Abstract art can be fully abstracted, but does not have to be. Many artists find merging abstraction and representation allows full expression. Other artists like Jackson Pollock wanted to take nothing from reality — that’s where the term non-objective comes from. It is all about visual stimulation.
- Don’t force this. Usually artists find they naturally fall somewhere on the spectrum of representation. Wherever you naturally fall, go with it.
- Use repetition, size, and color to increase or reduce your level of representation.
- Don’t confuse representation with meaning. Let’s say you paint a vague shape of a boat in a field of color. The shape isn’t necessarily the main character. Maybe it is the field of color. Question your presumptions to figure out what you really want to say in your painting.
4 Abstract Painting Techniques
✓ Showcase your talent and win big in Artists Network prestigious art competitions! Discover competitions in a variety of media and enter for your chance to win cash prizes, publication in leading art magazines, global exposure, and rewards for your hard work. Plus, gain valuable feedback from renowned jurors. Let your passion shine through – enter an art competition today!
Many Abstract Painting Techniques to Choose From
It feels slightly awkward to try to explain how to create an abstract painting. The little voice inside my head sneers, “Isn’t it obvious? You just go crazy all over a blank piece of paper or empty canvas.” But that’s not the answer that satisfies the art student in me, or not the only answer. Abstract art is created so many different ways, with different levels of attention paid to color, precision application, gesture and recognizable or unrecognizable forms. Every one of these ideas gives you insight into the abstract painting techniques you could employ. And every one leads an artist down a different path.
- Color symbology. With color comes color association and history. These vary by culture and by era, but there is a story behind every color if you are willing to put in the time to explore them.
- Think of a word, think of a color. What color is sublime? Is there a color for fear? What color is family? Whatever your subject matter, it has a color story waiting to come out.
- What does the color wheel tell you about analogous, complementary, and contrasting colors? Learn these and then see what you want to go along with and what rules you want to break.
- Just feel. Color is the most beautiful characteristics of art. Don’t be afraid of it. Embrace it. It is a language you know how to speak fluently.
Mark-making and Type of Gesture
Flinging paint, pouring ink, rubbing dust–there are so many ways to put down your mark as an artist. Get lost in the different kinds of mark you can make, then marry mark with meaning. That will be when you start to understand how you can tell your own story through abstraction.
- Change your grip. The way you hold your brush, pencil, or stick of charcoal influences the kind of mark you make. Ask yourself, what does a controlled mark look like? A loose one? A tight one or a fluid one? A gentle or aggressive one?
- Marks are influenced by where your surface is: on the floor, pinned to the wall, on a slanted surface, in your face, or at a distance. Play with positioning.
- Don’t confuse the way you make a mark with the mark itself. Sometimes you can come at the surface one way but the result doesn’t show that action. Just because you violently fling paint doesn’t mean a work feels violent. Because you pour paint in a gentle way doesn’t mean the results won’t feel heavy or oppressive.
Abstract art can be fully abstracted, but does not have to be. Many artists find merging abstraction and representation allows full expression. Other artists like Jackson Pollock wanted to take nothing from reality — that’s where the term non-objective comes from. It is all about visual stimulation.
- Don’t force this. Usually artists find they naturally fall somewhere on the spectrum of representation. Wherever you naturally fall, go with it.
- Use repetition, size, and color to increase or reduce your level of representation.
- Don’t confuse representation with meaning. Let’s say you paint a vague shape of a boat in a field of color. The shape isn’t necessarily the main character. Maybe it is the field of color. Question your presumptions to figure out what you really want to say in your painting.
Expressive Abstracts in Acrylic: 55 innovative projects, inspiration and mixed-media techniques (Paperback)
Discover the joys of painting abstracts in acrylics with experienced artist and tutor Anita Horskens. In this visually exciting, inspirational book, Anita teaches you about the method of abstraction, and the paints, paper and other materials you need to create stunning paintings. There is detailed guidance on the techniques for adding texture, collage, composition, colour, line, shape and pattern to your work, and 55 clear and accessible projects to put your skills and ideas into practice. This highly practical book will build confidence in your painting and allow you to express yourself through the visual language and style of abstract painting.
Anita Hörskens lives and works as a freelance artist and runs her own painting school in Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm in Bavaria. She has worked as a trainer and speaker in the field of artists’ supplies since 1994. She leads seminars in all standard painting and drawing techniques, and offers painting holidays, portfolio preparation courses and creative seminars for companies. As the author of numerous acrylic textbooks, she has also lectured at various specialist academies since 2004, with a focus on Experimental Mixed Techniques with Acrylic. In her blog, she regularly reports on News from the Studio: www.hoerskens.blogspot.de
Her website can be visited at www.hoerskens.de
- Art / Techniques / Acrylic Painting
- Art / Techniques / Painting
- Art / Subjects & Themes
The Artist – March 2021
Abstract painting is as much a state of mind as a technique. It’s an invented language, which the viewer is invited to interpret in order to understand both what the artist saw and we ourselves feel. To write a book about it is, therefore, something of a tall order and it is perhaps not surprising that most authors shy away from the creative and concentrate on the technical. This is not an invalid approach, but does run the risk of doing something equivalent to musical noodling, where outcomes can be unpredictable, albeit they might produce worthwhile results. If you fancy a noodle, this is no bad place to start. The 55 projects explore an impressive range of tools and application techniques and the results are really not too shabby. Actually, if you just want to explore the possibilities of acrylic media and mediums, you should find plenty to enjoy here.
Inspiration From Photographs
Look through your photographs and see if there are any that have great colour combinations – more often than not nature picks better colours than we can ourselves and that can be an inspiration.
Use a photo editing software to distort the image – it doesn’t have to be expensive software, you can get free programs that will do this too.
See the images underneath from one of my photos that could give me inspiration for an abstract painting. I took the image and blurred it and added ripples with a cheap editing software. This is just an example – you can probably do something more creative!
Another one I did really quickly was a sunset picture that I thought might be too twee if it was too real so I distorted, blurred, cropped and saturated that picture to get the image ont he left.
it still looks pretty much like a sunrise but it could be just used very loosely to create a painting that resembled the colours etc, perhaps also adding some texture in.
Choose photos where the colour combinations are good (or just the colours you like to use) and manipulate them until you get an abstract idea. You don’t have to copy the result completely but it may give you some ideas for a composition.
Colour Combinations or Textures
Sometimes I will just take inspiration from a particular mix of colours. For example I recently completed a painting in blues and greens but there was one particular part of the painting that I liked that had some exact blue/green shades in. For my next painting I wanted to use those exact shades as they had turned out so well so I would choose some texture on which to base those colours.
In another painting, I might have an idea that I wanted to use something particular as texture in the painting – for example the spacers that you use when putting up tiling. So the main inspiration would be the texture and only once I had put the texture on the canvas would I choose the colour scheme.
Try Creating Other People’s Work
This may sound like a strange thing to say but what I mean by this is find a painting you like and try and copy it. By doing this you will more than likely teach yourself other techniques that you would not otherwise have thought of. I have done this a few times when I have been asked by companies to reproduce a particular painting that they have the rights for.
In trying to recreate it almost exactly, including any kind of texture and painting techniques that you can see in it, then I can guarantee you will do something that you have probably not done before and that will then become a new technique for you.
If you are trying to copy something that you don’t have the rights for then you should obviously just keep it for your own purposes or scrap it!
I hope this has given you a few ideas and some inspiration to get painting, particularly if you are into abstract art.
