Color Me Fall! Tips for Coloring the Fall Goddess Mandala

What springs to mind when you think of Fall? Cool weather, light breezes, hot cocoa and the warm colors Fall brings. The colors you see in the leaves when they change like deep reds, warm oranges and yellows and soft browns. These are the traditional colors of the Fall season and this is what I decided to use to color my mandala with. You can of course choose whatever colors resonate with you.

In this mandala there is a Fall goddess in the center with a Fall leaf on her belly. She is surrounded by Fall leaves, pumpkins, acorns and other geometric shapes.It's best to start coloring in the objects around the goddess first. This way you can choose the best color for her to stand out the most. It might be better to choose a lighter color for the goddess since she is in the center and your eye is immediately drawn to her. So you want her to stand out. Color her in light and then use darker colors around her. This will make her color really pop.

Ready to start coloring? Grab your colored pencils, your cup of hot cocoa, get in your comfy spot and get your color on! Try to envision how you want your goddess mandala to look before you start adding color. Ask yourself some questions like: What feelings or mood to you want to portray? Do you want to frame and hang this on a wall in your home? If so what are the colors in that room? What does Fall mean to you? Answering all these questions first will give you a better idea of what colors to choose.

You can use colored pencils or markers or even pastels to color these in. I personally like to use prismacolor colored pencils and the pencils I used were: spanish orange, goldenrod, sienna brown, dark brown, crimson red, tuscan red, poppy red, orange and canary yellow. One technique that I like to use  is to color in an area with a lighter color and then go around the border with a darker color. For example using poppy red to color in a fall leaf and then using crimson red to color in the border of the leaf and then blending those two colors together.

So play with your colors and throw around some ideas in your head. You will find a style and a way that works best for you. Please feel free to post pictures of your mandalas when you've added color. I would love to see how everyone's turned out and all the different colors that resonate with each of us! To get the Fall goddess mandala please go to my etsy shop so you can download, print and start coloring.

Happy coloring!