How to create a mandala.

This is about making mandalas (and other geometrical designs based on mandalas). Here are some example mandalas:

The first thing to do is to run the program Gliftex (free demo download here) and click on the blue lightening bolt icon in the top left:

This will not give you the mandala that you want, it probably won't even give you a mandala, but don't worry. Now, right click on the image created and select from the menu which pops up "Change Form...":

Once you have clicked on "Change Form..." choose Mandala from the list box:

Now click on OK and you will get a dialog box where you can change the layout of your mandala:

Now you can play around with the sliders for find a basic mandala form and shape which you like. Then click on OK. The image which is produced will have the shape of the mandala, but the details will be chosen by the interpretation, which you can also change.

The best a nd easiest way to create a lot of mandalas which you can later fine tune is, after creating the first as explained above, click on the "Interpretation icon":

Clicking on tells the program to keep the form the same but change the interpretation of that form. Here are some example images using the same form but different "interpretations":

Of course you may find an image you like, except for the colors. You can experiment with the mandala colors by clicking on this icon:

Here for example is the result of creating different color versions of the above mandala:

And if you ever want to save the images you can do. And you can go back to see the mandalas you've already made by double clicking on the image to get the thumbnails dialog:

There is a free demo of Gliftex you can download so you can try the above tutorial yourself. And remember that Gliftex is not just for creating mandalas, it can also be used for backgrounds and textiles and many many other things (as another example look at these floral designs).

Click below to see Sue Chastain's review of Gliftex on About.com:

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