Layered Mandalas

Inspired by the work of Jonathan Cope, I tried out a different sort of mandala process, and figured I'd share. What it basically is is copying and flipping and layering a picture over itself. A brief tutorial will follow, after the pictures, so you can see what I'm talking about.

They look like watercolor paintings to me.














Okay. First, start here with the mandala template. This one is really simple, just a big black circle in a square document (you could, in fact, make your own easily if you, say, need a different size). Open that up, and the photo you want to layer into oblivion too.

Copy the entire photo of your choice, then in the circle document select the black circle with the Magic Wand. Then choose Paste Into from the Edit menu, which will give you a Layer One, and arrange it as you like.

Go back to the Background Layer and select the big circle again; then in Layer One (so you are selecting the picture, not the big black circle) hit Copy, then Paste, which will give you Layer Two.

Turn off the Background Layer.

Go back to Layer Two and under Edit-->Transform choose Flip Horizontal (which the pedantic grammarian in me notes actually should say "Flip Horizontally," as it's an adverb, fer cryin' out loud). Then set the opacity of Layer Two to 50% (this is a little slider bar on the Layer window), then Merge Visible under the Layer menu.

Duplicate this layer (either under the Layer menu, or from the little Layer window where you can access it with the little arrow-in-a-circle thingy), then under Edit-->Transform choose Flip Vertical (again, Vertically, O Software Engineers Who Think They Can Disregard The English Language). Again, set this layer's opacity to 50%, then Merge Visible.

Duplicate this layer one more time, but this time under Edit-->Transform choose Rotate 90 degrees (clockwise or counterclockwise doesn't matter), then set the opacity to 50% again and Merge Visible.

At this point you are either done, if you want a fourfold mandala, or, if you want to be especially complicated, you can duplicate the layer again, rotate it 45 degrees, set the opacity to 50% again and merge to get an eightfold mandala.

At any rate, by about now the thing is looking pretty grey and washed out. Go in and adjust the brightness/contrast or hue/saturation until you are pleased with it.

Drop in the background color you like and Hey Presto! You're done.

The sixfold ones are quite similar:

Follow the same steps as above until you have the first two layers merged (so you have a symmetrical-looking circle).

This time, make two duplicate layers of that one. Turn one of them 60 degrees and the other 120 degrees.

Turn off one of those new layers, let's say the one turned 120 degrees, for now. Set the opacity on the 60 degree one to 50%, then Merge Visible with the first layer (the background layer should be turned off at this point). Then turn on the 120 degree layer, set that one's opacity to 50%, then Merge Visible that.

Now duplicate that layer, flip it horizontally, set the opacity to 50%, then merge.

And duplicate that layer, flip it vertically, set the opacity to 50% and merge.

Then adjust your brightness/contrast and/or hue/saturation or whatever else you like.

Drop in the background you like, and done.

I tried to figure out how to do one in 5's but am having a tough time getting the layers to be equally opaque, since it's not so much about doubling things. It's tricky and we'll see if I can manage.