How to Create a Mandala in Inkscape - Part 1: Intro and Setup

Quick Access

    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.

Switching from Windows to Linux

The time has come, the Walrus said,
To talk of many things: Of switching now to Linux,
Putting Windows in the wings.
- (Nod to Lewis Carroll)

I was a software engineer on UNIX systems for fourteen years. When I retired in 2004, I switched over to using Windows on my home computer. Windows XP was great. All of the software I wanted to use worked fine on it and life was good. When Windows Vista was released, I simply ignored it and continued happily on my way with XP. Then one day, due to a death in my family (my computer), I was forced to buy new hardware. Fortunately, at that time Windows 7 was available, so I started using it and life continued to be good. Windows 8 came and went while I happily continued using Windows 7.

Creating a Tiling 3D Geometric Pattern Using Inkscape

Some time during the latter half of 2015 I sketched out the following design which I wanted to create as a pattern.

I finally got around to working on it at the end of January 2016. Creating the basic shapes in Inkscape was very easy. The fun came in when I started messing about with various filters to see what kinds of effects I could get. After a lot of experimentation I eventually ended up with this design.

In this tutorial I explain how to create this design using the simplest steps I can think of. My actual process was much more complicated and involved a lot of trial and error. (Please note: This tutorial is intended for instructional purposes only. I am not granting permission for anyone to use or publish this design in any form.)

Creating the Trojan Zebra with Inkscape

The intent of this article is to show my creative flow with Inkscape as opposed to giving a detailed step-by-step tutorial, which would be difficult with anything more than a simple design.

In June of 2015 I had the idea of drawing a zebra with a hair headdress instead of a mane – a kind that would look like the horsehair brush on an ancient Greek helmet. (My thought was, the zebra was bald and had to wear an artificial mane to keep up appearances.) I drew a quick sketch to save the idea and finally got around to working on it in August.

How to Create Tiling Patterns in Inkscape – The Grid Methods

Patterns that tile can be fun to create and are useful for filling large spaces, like fabric, comforter covers, rugs, and so forth. There are many different methods that can be used to create these sorts of patterns. Herein I describe some simple methods that I think of as the grid style and which I used to create these summer-themed tiling patterns.

A Painting Tutorial by Evelyne Schulz

Many months ago I discovered Evelyne Schulz on Twitter due to a GIMP-related post. I immediately loved her artwork and, after some correspondence, she graciously agreed to write a tutorial about how she creates her digital paintings in GIMP. What follows is what she wrote about how she created her Warrior painting, with editing and inclusion of a description of the Palette Editor by me.

How to Import EPS Files into Inkscape

While browsing the shelves of a local discount book store, I stumbled upon an interesting pattern book called Drip.Dot.Swirl. by Von Glitschka, published by HOW Books in 2009. Being a bit of a pattern nut and seeing a lot of patterns in the book that I liked, I was about to buy the book when I noticed that the DVD that was supposed to be in the back of the book was missing. The DVD contains editable vector files, swatch libraries, and tutorials and is at least half the reason for buying the book. Being undaunted, after a quick search online I found a copy of the book and had it in my hands within a week.

Drip Dot Swirl: 94 Incredible Patterns for Design and Illustration

I happily popped the DVD into the drive and grabbed the first vector file, only to discover that all the files are in encapsulated PostScript (EPS) format and plain vanilla Inkscape is completely unable to load them. Fine. Back to the internet. After poking around for a while I finally found some useful instructions at InkscapeForum.com. Here's a quick step-by-step on how to set up Inkscape so that it can read EPS files. (Please note that these instructions are for Windows 7. For later versions of Windows, the way to get to your environment variables will probably be slightly different.)