Hexagonal Mandala Fine Art Prints - Digital Art Paintings

Hexagonal Mandala - Diavma's Art Secrets - Artwork In Progress

Most of the fine art and wildlife illustration offered for sale by "Hexagonal Mandala" aka "Diavma" is created through digitally painting by hand with a pressure sensitive electronic pen on a virtual drawing tablet. Through this process the image is painted directly onto a computer, then printed onto archival artist quality paper. As with more traditional media such as lithographs, etching or screen printing, these prints are the artist's original intended physical form of the image. They are NOT reproductions. Though this Blog I've chosen to create a presentation that allows viewers to see the artwork in progress. Documenting how it materialises and matures through the painting process.

WHY SHOW A STEP-BY-STEP PROCESS? A lifetime ago in my teens, then as an art student I loved to see books displaying step by step art works. They are always fascinating to see how different people go about development of imagery. It seems almost magical to watch an image materialise from a blank canvas. Occasionally they teach you new ideas, other times they are just entertaining. I have saved many of my images throughout the process of creation and still find them fascinating to look back over, so I've decided to share some. They are not intended to be tutorials on how to create these images but rather an insight into the style of a particular artist and an entertaining look at how a finished result is achieved.

Please feel free to enjoy these images HERE. Visitors comments are welcome.
Please do NOT link to individual images!!! You may direct people to "this blog site" by linking to: http://diavma-art.blogspot.com/ All text & images are copyright. They are NOT for redistribution or republication in any form, nor for the use in the creation of derivative work.

Solemnity of the Holy Mother of God

Art title: Solemnity of the Holy Mother of God
New Year's Day is the octave day of Christmas, when the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Holy Mother of God, the divine and virginal motherhood of the Blessed Virgin. So New years 2014 was the Perfect Day to finished Her image. I'm pleased with the style, I like the bright and colourful "children's book-illustration" look, I think it suits the subject.
"Hail Mary full of Grace... Unto us a son is given"
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Bird art - Rainbow Bee Eaters

Art Title: Rainbow Bee Eater 2
This "Hexagonal Mandala" wildlife bird painting is of a set of 3 Rainbow Bee Eaters. This is my 2nd illustration of these birds. I experienced them in my backyard recently for the first time. The image is by Di Mathews and is available for sale as an original fine art print. It was created by painting directly onto a computer via a pressure sensitive electronic pen. The resulting print is created from the original matrix it is an original artwork, not a reproduction.

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Flame Robin Illustration

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This is an illustration of male flame robins, a small bird native to the lower east coast of Australia and of Tasmania. The image is by contemporary Australian artist Di Mathews aka Diavma, Copyright Hexagonal Mandala 2010. Although it is a digital painting ( hand drawn with a pressure sensitive pen directly onto a computer) it is created from a dark background, lighter colours are gradually built up in a similar way to traditional oil painting.

Australian Bush Rat - Rattus fuscipes

Art title: Bogul - Australian Bush Rat
This is one of the many residence of our tiny back yard. Each evening my husband places a tray of seed out for them and the rats come out from their burrows and nervously feed. They have lived in our yard for about 5 years and raised many litters but have never offered to come into the house. Prior to them moving in we were always getting rats and mice from the local farmland inside each winter. Since they took up residence under our tadpole pond we have been rodent free indoors.

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This series of RAT images was recorded during the process of creating the artwork. Many times I get asked "How long do they take you?". Because I work digitally, and my original images are really large I am pushing the memory of my poor old computer to its limit and occasionally it crashes. I therefore learned to save the image at regular intervals at a very early stage of my digital development. The nice thing about digital documentation is that it automatically records time and date. I had a break to cook and eat tea with my family so I estimate approx 7 to 8 hours of obsessive work in this particular image. I find that a typical image takes approx 8 to 12 hours work once I have decided on the composition.

Australian Magpie Painting

Art title: Magpies
These are a couple of young magpies sitting in a tree at the local parkland. Magpies are well known for their melodious songs. At the moment we have a family of magpie that come to our back door for a feed of minced kangaroo each evening.

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Camouflaged Wolf Spider Illustration

Art title: Wolf Spider
This "Hexagonal Mandala" painting shows a wolf spider camouflaged among dried leaves. He was a visitor to our home. Wolf spiders are very common and considered harmless to humans. They don't make webs like many other spiders but rather hunt their prey.
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Harlequin Bug Painting

Art Title: Harlequin Lady
This "Hexagonal Mandala" painting shows a female harlequn bug guarding her new eggs. The branch she was on was shared with many, many other harlequins of all sizes which would come running along and walk across her eggs. She would manouver her body around to protect the precious eggs and nudge the intruder away. These insects are harmless sap suckers. Unlike beetles they do not have a jaw but rather a probiscus for sucking sap. The males are pretty metalic blues and greens.

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Cherry Nose Cicada Painting

Art Title: Cherry Nose Cicada
This "Hexagonal Mandala" painting is of a cherry-nose cicada that was in my backyard. He is shown with his rumpled wings after a rough landing on night on my verandah. Australia Summer are filled with the sounds of cicada songs, and children collect the many cicada shells that are attatched to the bases of gum trees. It is not common to see a live cicada though, as they are often camoflauged high in the tree branches out of sight.

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Froglet On Vine Leaf Painting

Art Title: Frog on vine leaf
This "Hexagonal Mandala" artwork is a painting of a tiny froglet on a coral vine leaf in my garden. The image is tightly cropped around the animal to emphasise its size against the texture of the leaf. Its pose emphasising the small size by tucking all of the limbs in so he becomes a nice rounded shape. What I love about this species it the translucent appearance of the skin, which I have tried to capture with this portrait.

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Grasshopper Insect Painting

Art Title: Urban Jungle
This is a "Hexagonal Mandala" portrait (illustration) of a Grasshopper. This grasshopper is a resident of the local skateboard park. Around the edges where the grasses grow longer (and most people don't tend to wander) hide a collection of fascinating mini-beasts. As you walk close they spring into action. Like the sudden bursting of popcorn they bounce to life..

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Praying Mantis Painting

Art Title: Curtain Call
This is a "Hexagonal Mandala" portrait (illustration) of a Praying Mantis which spent many weeks in a vine in my backyard. She would select a position and could be found there day after day waiting for the perfect catch of food. The leaves usually acted as a stage curtain to frame her.

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Hawk Moth Painting

Art Title: Hawk / Sphinx Moth
This "Hexagonal Mandala" moth portrait shows a hawk moth. They are easily recognised by their streamline and aerodynamic shape. Their wings beat so fast that they make a wonderful humming sound.

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Galah Gathering Painting

Art Title: Galah Gathering.
This "Hexagonal Mandala" painting is a scene of Galahs, (Scientific name: Eolophus roseicapillus), where the morning sunlight illuminates the foliage below and signals the start to another glorious day. Galahs are easy to identify because of their colouring and they are one of the most common & widespread cockatoos in Australia. The large trees near my home often host a small handful of these birds, often they are rummaging through grass in search of a feed.

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Frog Painting - ready to spring

Art Title: Ready to spring (Bleating Tree Frog)

A digital painting by "Hexagonal Mandala". This art shows one of the small Tree Frogs that frequent my back yard, Unsure of the viewer it sits coiled ready to spring. Its animated pose adds tension to the image, while the muscle tone and underlying physical structures adds to the realism.

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Wasp Illustration - Surface Tension

Art Title: Surface Tension
A digital painting by "Hexagonal Mandala". This is a wasp drinking from a tadpole pond in my yard. This has been the most challenging image I have created to date. I set myself the task to illustrate the insect above the water, the leaf which floated both above & below the surface, the reflections on, and the hints of colour below. What proved the most challenging was illustrating surface tension rather than movement, this was done through highlights suggesting the slightest changes in surface direction.

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Beach Storm Painting

Art Title: Newcastle Beach
A digital painting by "Hexagonal Mandala". This is Newcastle beach NSW on the east coast of Australia, just as a storm is rolling in off the pacific ocean. The beach is a wonderful place during the onset of a storm. The people vanish as the beach takes on new colours and sounds. It is almost like you are the only person existing as the sprays of water, crashing waves and distant rumbles of the storm fill your senses.

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Green Tree Frog Illustration

Art Title: When I Say Get!

A "Hexagonal Mandala" digital art illustration of a green tree frog with attitude. This frog is a resident of my backyard. He sat happily letting me take wonderful photos until he began tiring of the process. He'd then lift his heavy body up and turn 180 degrees and plop back down with his back to me as if to dismiss me. I ignored this, walked around the other side of the table photographing more, this happened a few times... Finally he got sick of me not listening to him and he lept into my long hair and proceded to urinate everywhere. I finally got the message. When this little guy says "GET!" he means it.