Tree Rings

I created this image of tree rings for the background because the harsh and calculated circle tool wasn't cutting it for me. I also learnt a bit about what each distance between the rings means, but I won't bore you with that. I know I said I was going with an "atlas green" colour palette, but it doesn't set off the warm tones of the animals, so why the dusty pink? Much more cuddly and natural, don't you think?

I added an outer 'bark layer' to the tree stump by creating a new swatch of my previous cell pattern and filling the outermost circle with it. And being the enclosing circle I also thought this was a neat way to symbolise that all things, no matter how big or small, are made of cells.

I also felt like the animals needed something directly around them to kind of anchor them. From this I developed some really simple moth shapes, repeating the same natural hues already found in the mandala, repeating and rotating them around each animal in a random way. It's a bit better.

But it still looked too flat. Finally I varied the tones in the tree rings from dark to light to dark to light, making sure it wasn't too perfect and still with that organic quality. I like the way the dark central tone now provides a clearer focus for the mandala, while the light outer rings also help to anchor the animals and kind of joins them up in the blank spaces in between.