The other day I wanted to paint some flowers, so today I have not one…but two videos on how I painted super cute and easy abstract flowers with acrylic paints.
How to Create an Abstract Flower Painting with Acrylic and Collage
In this guide, we’ll take you through creating an abstract flower painting that celebrates floral beauty with an abstract touch.
Aug 7, 2023 • 4 min read
If you’re a budding artist looking to explore the world of abstract art and mixed media, creating an abstract flower painting with acrylic and collage is an excellent place to start. Combining the vibrant and versatile nature of acrylic paints with the texture and depth of collage materials allows you to unleash your creativity and produce a stunning masterpiece that truly reflects your unique style.
Let’s get started with painting an abstract floral with mixed media
In this step-by-step guide, we’ll walk you through the process of creating an abstract flower painting that celebrates the beauty of flowers while embracing the abstract aesthetic. So let’s gather our materials and dive into this exciting journey of art and self-expression!
Here is the full artwork along with template for the painting we are creating in this lesson.
Materials Needed:
- Stretched canvas or canvas board
- Acrylic paints (a range of colors, including primary colors and various shades)
- Paintbrushes (assorted sizes: flat, round, and detail brushes)
- Palette knife (optional, for texture)
- Collage materials (patterned papers, tissue paper, old book pages, etc.)
- Mod Podge or acrylic medium for collaging
- Scissors
- Pencil
- Water container for cleaning brushes
- Paper towels or rags for blotting and cleaning
- Paint palette or palette paper
- Easel (optional, for ease of painting)
- Reference images of flowers (optional, for inspiration)
Here’s a great article for the best acrylic painting supplies for all levels.
This is where the fun ends unless you are a premium member. To get access to this video tutorial and all others on this site you need to sign up.
Acrylic Painting – How to Paint Loose Abstract Flowers with Acrylic Paint on Canvas
Acrylic Painting Courses
Painting Courses- Abstract Painting Courses
Overview
How to Paint Loose Abstract Flowers with Acrylic Paint on Canvas for Beginners!
This class is for beginner level artists. I start off the class by showing you our model painting. I show you all of the supplies you need for the class (also listed below). Then I walk you through my painting process step by step. I show you how I start my flower paintings by creating a simple sketch on my canvas. Next, how I block in my paint colors, and how I build my layers to finish off my painting. I also teach you the techniques I use to create loose abstract flowers.
Here are my best tips for painting loose abstract flowers:
1. Paint with your non-dominant hand!
2. Use a larger brush but shorter paint strokes.
3. Don’t even try to stay within the lines!
Paint Colors and Supplies:
8×10 canvas
Palette Paper
Paper towels
Water
Paint Brushes
Pastels (optional)
Paint Colors:
Quinacridone Magenta
Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue
Turquoise Blue
Prussian Blue
Deep Permanent Green
Light Olive Green
Portrait Pink
Titanium White
Primary Red
Deep Violet
You can find all of my Skillshare classes here:
https://www.skillshare.com/user/ellebyers
You can also find me here:
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The First Abstract Flower Painting
The first painting was super fun to make. I started out with some acrylic paints on Canson XL 9×12 watercolor paper. The watercolor paper is great because it’s thick and can take a lot of abuse.
Not that I am mean to the paper of course…but it definitely withstands lots of water and paint without getting too wrinkled.
You can watch me paint this painting in real time in the first acrylic flowers painting video I uploaded to YouTube.
I didn’t use gesso with the watercolor paper because I sort of wanted a softer pastel look for the background, and so in this use it wouldn’t really be necessary unless I wanted to get really deep rich colors out of my paints.
I also knew I’d have lots of layers for the paint to grip to by the time I got near the end of the painting.
Once I had the background started with some big paint strokes, I used my handy dandy Nicole heat gun to dry the first layer so it wouldn’t bleed into anything else.
From there I switched over from paint to Neocolor ii water soluble crayons. I really love combining those crayons with acrylics because they blend in and just add more to all the pretty layers of whatever it is I am making.
Amazon.com
Canson XL Series Watercolor Textured Paper Pad for Paint, Pencil, Ink.
$10.31 $19.61
Amazon.com
Uni-posca Paint Marker Pen – Fine Point – Set of 15 (PC-3M15C)
$29.00
Amazon.com
Caran d’Ache Classic Neocolor II Water-Soluble Pastels, 30 Colors
$47.78
Last updated on November 10, 2023 10:28 am
Here’s what my abstract flowers looked like at that point:
Once I was happy with that I went back to my acrylic paints to start blending and adding more details.
You can sort of see how the crayons blend in with paint as we build up more and more layers.
In this part of the painting in video I explained a little bit about the differences with titanium white and zinc white paint. The Golden Fluid Acrylics zinc white paint is almost translucent, but you can get a similar effect by watering down regular white paint as well.
I also used one of my favorite paints in the final layers of the page, Golden Fluid Acrylics in Green Gold.
Amazon.com
Golden Fluid Acrylic, 1 Ounce Set Of 10, Assorted Colors
out of stock
Amazon.com
Golden Fluid Acrylic Paint 1 Ounce-Green Gold
$11.37
Amazon.com
Golden Fluid Acrylic Paint 1 Ounce-Zinc White
Last updated on November 10, 2023 10:28 am
It’s one of my favorite paints and best paint investments over the past two years. It’s a teeny tiny bottle, but a very little goes a long way, it’s a must for flower painting in my book!
These were so very, very fun to make and I was thrilled with how they came out. I didn’t have any set idea really of what I wanted to make other than “a field of flowers” and I just love it.
Seriously just looking at the painting makes me feel happy!
I am experimenting with a couple of different video formats, with the quick sped up version on my site and then the longer in depth videos in real time on our YouTube channel – please let me know which ones you like better!
I am also working on getting a little bit better at explaining what I’m doing and why…although half the time I don’t even know why I do what I do when I paint.
After I painted the first flowers painting, I had a lot of left over paint and figured I better do something with it…so I made a second video.
Painting #2: Quick Abstract Flowers Acrylic Speed Painting
This painting turned out great and it was literally painted in under 4 minutes. 4 minutes! I had to be somewhere…so I painted quick!
It was actually really fun to paint as crazy fast as I could and use up all the paint…I might have to do that more often!
I know I struggle sometimes with indecision when I’m painting, so giving yourself a deadline and a goal is one way to get around that!
I seriously didn’t even think while making the second video, I just put paint on the paper as fast as I could.
After the paint dried, and after I got back from where I had to go, I did come back and spend about 5 minutes just doodling over the flowers painting with Uni-Posca markers.
I couldn’t resist the temptation, and I love using the markers and pens in my art.
And again, the results were great. I just love it! It’s one of those quick impromptu things I didn’t plan to paint and it just makes me happy looking at it. It’s a 9 minute masterpiece!
You can watch this full version of this speed paint acrylic flowers video from start to finish on YouTube. I didn’t even speed the video on YouTube up – just painted FAST.
Painting Pretty Abstract Flowers is Quick & Easy!
These two paintings seriously were very fun to make, and I’m already wanting to paint more of them. They are so easy and fun to make so I hope in watching these videos you’ll be inspired to try making your own!
A lot of people ask me about the different supplies I use in my art, so here are the different things I used in making the two videos linked to above.
Canson XL Watercolor Paper: Heavy duty paper perfect for all sorts of mixed media projects.
Neocolor ii Water Soluble Crayons: These are water soluble crayons that blend wonderfully with acrylic paints
Uni Posca Fine Point Paint Markers: I love, love, love, love these markers ever since a friend introduced me to them many years ago. They are very fun to use for all sorts of doodling and all kinds of things.
Golden Fluid Acrylics: While I mixed different paint types and brands in the videos I created, I do know I love the Gold Green fluid acrylics paint for these flower paintings.
