Mandala with Color Theory

This activity is suitable for a Color Theory revision. With 6th grade students, we created a mandala-style design, but drawing only a portion of the circular decoration, without making a complete circle. The design will be divided into seven sectors and each sector will be colored with a category of colors, according to the groups we have studied in the COLOR THEORY: primary, secondary, neutral, warm, cool, complementary, value scale.

To draw our mandala we use an A4 sheet and draw a 2 cm frame. Using the paper in portrait format, we measure a height of 12cm on the long side, starting from the lower right corner. At the height marked, we trace a point 2 cm inwards, as in the figure below.

We trace the largest semicircle with a compass, aiming at the point drawn with a radius of 12 cm, and then we trace 4 internal SEMICIRCLE as desired.

If we do not have the tools or the time to take measurements and trace the semicircles we can use the worksheets you find here with the semicircles already traced, on which the students can then draw the decorations:

On these semicircles we begin to draw simple freehand decorations with a pencil, filling the rings of the circle and also the outer space with petals, circles, lines, triangles, flames, arrows, points … Here below are some examples that I have proposed on the blackboard and the imaginative drawings by the students traced with a black permanent marker.

If we want to work directly with colors we can also use the worksheets with 6 different types of ready-made mandala decorations that you can find here below:

The mandalas drawn with the black marker have been divided into 7 sectors with oblique lines and each sector was colored with a category of colors: primary, secondary, neutral, value scale, warm, cool, and two complementary colors of your choice.

Once finished coloring with colored pencils, the sectors were cut out, assembled, and glued onto a larger drawing sheet, leaving a small white space between one sector and another.