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Mystical Mandalas: A Coloring Guide with Intentions

By: Kathryn Colvig and Avianna Castro

Reviewed by: Alexandra Heep

· Mandalas,Hand Drawn

Mystical Mandalas: A Coloring Guide with Intentions is part of the Vagabond Mindfulness coloring book series. It’s volume 5 and was released on February 14, 2017. It’s a collaborate effort by Kathryn Colvig and Avianna Castro.

With this book, you acquire real art by a renowned realist oil painter, Kathryn Colvig. Just like all of Kathryn’s other mandala books, Mystical Mandalas features all hand-drawn designs, not computer-generated images. A lot of them have very fine details that to me look absolutely perfectly drawn. What amazes me is that they are still symmetrical and more detailed than the average mandala design.

Have you ever colored a mandala and while in the process of balancing your colors found that there is an extra line or circle that throws your scheme off kilter? It won’t happen here. I have pored over her designs (I have several books) and can’t find anything to throw off the harmony.

The book has 110 pages, and there are 25 mandala designs which are repeated twice. So, you have a total of 50 pages to color. Since each image appears twice, you get a “do-over” for each mandala, and you can see how different each one will look with different color choices. All of the mandalas have a solid border around them.

The designs are one-sided, and on the back of each page is the intention part, a short sentence akin to an affirmation. This part is contributed by Avianna Castro who shared her coalescing energy in collaboration. Avianna is a renowned entrepreneur, international retreat leader, intuitive medium, awareness mentor and certified meditation and mindfulness teacher with the McLean Meditation Institute as well as a Chopra Center Certified Instructor.

So, when the book is open and you color the picture that’s on the right you can read the text on the left, and hold it in your mind as you relax and color. Each one has a pretty border around the text. The mandalas are arranged creatively, (meaning: not all are centered on the page), so you get added visual interest.

If you’ve overlooked mandala books before because they seem too geometrical, technical, or impersonal, give this book a try. The designs seem to have a life of their own, and a lot of them are like little nature designs (Kathryn calls her designs “organic”). For example, a lot of them depict or hint at eyes, animals or even people, and a lot of them remind me of plants (which are, of course, part of life). Also, if you like to color books that have positive affirmations, you get this here as well.

In a nutshell, this is more than an adult coloring book, and that’s why it’s aptly called a coloring guide with intention.

The pictures below (used with permission) were colored by and are property of Kathryn Colvig.

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