Creating Ornate Mandala Animals in Adobe Illustrator

This is a tutorial that has been requested many times after I shared some of these Mandala Animals in my Ornate Mandala tutorial a few years ago. • Creating Ornate Mandal...
In this video I break down all of the techniques and tools I use to make these highly detailed illustrations. The primary focus of the tutorial is on the techniques I use in Adobe Illustrator although I do mention a few steps that I take in Photoshop. The website that I use to source the reference images for this project is called Unsplash (unsplash.com)
Techniques covered in Illustrator include;
- Importing reference image
- Creating template layers
- Using corner widgets to create clean corner radius elements
- Rotate tool
- Reflect tool
- Transform again
- Using the blend tool
- Expanding and customizing blends
- Shape builder vs scissor tool
- Creating outlines and expanding final artwork
I can't wait for someone to show me their own mandala animal that they laser cut/engraved!!! These pieces of art would also make for awesome adult colouring book pages!
If you have any suggestions for other design based tutorials I'd love to hear them in the comments down below. Also if there was anything I missed in this video that you need clarification on let me know and I'll try to help out.
My Instagram feed: / designwisdom
My Behance page: www.behance.net/DaveWatkins
I am a Graphic Designer/Illustrator/Photographer/Creator with over 14 years of professional experience. Subscribe to my channel so I can share some of my creative knowledge with you.

[@MetalanGrain]

I’ve now watched two of your videos. And learned more than the last dozen AI videos I’ve seen. Thank you!

[@davewatkinscreative]

That's awesome! Glad to hear that I was able to help you learn a few things.

[@brownvanlife]

I felt like I was listening to the voice of Roman Mars from 99% Invisible, only a Canadian version ;) Thank you for sharing the tips. I've used Illustrator on and off for 20 years but never really explored all of the options and you've pointed out some really helpful tips that cut down on the actual designing part simply due to rotates and refecting.

[@nyxly5328]

Thank you, Dave. This was a great video. I appreciate seeing a process where it's about taking simple elements, the things Illustrator is good at, and then building up from there. Plus the images are beautiful. 🙏

[@davewatkinscreative]

Thanks so much for checking it out. That’s exactly why I love this style. At first glance it seems extremely complex but when you break it all down the underlying components are all pretty simple.

[@edgardorodriguezmartinez1219]

Thank you so much for this amazing video.

[@davewatkinscreative]

Thanks for checking it out! Glad you enjoyed it.

[@user-se6hd1ch4j]

Super detailed video. Thanks a lot

[@davewatkinscreative]

Appreciate that. Thanks for checking out the tutorial.

[@sunduskhudro5453]

Thanks for sharing, I was waiting for this video ❤

[@davewatkinscreative]

You are so welcome! Hope it was worth the wait!

[@lastminutetech]

The wait is finally over. Thanks man. Would really like to know how you animate these illustrations like the one shown in the video.

[@davewatkinscreative]

Hopefully it was worth the wait! I had a feeling someone might ask about the animated version. Will try to put something together faster than I did on the original request.

[@drogersusa]

excellent tutorial - thank you!

[@davewatkinscreative]

You're very welcome. Thanks for checking it out!

[@sudharsanlearn1827]

Thanks a lot for sharing this video with us. Learned a lot from this one video and I hope to see and learn more . Thanks again🥰💛.

[@davewatkinscreative]

Glad it was helpful! I’ve got lots of ideas in the works. Hopefully I can find some time in the near future to post new vids.

[@sudharsanlearn1827]

@@davewatkinscreative sure, please take your time. Thanks!

[@woolybeast1399]

Super cool stuff man. Love your pieces. This video was super helpful, as I'm working on some pieces of my own to laser cut. The tips you gave are going to come in extremely handy. Thanks again, you have a new subscriber. If you ever want to do a one off collaboration piece, I have a laser cutter, so lets talk!

[@davewatkinscreative]

That's awesome. Thanks so much for subscribing. Glad to hear that you're going to be able to put these tips to good use.

[@SumNumber]

Pretty cool. I do something similar and it is fun to put these designs together. Make sure you reference your art as " Not AI'. I predict people will get sick of AI images and look for the art with the " Human Touch" which may increase its value. :O)

[@davewatkinscreative]

What a crazy time to be alive! Never thought I’d have to tag disclaimers on my work that I actually made it with my own skills. I supposed keeping behind the scenes footage and screen recordings of the creative process wouldn’t hurt to have on hand if those accusations ever arise.

[@ScubaGuy]

Nice Video. Just a thought have you tried transferring half of the face image along the line of symmetry from Photoshop into illustrator and then doing image trace and copy and flip to create a full line art face. Much faster albeit with some line deforms from your original art.

[@davewatkinscreative]

I’ve used image trace when I’m looking for a more organic looking result. In this case I wanted these to look sharp and technical which is why I opted to handle this the way I did. That being said there are techniques to automate the mirroring in Illustrator to be faster than what I shared here.

[@genabush4619]

Do you have a video on how to create the individual layers for laser cutting?

[@davewatkinscreative]

Unfortunately I haven't created a laser cut version of these animal designs yet.

[@TheNordicHunter]

Great tutorial, but this is not what I thought the tutorial was going to be about when I saw the word Mandala. I thought you were going to show how to draw a Mandal using animal faces or shapes of some kind. So instead of leaf shapes and circles that are symmetrically placed in a 360 degree pattern, it's animals. I believe DesignCuts has a "kit" for doing such a thing, but it doesn't explain or show how it works. It would be cool to do though.

[@davewatkinscreative]

Thanks for checking out this tutorial... sorry if there was any false advertising involved. I wonder if swapping the order of the word Mandala in the title matches the description of the project that you're thinking of. So instead of a "Mandala Animal" like this tutorial it would be an "Animal Mandala" like the Designcuts kits? I found the following product over on DC (www.designcuts.com/product/rainforest-mandala-illustration-creator/) is this what you were thinking of? I will add it to my list of tutorials to make... but my track record for delivering these in a timely manner is not good.

[@TheNordicHunter]

@@davewatkinscreative Oh, no need to apologize or change the title my friend. It’s my brain that decided how to understand it and it got it wrong. It’s an excellent tutorial. That is one of the mandala kits that I was referring to. I thought there were animals, but maybe not. Brain thing again. Haha! That would be cool if you made a tutorial whenever you get a chance. Definitely not expected. Thank you for doing what you do to help others. Hope you have a great weekend! :)

[@drewbeer1889]

Promo>SM

[@alializadeh8195]

Thanx