MandalaMaker™ Tutorial

This section provides a tutorial which will walk you through MandalaMaker's features as we create a mandala together. You might want to print out this page so you can follow along more easily.

Start by launching the MandalaMaker program if you have not already done so.

When MandalaMaker opens, you will see three windows. In the upper left of your screen is the Shape Palette. At the bottom of the screen is the Color Palette, and the large window in the center of the screen is the Canvas window. In the middle of the Canvas you will see a circle. This is the Preview. The Preview is not part of the drawing, but represents the next shape that will be added to the drawing when the "Add Shape" button is pressed. You can verify that the Preview is not part of the drawing by choosing "Hide Preview" from the Options Menu. When you do this, the previewed circle will disappear. You can bring the Preview back by choosing "Show Preview" or by moving any of the controls on the Shape Palette.

Now let's get started creating your first mandala!

Note that the bold text contains all the actions you will perform in creating the tutorial drawing. The rest of the text is explaination and enrichment material.

  1. We will start by choosing a color for the background of our mandala. Colors are set using the Color Palette which is located at the bottom of your screen, below the Canvas window. To set the background color, click with the mouse on the "Background" button in the "Set Colors" panel. (Note that if you have a monitor resolution of less than 800 x 600 pixels, the "Set Colors" panel is the only thing on the Color Palette. When you click on the "Background" button, the "Colors" panel will appear. If you have a large monitor, the Color Palette will already contain the "Colors" panel.) After you click on the "Background" button, you can choose a color for the background by clicking on one of the color swatches in the "Colors" panel. For this tutorial, please select a blue swatch. When you click on the blue swatch, the drawing canvas will turn blue.

  2. Next we will pick the fill color for the first shape we will draw. To set the line color, click on the "Fill" button in the "Set Colors" panel. Select a yellow swatch from the "Colors" panel. The color swatch to the left of the "Fill" button will turn yellow, and the Preview of the circle will appear in yellow on the Canvas.

  3. We will now create the first shape in our mandala, which will be a circle with a radius of 150 pixels. We change the shape using the Shape Palette. The pop-up Shape menu should already be set to "Circle," but if it is not, you should select "Circle" by clicking on the pop-up. Next we will set the radius attribute of the circle by dragging the control handle on the "Radius" slider until it reads "150." Note that the Preview on the Canvas changes size as you move the slider. Note: It is sometimes difficult to drop the slider at the exact number you want. An easy way to set the slider exactly is to drag the control handle close to the desired number. You can then move the slider in single steps by pressing the left or right arrow keys on your keyboard.

  4. Once you have the shape set as described above, you can add the shape to your mandala by clicking on the "Add Shape" button at the bottom of the Shape Palette.

  5. We will now create the next shape, which will be a star. To start, select "Star" from the pop-up shape menu. Notice that the preview now shows a triangle inscribed in the yellow circle. Also notice that many more attribute sliders are active. We will set the "Radius" slider to "140," the "# of Points" slider to "7," and the "Sharpness" slider to "50." We will also change the "Fill" color to orange as described in step 2 above. Once you have done this, click on the "Add Shape" button to add the star to your mandala. Your drawing should now look like the figure below.


  6. For our next shape we will rotate the star by setting the "Rotation" attribute to "0.5." Notice that this places the points of the previewed star midway between the points of the star we added in the last step. This will always work, regardless of how many points your star has. We'll change the Fill color of the new star to a lighter orange. Click the "Add Shape" button to add the new star to the drawing.

  7. If at any point you make an error and add a shape to the drawing before it is the way you want it, you can remove it using the "Undo" command from the Edit Menu. Let's experiment with this command now. Open the Edit Menu and select "Undo." The new light orange star will disappear. Now select "Redo" from the Edit Menu. The light orange star reappears. Again choose "Undo" to remove the light orange star. Select "Undo" a second time and the dark orange star is also removed. Selecting "Undo" again will remove the circle. Now select "Redo" until all three shapes are added back. These commands are always available, however, once you "Undo" a shape and then add a new shape the undone shape is no longer available.

  8. For the next shape, move the "Radius" slider down to "120," and change the Fill color to the yellow you used for the circle. Click "Add Shape." Your drawing should now look like the figure below.


  9. We will now change shapes by choosing "Ring of Shapes" from the pop-up menu on the Shape Palette. Notice that the Ringshape Palette appears below the Shape Palette. Go to the "Radius" slider on the Ringshape Palette (not the Shape Palette) and set it to "6." Notice that this changes the size if the circles in the preview. Now go back to the Shape Palette and change the "Radius" slider here to "85." Notice that this changes the size of the ring of circles as a whole. Move the "Rotation" slider to "0.0." Click "Add Shape."

  10. Go to the Ringshape Palette and change the shape in the pop-up menu to "Heart." Set the "Width" slider to "20." Move up to the Shape Palette and set the "Radius" to "63," and the "Rotation" to "0.5." Change the Fill color to the dark orange you used for the first star. Click "Add Shape."

  11. Move the "Rotation" slider on the Shape Palette to "0.0," and set the Fill color to the light orange. Click "Add Shape." Your drawing should now look like the figure below.


  12. Go to the Shape Palette and change the shape in the pop-up menu to "Star." Notice that the Ringshape Palette disappears. On the Shape Palette, set "Radius" to "44," and the "Sharpness" to "44."

  13. Open the Spiral Palette, by choosing "Show Spiral Palette from the Window Menu. When the Spiral Palette appears click in the "Preview" checkbox in the Palette's lower left corner. Move the sliders on the Spiral Palette and notice the effect they have on the Preview. Set the sliders as follows: "# of Steps" to "9," "Rotation Step" to "0.25," and "Radius Step" to "-2." Leave the "Sharpness Step" at "0."

  14. The black Line color appears a bit harsh for this spiral, and I wasn't pleased by any of the choices on the Color Palette, so we're going to create a new color and add it to the palette. Open the Color Picker by choosing "Add Color" from the Colors Menu. You can play with the Color sliders on the Color Picker to see how they work. Set the "Red" slider to "141," the "Green" slider to "68," and the "Blue" slider to "0." Press the "Add Color" button. Notice, if you are using the large palettes, that the new color is added to the Colors panel. Press the "Close" button to dismiss the Color Picker. Click on the "Line" button and set the Line color to the new color.

  15. Click on the "Add Spiral" button on the Spiral Palette to add the spiral to the drawing.

  16. Click on the "Preview" box on the Spiral palette. You can close the Spiral Palette if you wish by clicking its close box, or choosing "Hide Spiral Palette" from the Window menu. Set the "Radius" on the Shape Palette to "19." Change the Fill color to the bright yellow.

  17. Click the "Add Shape" button. Your finished drawing should look like the figure below.


  18. Feel free to add more shapes to the drawing, if you like.

  19. If you want to save your drawing, choose "Save" from the File Menu.

This concludes the tutorial. I hope you enjoyed creating your first MandalaMaker drawing.

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