Brilliant Cut Mandala to Color

There is something very mandala like about a faceted gemstone. The cuts are designed to show off a stone in the best way possible and are generally radially symmetric. Done in miniature scale on small rocks that can be ruined so easily. So this simple mandala is inspired by that fine art.

But first a bit about shading diamonds that can also apply to other things. It's hard to color something "white"- the paper is already white! But things like diamonds get their beauty from the way they refract light and break it up into rainbows. If you look at the example above, I used a bunch of shades in gradients with white. You can get the same effect smudging your art media. But even just laid in plain pastels you still get the diamond effect if you use a spectrum of colors rather than just a few. So just an idea for shading them to look like diamonds. You could also just used monochromes to make your own favorite gem stone. Personally, I like emeralds!

Click the images for a larger version to print and color.

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