Intricate Floral Mandala Coloring Page

About this coloring page

A six-ring mandala: twenty-four scalloped segments around the rim, sixteen long fronds inside them, a circle of sixteen beads, twelve arches, twelve leaves and eight petals closing on a single round eye. Ninety separate segments in total, which places it firmly in the hour-or-more category. Because the rings have different counts, the design will not repeat cleanly if you color it in strict rotation, and that is worth knowing before you start: most people work ring by ring instead, choosing one color family per ring and alternating two shades within it. The bead ring is the natural place for your accent color. If you are coloring on screen, use zoom before attempting the inner ring — the eight central petals are the smallest shapes on the page. Print it on 120gsm paper or heavier if you intend to use markers, which will otherwise bleed through and buckle standard copier paper wherever strokes overlap. Colored pencil is fine on ordinary paper. It prints at the size a mandala coloring book uses, and because the artwork is vector rather than scanned it scales to A3 without going soft.

Color suggestions

• One color family per ring
• Alternating light and dark within each ring
• Accent color reserved for the bead ring
• Centre left white to draw the eye

Did you know?

• Mandala is the Sanskrit word for circle. Tibetan monks build them from colored sand over several weeks and then deliberately sweep them away, as a practice in accepting impermanence.
• Carl Jung drew a mandala nearly every morning for years and later used them in his clinical work, arguing that the act of filling a symmetrical form settles a disordered mind.