Sacred Black Madona Mandala

Ok... so I've started a new piece of work, actually for my class project. Is supposed to involve repeat patterns, etc. I decided to do a four part mandala, first on paper, then I'll adhere it to a cradle board. It's a larger project, so each quarter will be 15x15", making it just over 30" when it's hung together.

My professor says he likes the "economy of paper" and I'm learning so too!  I was a bit afraid that the idea wouldn't pan out, but it looks good so far.  Idea: to use the head of the Mother Mary I painted last spring in the center corner of each quarter, and to use her hands in one of the concentric circles farther out on the wheel.  I plan to repeat the patterns I've found between the quarters, elsewhere on the Mandala.

So today I took the van to the beach for uninterrupted painting time... It was so beautiful! and I had a good six hours to work.  I had already painted the black background and the huge red center with many layers of glazes.  I want to build up many layers, so it looks rich, full, complicated, sacred, and old.

I fooled around with the image in Photoshop and loved the black image with colorful lines all over the place. So I traced her face and hands and started painting.  She kinda turned into a Black Madona... I like when the painting tells YOU what to do.

Here are the pics so far:

 Here you can partially see my exclusive view!

 This is what the four pieces look like so far....

 Her underpainting started with the red background, then I used a dark turquoise, then a light aqua, even though it looks very blue here. Her halo also is gold, not chalky white. Her veil is actually a deep purple. I'll be lightening that.  This is all still just underpainting... many layers of color will follow. (It may take me till Spring!)

This partially shows the sketch of her hand repeat... I'm thinking of ideas for filling in the spaces. This is a Mandala remember, so I have LOTS of opportunity for embellishments!