How to make an abstract painting - have fun and make your own abstract art
What makes abstract art interesting and desirable such that someone will want to part with their hard-earned money and have it displayed on their walls? Read my seven secrets (not so secret!) on how good abstract art is created - there is actually a thought process behind most of them!
What makes abstract art interesting and desirable such that someone will want to part with their hard-earned money and have it displayed on their walls? I once thought that abstract art was just some pretentious nonsense whereby someone randomly threw paint across a canvas, mixed it up a little, stepped back, and called it art. I also thought artists could get away with this because one often heard people saying that it was for the viewer to decide whether or not they liked it and considered it art. Well, it turns out that there’s actually a lot more to it than that, as I’ve discovered since straying into abstract painting and finding that I love it. But, it isn’t random paint throwing. Here I highlight some of the things an artist, or me at least, needs to think about before creating an abstract painting.
Plan the painting
Before starting, one needs to consider what size of canvas will be used. This might seem obvious but it has a major impact on how the paint is going to be applied, whether a drying retarder will be needed, the size of brushes to use, and how long you’ll need to paint. It will also affect how you paint as very large canvasses may need quick and bold brushstrokes or other techniques to allow the paint to be worked before it begins to dry.
2. Consider Composition
Some abstract paintings may look random and chaotic but most good ones tend to be designed to have a focal point or a way of leading the viewers eye into the painting. With some, the focal point may not be obvious, especially with paintings where very subtle grading has been used but even here the gradient tends to lead the eye. Photographers are well aware of the Rule of Thirds. This is a way of considering an image in three sections to provide balance and is, in fact, routed in nature. For example, a well balanced landscape painting tends to show one third land and two thirds sky or vice versa. Vertically, one often sees trees being included to the left or right third of an image, again to lead the eye. This is also true in abstract paintings where the composition may be designed such that the elements are built around the same idea. Some of my more successful abstract paintings have been those where the Rule of Thirds was employed. Take an image that runs diagonally across the canvas. Here you have a top and bottom section separated by the diagonal feature - three elements and the diagonal leading the viewers eye.
3. Balancing the Blues - Colour Balance
Unless you are incredibly famous and your followers will swallow anything you do without question, you really need to think about colour. Now, this is quite ironic that I'm going to talk about colour when I can barely recognise more than a few, being profoundly colour blind! However, bear with me. Most people are familiar with colour charts or colour wheels, the sort you often see in furniture and upholstery shops. The idea is simple: all colours have a complimentary or contrasting colour associated with it and by combining these you can achieve a colour balance that is pleasing to the eye. Equally, using different shades and hues of the same colour can also provide a balanced image rather than some discordant chaotic mess. Unless ghats what you want, of, course!
I occasionally post my initial progress on a painting and if you’ve seen them you’ll know that I like to lay down my dark colours first and gradually blend in or build up colours that get progressively lighter but also compliment each other. Sometimes this is done across the painting so one part will balance with another.
Top Tip: An artist friend once told me to photograph my painting in black and white and review the image before deciding the colours worked. If the image looks flat and washed out then it suggests there isn’t enough depth of colour or contrast in the painting. Being unable to see colours well I find this tip invaluable and I highly recommend it.
4. Flip your Focus
When painting anything, but especially abstract art, it is always good practice to take a step back for a while and evaluate what you’ve done. Moreover, turn the painting over, 90 degrees and 180 degrees. If the painting looks unbalanced in any one direction it may well be unbalanced in all directions. Even an upside down landscape still holds its balance (rule of thirds, remember!).
What you’re looking for is to ensure all of the elements of your painting work together and not against each other. You’re not looking for exactness or necessarily symmetry but you do want an overall composition that blends together so that you are not mounting a visual assault on your viewers eyeballs!
5. Edge your bets
Easily forgotten but vitally important are the paintings edges. Edges play a role in anchoring your composition and can be used to create striking effects. In fact, some artists use the edges to deliberately strike an imbalance in the painting, which of course forces the viewer into the centre to find the balanced composition. It’s a bit like building a tunnel to draw people in. Edges csn also be used to give the suggestion that there is more of the painting off the canvas. This concept is clever and can leave a viewer pondering what’s out there beyond the edge of the present canvas.
6. Park Precision
One of the fun aspects of abstract art is to ensure that there are a diversity of features to explore on the canvas. When I first started painting abstract art I was obsessed with getting my blending precise and my brush stroke lines all equal and even. This led to some very boring pieces! I’ve since learnt that variety is key and I no longer shy away from letting the painting take twists and turns here and there. If my brush stops dead on the canvas some dramatic, but subtle, marks remain and this adds to the drama on the canvas. If some of the underpainting pulls through the surface this is fine too. When I step back the painting works and when I step closer there are things to be found. It all makes for an interesting painting. Precision is great and sometimes essential but not so in abstract art, at least not mine.
7. Don’t Discard Disasters
Mistakes will happen. It’s just a fact of life and most certainly a fact of creating art. I learnt the hard way that if something goes wrong, at least with abstract work, it can pay to just carry out and go with it. Early on I created a piece that was one of my first attempts at complex blending. The colours were contrasting and really quite offensive on the eye. Worse yet, the centre of the painting drew one in like the centre of a dark and forbidding black hole. I actually felt uneasy looking at it. In trying to salvage something out of the wreckage that was now my artwork I decided to etch the surface with radial lines - it looked like a spider web and only served to make the painting even more creepy.
So what did I do? I ran my largest brush over the lot and wiped it out and etched a large tree into it! The tree sold within a couple of weeks. Great result, right? Not quite. Just because I hated it didn’t mean others would. And others didn’t hate it. In fact, they loved it and wanted to buy it. Awkward, as it no longer existed. Luckily I take high resolution images of everything I do so can at least sell prints and canvases of it but it’s not quite the same.
So, the moral of this story is don’t throw away something in your abstract works just because you think it’s gone wrong. It is highly likely that someone out there will think it’s great. I now keep everything! Thankfully, my stock of “also rans” is very small!
I hope my 7 tips help you to understand what lies under the bonnet (hood) of an abstract painting but if you’d like to know more about my process follow me on Instagram (@awberyart) where I often post my works in progress or visit my YouTube channel to see some of my works in action.
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10 Tips for the Self-Taught Artist
One doesn’t need to go to a prestigious art school or have a master artist as a mentor to become a good artist. I’m completely self-taught and have regular sales and commissions. Here are my top ten tips for becoming a successful self-taught artist.
One doesn’t need to go to a prestigious art school or have a master artist as a mentor to become a good artist. I’m completely self-taught and have regular sales and commissions. Here are my top ten tips for becoming a successful self-taught artist.
1. Pick up your paintbrush and paint!
It’s stating the obvious but if you want to become a successful self-taught artist you need to paint and paint lots! I started out by painting every day for 30 days and haven’t stopped since. Self-teaching means learning as you go and you need to paint as much as you possibly can with different techniques, different brushes and different subjects. By doing this you will learn what you’re good at and, more importantly, what you’re not so good at and need to work on to improve.
You are likely to find that there are some things you just can’t get to grips with or don’t understand how to get the effect you’re after (or trying to emulate if you’re trying to create something you’ve seen before). When this moment comes, and it will, it’s time to get outside help to develop further and tip 2 kicks in…
2. Read and watch lots
When I first picked up a paint brush I had no idea what I was doing. My first effort (which you can see on my 30 Day Challenge Story) was awful and I decided that I need to find out how to paint. The wonder of Google presented me a myriad of articles on painting techniques and information on what brushes did what and how to use them effectively. I also watched videos - a lot of videos - on YouTube. Be warned, some are good and some are bad, so be selective! Finally, I bought a lot of books too.
The scientist in me has a tendency towards research so it was quite natural for me to research painting to help me understand it and determine which direction I was going to go in. It was through this that I knew I wanted to start with water colours and progress to acrylics.
3. Practice on a small scale
This is perhaps my favourite tip because it facilitates keeping you painting. If you are looking to develop as a self-taught artist don’t be drawn into trying to paint large complex paintings that you might find on YouTube tutorials. You could spend weeks working on a complex painting only to be disappointed with the results. And on that note, don’t think you are going to become Bob Ross overnight because you followed his video!
My tip is to keep a good stock of small canvases and papers to practice on. I often try out new ideas and techniques on 8x8 inch stretched canvas or A4 sized water colour and acrylic paper. By doing this it means you have time to finish whatever you are trying to create and the smaller space is more forgiving. Also, if you make a terrible mistake you can simply gesso over the canvas (with acrylics anyway) and start again. My practice pieces are never intended to be sold (no matter how good I think they might be) and are there just to let me try things out.
4. Be your own worst critic
It’s very easy to sit back and think you’ve created a masterpiece but in order to learn and improve one needs to learn how to review one’s artwork without bias, which is not always easy. Of course, you may be inclined to think your work is the best it can be and this can prevent you from seeing any obvious flaws or identify weaknesses in your ability or technique.
I know that I am overly critical of my own work and genuinely believe that I haven’t yet created a painting that I am truly happy with. To get around this I have stopped relying on myself and get a second opinion - well several actually.
5. Canvas the opinion of others
It’s one thing to be overly critical of your own work, or worse, too praising of your own work. It’s quite another to solicit the opinions of others and it can be brutal. I found that many of my friends were very complimentary about my work even when I knew there were major flaws evident. Some friends, however, can be very direct and were genuinely kind enough to be blunt and tell me when things were not quite right. I also started to show some of my apparently finished paintings across my social media platforms - strangers can be incredibly honest when you make it clear that that is what you are looking for. I’ve had some equally blunt feedback which has helped me enormously. I will be honest though and say that one has to develop a thick skin at times!
6. Be open-minded
When I first started painting I was fairly sure that I really did not like abstract art. In fact, some years ago my wife took me to the Tate Modern in London to see an abstract art exhibition and I hated it! Afterwards, we had to visit the Natural History Museum so that I could see some rocks just so I could feel better! You know where you are with a rock!
About 6 months into my journey as an artist I was asked if I would be interested in painting something abstract for a friend and they were prepared to pay. My initial response was honest and I said that I didn’t like or paint abstract art! My wife kicked me and politely pointed out that I would love to give it a try. The result was my first abstract painting and my first successful sale of one of my paintings!
Since then, I’ve spent a lot of time researching art and reading up on contemporary and historical artists and I now have a much wider appreciation of art in all its forms. I no longer shy away from any genre and remain open-minded when it comes to deciding what to paint.
7. Aim high but be realistic
I firmly believe that one should always aim high in everything one does. However, it is also necessary to be realistic and stay grounded. The art world can be fickle and there are a great many artists out there who may never sell a single painting despite their work being of very high quality. When setting out on your journey as a self-taught artist it’s a good idea to think about where you want to go with your artwork. Do you want to sell or are you just doing it for fun as a hobby? It may be that you start off without the intention of selling (just as I did) but then discover there is a demand for your work. It is then up to you whether or not you choose to embrace that and develop it further.
It’s worth bearing in mind that in some circles self-taught artists are not considered nearly as highly as those who attended schools or colleges so one needs to be realistic in expectation. That said, the 21st century world is powered through the internet and there are many hugely successful self-taught artists selling their work through their own websites or, in some cases, exclusively through Instagram.
8. Copy other artists to learn techniques
Now, for this tip I need to make it clear that I am not suggesting you copy another artist’s work and try to sell it! Instead, what I’m suggesting is that there is a lot you can learn by trying to replicate another painting. You will learn how brush techniques, layering and blending, for example. If you’re lucky you might be able to accurately recreate a piece but that really isn’t the aim. The idea is to simply try to repeat some of the elements so that you learn what needs to be done to get a particular effect.
I used this method to learn how to paint skies with clouds so that they had depth and didn’t look flat and one-dimensional. I have literally hundreds of pieces of paper with prototype skies!
9. Challenge yourself
Stepping out of your comfort zone is possibly one of the best ways to develop as an artist. If you were to attend an art class or a school you might find that you end up painting what you are told to paint. As a self-taught artist you can paint literally anything. However, deciding what to paint can be difficult if you have a tendency to keep doing what you know you’re good at. I found that asking others to suggest topics worked well. I was very comfortable painting landscapes and trees and was terrified when challenged by a friend to paint something else. However, if I hadn’t taken on the challenge I would never have discovered that I enjoy painting snow-scapes and scenes with the northern lights or that I have a flair for abstract art. I sometimes also look at other artists’ work and see if I could do something similar.
10. Put the time in and record everything
There really is only one way to become proficient at something and that is to put the time and effort in. I set myself the challenge from the beginning to paint every day for 30 days. This not only developed painting as a habit (which I now find impossible to break) but it also allows you to develop. Long pauses between painting will inevitably mean that you won’t benefit from the mistakes and the learning that you gain along the way. The mistakes are the most important. As frustrating as it is to make mistakes they tend to be the things we remember and learn from the most and even now I still experiment with different ideas and techniques - sometimes with disastrous results!
Finally, keep good records of what you do. I find photographing my steps helps a great deal, especially if I’ve created something I’m pleased with and want to remember what I did or how I did it. I also keep a notebook to record details about the materials I used. Basically, the better a record you keep the more invaluable it will become in the future as you continue to develop as a successful self-taught artist.