Mandalas for Kids
Fri, November 14, 2008 at 11:18AM 
Mandalas are in focus again. While I was sketching a mandala, my older daughter asked just what defined a mandala and how to draw one. My guidance was to start in the center and work round and round using the same pattern on each level of the design. I love the mix of colors, curves and lines.
To get your kids started, you'll just need paper, colored pencils or markers and the imagination. You can do mandalas with letters (i.e. a circle of letter E's, a circle of letter G's, etc.) or symbols (i.e. smiley faces, peace signs, spiders, daisies) or patterns (triangles of different colors). For your younger artists, you may want to draw concentric circles and show them how to turn the page around as they work. Just let it play out, enjoy the fun and going round and round with details, not worrying about the symmetry or the circles.
This is going into my airline travel art project idea stash - a good fit since we always take colored pencils on trips.
For more ideas for doing mandala art with children, check out Mandalas for Kids II. More at Moleskine Mandalas II, plus check out Kata's sun mandala, Stephanie's mandalas and Whitney's Botanical Mandala made from flowers and leaves.
Reader Comments (2)
Tammy, that's so sweet of you to include a link to my piece. Thank you! I love your work with young people.
What a small world. Kata is my snail-mail pen pal!
I would like to try doing some mandalas, too.