple to very complex. Here is an example of a mandala taken from The Spruce Crafts.
I have found that creating mandalas in Inkscape is also relaxing and relatively easy since there are several tools that aid you in duplicating, rotating, and aligning elements, plus there is the added benefit of being able to color the same mandala multiple different ways without having to redraw it.
In this multi-part tutorial I will indicate the Inkscape tools that I use to create mandalas, describe and demonstrate how I create symmetric elements and place them in radial patterns, and talk about object cloning and how useful it is for coloring a design.
