This is coming along nicely, really cool ideas guys!

Daedaloops, when I read the text in your last post that mandala moves like crazy!

That's a brilliant idea, except.. ahm well.. I'm a poor student and I don't have a printer.

But I tried my best to reproduce it from the screen, and added some patterns to make it match with the glyphs on the lock. Just an idea.

Also combined it with the mandala to see how it would look.


Yeah they tend to do that.. glad I'm not the only one who's crazy.

Love the labyrinth patterns... Really cool.

Isn't there somewhere on campus you can make prints? They don't have to be high quality for this process. I do understand and respect the leanness of the student situation. Majoring in something creative, I hope?

It's a process that makes tge collaborative aspect more directly interactive. And I bet you'd really enjoy it.

So I'll be playing around with the lotus petal thing tonight... May try bringing in a touch of the Mayan flavor. Hey, it's 2012 after all!

...and we need to start thinking about color. Is this a gold key? Iridescent? Rainbow technicolor? Glass? How about the gemstones? We're looking for a color combination that really says DMT.

They're used with a keycard and I don't have one. But theoretically I have access to a printer on weekends, it's just kinda far. And uh, no, I'm majoring in software engineering, and it's kinda meh.

As for color, I'm really bad at visualizing them in my head. I usually have to cycle through all of them in photoshop before I can decide. That being said, I think the lock should be shiny metallic atleast, and the glyphs could be sandstone. And the atoms on the key maybe.. ruby? That's all I know. WELL, I just noticed you suggested glass.. I was bothered that the molecule seemed kinda flat like it's just printed on the key, so maybe if the key is glass, the molecule could be inside of it while having depth.. Or does that make sense.. I dunno I'm just throwing ideas in the air. Actually no it wouldn't really work for a logo. But I also like the gold suggestion too. A golden key? Yes, a GOLDEN KEY WITH RUBIES I like the feeling that invokes inside me! Ok go to sleep daeda.

A glass key cast around the molecule would be incredible. Make the linear connections gold, the gems glowing rubies, lighting up the glass... But yeah, that's not very reductionist. Plain old gold with rubies has a nice classic appeal.

Sorry about your printer situation... Given a choice between a printer and food, you choose food.

So here are 3 variations on the lotus mandala: an ornamental one, a jeweled/faceted one and a Mayan themed one. No thoughts on color yet, but this should probably be the part of the design that tries to emulate the DMT color scheme, since we're going with a simpler gold/ruby for the key...

Those are all beautiful.. I'm really digging the crystalline one, it's very spice-like for me, especially if we can make it reflect in a certain way. Like very piercing reds, blues and greens. Like a very shiny crystal prism. And the tint would also change further away from the center. I tried to find some pictures to explain what I mean.. A bit like those but in a more sparkly magical way.




And as for the mayan, maybe it could have a color scheme like this, I dunno:


I can't think of colors for the ornamental one yet..


Also here's a few variations on the face because I thought it was a bit intrusive the way it's looking at you So maybe the sleeping one would be better, then it could also symbolize the fact that you're about to wake it up by opening the lock. Also made variations of the glyph stone sizes so they would be more recognizeable. Just mix and match any elements you like, I'm not attached to anything.

EDIT: Here's more random ideas. If the key is gold then the lines connecting the rubies could be silver, and the labyrinth patterns could be just holes that are cut through the key (they would have to be a bit wider).
And your mandala could have the last layer of petals that are twice as frequent as the other ones, so it would look more round. And the shadowing could be stronger.. A kind of strong mystical shadowing of petals/scales/feathers is VERY spice-like for me.

EDIT2: OH, and if for some reason this ever gets made into a sticker, then the crystal could be like a hologram surface, and the gold and rubies a shiny surface too. I can see it clearly in my head and it would look so awesome when you move it around! .. Or maybe I'm getting ahead of myself here.

The sleeping face/ bigger glyphs are a good call. It'll be interesting to see how much we can say with the facial expression, considering how simple it is. IMO it should say: I'm pretty comfortable sleeping, but should you decide to wake me, I have something TOTALLY CRAZY to show you...

Since we have to narrow down the mandala choices, should we start exploring the crystal direction some more? Or do you want to aim for 3 finished versions?

I've got a couple long tattoo days today and tomorrow, hard to say if I'll get back to this till Friday. But I'll try.

Hey there's no rush, take your time. In the meanwhile I'll try to play around with the crystal aspect, to see if I'm able to find the right colors. And yea I vote for focusing on the crystals first and if it doesn't work then move on to the others. Haha I like the facial expression you described, I'll try to bring that out more.. somehow.

very cool stuff guys!

Fantastic!

Very nice brainstorming and work guys! Like the variations and mokups. Keep up the good work!

Pup: anyone ever tell you how cool it is to log on each day and check out your latest avatar? Bravo for the ever-morphing mandala!

this is SO amazing! The mandalas are pulsating!! Man I wish I could draw like that...

Here's a quick update before I start messin around with colors. I tried to reproduce your petal so I could build my own mandala from it. Also tried to make a face that is simultaneously happy and intimidating, just like entities can be.

Looking great! Nice expression...

Yesterday's tattoo session kicked my ass! Today more experimental but shorter. Hopefully I'll have some spare energy for this later.

Everyone else: got any nice gemstone references? Faceted, colorful, luminous, twinkly... Post them here!

I hear ya man. I've been in the chair 7 hours straight and at the end it looked like it was way more taxing on the tattooer than me. It must require a hell of a lot of concentration and pressure-tolerance to accurately ink someones body for the rest of their lives. ..You guys are like surgeons.

And yeah, any kind of ideas or suggestions would be really appreciated.

Many of you have probably seen this around the internet, I believe I've seen it linked to the Nexus Chat before. I like daedaloops above image much more, however, just wanted to refer this mandala that implements the idea of the "molecular key". I also think the non-euclidean shapes could be well conceived into some sort of reference for a crystalline image being worked into it.

Might I suggest playing around with Flower of Life -esque mandala? Just loving the stuff you guys have created, mesmerizing and mindblowing

Colours might be off. Sorry about that!
Just messin around, ya know? I know this looks nothing like a tattoo, but just for fun.