10 More Easy Abstract You Can do in a Few Hours

1. Introduction to the course: Ten more AC abstracts for you to do in a few hours. This is gonna be fun. You're going to have a great time creating new work. Just a little background. I've been teaching for many years. I love teaching art and sharing my love of art with people. I have an ad in art education and all my work is original work. It was created just for my students. We're going to paint using bold brush marks and spatter and just create a dramatic effect. This is an easy and fun painting you can do in one night. We're going to create another one that's quite easy. Use batter and you create a central focus and darks. And look how the paint spreads. It's just so interesting. We'll use masking tape in many different ways. This one uses watercolor or watered down acrylics. I've used both. And acrylic that is heavy body to create this wonderful effect. It's amazing what you can do with masking tape. We're also going to create landscape, abstracted landscape paintings like this one. We're also going to do some stamping, just cardboard and see how easy, simple and beautiful at the same time, I just love that decomposition. So we have to do one of those. Just to relax a bit. We're going to do just plain circles to create a really beautiful and simple composition. It's just so easy that we decided to do one more on a dark background. Isn't that beautiful? Just simple. It takes minutes to do. So join me in ten more easy abstracts you can do in a few hours. We'll see you in the course. We're just going to have a great time together. 2. Materials you will need: The materials that you will need for this course are acrylic paints. If you have watercolor paints, you can do just about the same thing. So you can use them if you don't want to buy acrylic paints, three brushes, small, medium and large. A container for water or plastic cover for your table because your shirt and make a mess. We're going to do some splattering and that's messy. Or garbage. A small piece of cardboard, toilet roll, a piece of paper the size of your painting, and a cork masking tape in different widths. So just gather all this up and we'll see you in the next lesson. 3. Breakaway- Creating motion in your abstract: Brake way. This is an abstract composition that's super easy to do and it's very, very popular in the abstract world. All you really do is smearing around paint. So I'm using a light yellow, a darker yellow. And I have speeded up the camera so that you're not bored to death because just filling in spaces like this takes time. And it's not that interesting. So you fill it in, smooth it out, make it not too many sharp edges. Fact none if you can handle it. Here, I've added pink and green and I lost that video, so I don't have it for you. But all I did is smear paint amount. Look, I'm smearing paint. Again. I'm taking a light purple and I'm just smearing it on dash, dash, touch, touch, go, go, go. That's all you do. So make sure you let everything dry between layers. Now that doesn't take long, but takes ten, 15 min. In an evening. You can have this painting done. So I smear more at the bottom. I want to create that illusion of movement. So in order to create movement, I don't have it just in one place. I have it in a few areas. I make brush marks that look like it's there's motion happening so the paint isn't solid all the way through. It looks like I've just brushed lightly over the actual spot. So now I let this dry and I'm adding splatters. So whenever something breaks up, there's usually small pieces, larger pieces, and it looks like it's breaking up. So that's what I wanted to show. The color I'm using here is an Antique Gold. I don't want the small pieces to be two dominant. I don't want them to detract from the whole motion. So it's a good idea to repeat colors. So here I'm repeating the gold in some areas but not everywhere. Notice how I hold my brush. I hold my brush by the handle and I don't hold it like a pencil. Now, I'm adding dark darks. You have to be very careful with. You, again, want to show the movement, but you don't want to overpower the painting. You want to put your darks in a strategic place. So quite often three different locations is good. What you want is to create a triangle of Dark Souls, three different places. And what that does is guide your eye around the pinkie. Gently add the paint. Make it look like you're creating movement. You want to go in the same direction also. So don't change directions because you're creating a breakaway piece. And when things break away, they just shatter in mostly in one direction. So as you notice, the darks at the bottom sort of dried out to and God lighter. So you can go back in and add layers if you want. If it's not the way you want it, the idea is for you to create whatever looks good to you. Now let's see what it looks like with the masking tape off. I had so much trouble with this masking tape, but we'll make sure that it's off and then you can see what it really looks like. Now there's a place I have to tweak on the left-hand side, but that's okay. A smaller brush will do the job and you just fill in the little spots that bother you. And here you go. You have one finished painting, breakaway. So large masses, one-piece breaking away your turn. Now, try it out. 4. Creating a focal point: Central focus. This is a really fun composition, not very different from the last one. What you want to do is create movement with one central focus. Starts with a background. I'm apologize for my camera moving. One, my table moved when I press too hard when I was painting, it makes my camera move, um, my cameras attached to my table, one plain background, I chose yellow this time. I'm adding areas of pink, just spatters. Remember that when things break away, which is really what this is. Again, there's little parts that break out, but I don't want the all the darks, everything to be dark and yellow. I want medium colors in there too. So my paint has a bit of water in it. So when I put it down, it kinda separates little bit. I like that. That's something I was looking for. Here. I'm having a break, a breakaway with a focal point. So that's what's happening. We have one central area. We have movement towards that area. I have lights and darks, I have mediums and now I'm going to have smaller medium darks. So when things are separating or going towards the focus, I'm going to have little pieces that are breaking out. So this is a really fun composition. It really attracts a lot of attention. And it's, when it's big, it's awesome. Here I'm showing you everything on smaller pieces of paper. There are about 11 by 14. But if you have a bigger brush, you can make this a really large painting and it looks great. So again, my tape is giving me trouble, but we'll take it out and see what it looks like. Now the key to a good abstract is seeing if it works on all different sides. Here's a tip while I'm taking off the tape. Use your brush and don't press hard, keep it light. Now, does it look good this way, that way, I like it this way. What do you think? Your turn now, we'll see you in the next video. 5. Horizontal or Landscape format: Horizontal. This is a composition that's great to show landscape type elements. Then this one, we're just going to load up the paint. And I'm sorry, my camera's moving again because when I push hard on my table, my camera moves. So I have to stabilize my table. But here you look, you just smear paint one layer after another. I start with purple. I'm trying to create a scene that reminds me of early spring when there's still a little bit of snow and the green starting to come out. You see bits of dirt. And it creates a really interesting abstract really. So that's what I'm trying to create. So I'm blending some of the colors. Here. I'm just taking a scraping tool and I'm scraping into the areas and just create a little bit of texture. And I'm going to use paint and stamp this color and looks black, but it's actually Payne's gray, which is like a purplish, bluish, dark. It's really a gray color. I like it because it blends easily. It's semi-transparent. And when I add colors, that color to other colors, it really does create a really nice neutral or dark. When you add darks, you also need to add lights. Remember the idea is to create contrast. And the more contrast you have, the more interesting your painting will be. So I'm adding few lights. I wanted to blend it. I don't want them to be all the same. If you have a goal for this one, make sure that each brushstroke you make is not the same as the other. My goal with this one is just to create a flow of color. So my eye skips from one color to the next color and it creates like a movement type process. So now I'm not sure if I'm done, but I'm going to take the tape off because it often tells you if you're really done or not. If you're done. Awesome. All the banner. I kind of like this spring-like abstract and it's really easy to create. Remember, if you're creating a larger piece, just use a larger brush. I think it would look better that way, that way. Which way is better? I think I like this way. So here it is. One very short, quick, wonderful abstract. It's your turn now. See you in the next video. 6. Creating movement: This is another very easy project you can create in one evening. Step one, make sure you create a very varied backgrounds. So I like to combine a couple of colors and it gives it a little bit of a different look. You brush it so it looks soft. You don't want the brush marks to distract from what's going to happen. For this one, we're going to make marks and we're going to create movement just using a piece of card and some black paint. Here I have an old piece of cardboard and I paint the edge and I stamp, that's it. I'm painting the edge. I'm making sure I have lots of paint. And then I just choose how I want to add those lines. So I want to create movement. I'm going to make it go all the way down. And I'm painting the edge. And then going down slowly. Press hard so it does make a mark. If you don't press too hard, it doesn't make marks. Now, I like the irregular bumps there on that line. I like any regular line like that. If you like a very precise line, you will have to use a brush. But for this, just creating the idea of movement that line moving through the painting and creating a looked like that. That's what you want, at least for this painting. That's what I'm looking for it. And I might just add one mark, so it looks like things are falling down. Just like that. I like the simplicity of this painting. I like to very simple lines and easy kind of look. It sort of meditative. You can, if you don't like it, remember, you can take it off. And I'm taking this off. It's smearing a little. And that really doesn't add to my painting. So I'm going to scrub it out. I almost took this part out of the out of the video, but then I decided, you might have the same problem. You might make a mark you don't like. So you gotta know what to do. I'm including it and making you realize that not everything is perfect all the time. But then here's a better line. And it looks better. We're going to leave it there. So here's the line. Everything is dry and we're going to take the tape off. Now these marks, you can make any way that you like. You don't have to make them exactly like I make them. You can choose your own style. My goal with this painting was to create a sense of movement. And I think I achieved that those lines are really moving. I think this piece would be great in a yoga room. I like that. It's very contemplated, very peaceful. It's just deciding which way it would go. Where would it look the best I can pick. Now, if there are still parts you're unhappy with, you can tweak it once it's dry. So give this painting a try. And we'll see you in the next video. 7. Using masking tape to create an abstract: Masking tape. We're going to be using masking tape for the next few paintings. And you can use different kinds of width. There's all kinds you can very skinny to very large. Keep in mind that the larger masking tape is for the larger paintings. So because I'm working on a small piece as this, for this example, we're going to be using very skinny masking tape. You can choose a design, any design that you like. The masking tape, what it will do is keep out the colors. So you're going to end up with a white line. And you can use this to your advantage. You can choose any which way you want to arrange the tape. You're the boss of this one. So the way I'm arranging it, I'm trying to create a little bit of a focal point. And I'm just going to tape it just so that I have a little bit of variety. And the focal point here, I'm just adding until I'm happy. So that's what you wanna do when you're taping your painting too. Make sure you rub the edges, making sure that you actually really seal that take because that tape is a resist, then you can start painting once you finish taping it the way you want it. So I'm just adding little touches here and I think maybe not done. So the idea is to create the focal point, and that's the part that I'm working on right now. I have this sketch. I actually did plan this. And as I'm laying down the tape, I'm realizing that I'm changing my sketch. I'm trying to create an area that is a little more interesting. And that means a little more detail than the rest. And when I'm happy with that, then I will just start. I think I'm a focal point and sub focal points, that kind of thing. So I can do that now. For this project, I'm going to be using acrylic gel. And I use acrylic gel to seal the edges of the tape. So you just take gel with your finger. I'm having trouble opening my container and just touch all the edges near where the tape is. What that does, the gel kind of goes into the edges of the tape and it leaves you with a very nice clean edge. Now when you don't do this, what happens is you risk take a risk that the paint will seep under the tape itself. But if you do this part, you just lay the gel down and rub it near the edge of the tape. Make sure it's around every tick and rub it like that to make sure it goes right into the edge of the teeth. The reason I use my fingers is because it leaves a nice clean soft surface for this painting. I will be doing watercolor simply because it dries fast and I'm going to fill it in using just a plain old brush and you can fill it in as you wish. Now the beauty of this technique is that you can put all the colors in right away. You don't have to wait for one color that dry and then add the other colors, like in usual watercolor techniques. And I've speeded up the camera, so it's not so boring for you. It was really important for you to learn how to put on the table. This is actually the most important part for you to learn how to use this masking tape technique. So everything is filled in. I'm adding a bit of salt just for a little texture and I'm going to let it dry. And here it's dry and I'm peeling off the tape. And you'll see the look is very, very different. And it's lovely. It's a great look. You can tweak any little edges that you don't like. But basically this is all that you need to do is peel off the tape and you have an instant painting. It's fantastic. It's just lovely and I liked the look of it. If you like hard edges, this is the way to go. This is a great way to create hard edges. And as you see the lines are clean. That's simply because of the acrylic gel that you used beside the tape. So here it is, the final product and you can arrange these tapes anyway you like. So have fun. We'll see you in the next video. 8. Method #2 Using masking tape: Masking tape number to a different variation. So instead of using watercolor, I'm going to use acrylic for this one. I've done the beginning the very same way as on the first video. And now I'm going to create a background. So I'm just going to use one. Well sort of a variation on the same color and keep brushing it until I've covered the whole surface. The idea is to create a background that sort of monochrome will not monochrome, but similar in color. And then what it does is it creates more unity for the painting. So the more similar the colors, the more of a unity. And you'll see what it does. It's a really neat way to just create a unified painting. I will leave some of these areas, the color they are, and some others I will change. So step one, just to review, just paint one color or two colors and just blend it in. You'll see that it catches the edges of the tape and I'll create something a little different. You'll really love it when it's done. The effect is just as beautiful as with the watercolor. It's just a different look altogether. Now, this part you need to let dry before you add the other colors. They will help. You don't want have to, but it will help. Now the paint is dry and I'm going to add other colors. And so this is just painting in the beauty of the tape because you don't have to worry about the edges. You don't have to be finicky. You can just add it in and it'll be great. So whatever color you use, try and use it at least three times. Repeat the colors. That's important to repeat those colors. So deciding is the hardest part. Now I chose that one because the color underneath it isn't quite as even as I would like it. So I'm just covering it up with another color and they look better. And just keep in mind that this is just your choices because I like these colors doesn't mean you have to use these colors. You choose your own colors. That's important part. And choose the colors you really love, because that's when things happened really well. That's when the magic happens as they see. No, I don't like that color there, so I wipe it off. That's possible. So long as you wipe it off before the paint dries. I'm going to keep adding. Now. Just tweaking some of these colors will help. I'm just having a hard time deciding because I like similar colors. So I'm using colors on the color wheel that are close together. On the color wheel. That makes hard decisions because it's hard to decide what's going to touch and they're going to look all similar after awhile. So I have to be careful and I choose colors that will help each other. And as you notice, I'm fading some of the colors so there'll be darker on one edge and lighter on the other that's allowed to. So this is another technique. You don't have to have blocky colors. You don't have to have them filled in all perfectly decided this red is going to be my focal point. So we're going to let this dry and see what happens. I've pulled the tape off already just to save you the pain of watching me take that bad tape off and I've had some bad edge. So I thought I would put this in to show you what to do. We have a crooked edge that's really hard to do. So you put some tape back in and then you paint slowly just like that and leave the tape till it's dry some sometimes I take it off even before that. But just carefully just paint around those areas. You can see already that it's a whole different look from the watercolor version. And it's lovely. I just love that. Look, those hard edges look really good. So here I pull my tape off and I have a better edge. So you can tweak these edges as much as you want. And I'm still not happy with that, so I do it again. It's not quite the way I want it. Notice that I paint in the direction from the tape to the right. Now That's a trick to not have the paint go under the tape when you paint from the right to the left, e.g. towards the tape, your chances of having that jagged edge is much greater. Here's the final product, and I'm very happy with this. Your turn now, have fun. See you in the next video. 9. Method #3 Using masking tape: Using tape for a painting number three. Now here's what happens if you use a background. So I just used watercolor and painted all over my background. And now I'm going to tape it up and paint on top of it. So choose a design that you like. We're going to speed this up because it's a little boring because you know how to use the tape already. In fact, I'm just going to stop now and go to the next part where we start painting. Remember all the techniques? A one-year doing the painting. This is just the watercolor background. You're still going to tape everything. You're still going to add gel. Just do it without me showing you because this is example number three, you know how right now. So here we are. The tape is applied, the gel is applied. And now I'm going to add color. So I'm going to juice, just paint all over. I'm going to paint a neutral background. So background, I want whatever is under the tape to show the most. So I'm using transparent color because I want to show whatever is happening underneath. So I'm just adding color, a bigger brush, fill it in. The teeth. Marks are going to be the important part, is getting a bit dark, but we'll see what happens. I changed my mind, that's way too dark, so I'm taking some of the paint off. So this is just paper towel and I'm dabbing all over. Let the paint dry. And now it's dry. I'm going to take the tape off. I've left a very light spot to act as a focal point. And I'm hoping all those darks that I added will just lead to that focal point and just create a more interesting painting. And I see my tape is tearing. I'm going to have to do a lot of fixing. And because this is the third version of the tape, I will not let you watch everything. I won't let you watch me fixing it. I will just switch to the near the end. And you'll see that it's lovely. It looks great. So hold on. We're switching to near the end. Here we are tapers off. And I'm just about art and I'm looking where the tape has torn near the masking tape lines. I don't mind that. I could leave it that way or I could paint the edges. So this is a choice you can make if it terrorists a lot, maybe that white area adds to your painting. You can see how much trouble I was having with that masking tape. And I'm going to fix them off camera. And we'll meet I'll meet you near the end. I've tweaked most of the edges that were jagged and ragged. And you can see where it's shiny, That's where I added pink. It's up to you at this point. If you like those whites, just leave it. If you don't like those whites, then change it. It's really up to you. But see what the underneath surface does. It adds a lot of drama and a lot of interests to what's happening in-between the tape areas and create a multi-dimensional painting. So here it is at the end. Which way does it go? Which way does it go best? You'll get to the side. We'll see you in the next video. 10. The T Composition: The T composition. I have to admit I have a weakness for this composition. I really like it. Now. Step one, create a background. I'm using yellows and maybe a little bit of quinacridone, gold later on. But the choice is yours. You pick the colors that you love and add them to the background. Whenever people at my, I should say my students work with the colors, very love. I find they do a way better job of their paintings. So if you don't like yellow, don't use yellow. And the T composition is one that I like because it's just very easy to do and very fast. Now I cheated a bit. I added some white marks. Now I'm just using a very skinny brush and I'm making lines. And remember whether t looks like here. I'm trying to create the t. Look. I don't want the T to be perfect, like a letter. I want it to be a little different. So that's what I'm doing with this brush. And I want to break up that T. I want areas that where the eye can flow in between the marks. So that's what I'm doing. This is a very quick and easy composition. Now, I spattered a bit. I had built a bit on one, on the left-hand side here, but it kinda works with my composition anyway. Now a few spatter and you don't like it. If you left the background to dry, you can always wipe it off and start all over again. So that's an option for you. That's the trick to working with acrylics. If you let the areas dry when you're doing the next step and you're like, don't like it, e.g. you can wash it off and start again. Now I'm taking the tape off, see how easy that was. That's probably a grand total of a dozen marks up the most. For 678-910-1112? Yeah, exactly 12. So what happens is I take the tape off and I check out if I like the look of it. So I created a background with yellows through a two kinds of yellows, or one yellow, one orange. And I blended the two together. And then I added a bit of white. And then I made my marks. Now this tape is giving me grief and I'm getting a really ragged edge around my painting. And here I got really bad at, so I can fix that, which are going to do is add tape back in and paint it in. I love this composition, so I'm going to take the time to fix it. I thought I would include the areas where I have problems in these paintings because chances are you will have problems at one point or another as well. So I can tape it down and repaint. Or I can use a very flat brush and create the edge that I'm looking for. Just slowly drag your brush and then blend in with your fingers. And I'm going to choose the flat brush and then blending with my fingers and see how that works really well. So take your time and just slowly fix it. Slowly, just add paint. And the more slowly you go, the more likely it's going to work. So here's the composition. The composition. Have fun. Enjoy doing this. Use different colors. And we'll see you in the next painting. 11. Easy abstract with circles: Circle simplicity. This is too easy. I took a toilet paper roll, I paint the toilet paper roll ads, and I stamp, and I choose different colors. I've chosen complimentary colors. So orange with green and little bits of blue. And I stamped stamps, stamp and here we go. It's dry. We take the tape off. And you'll see when they really looks like it's one of the easiest and the most awesome you can create. If you want to create on a larger piece, all you do is find a plastic lid, paint the edges of the plastic lid, and you can create the same effect in a larger format. So you can actually go quite large. You can get lids from just about any bucket that will work and you paint the edge. That's all you do. Here. I'm peeling off the tape and I'm still having trouble with my tape last piece and then we get to see what it really looks like. This is so easy and it looks great. Especially I've done this very large and it works really well. Just going to hide the ragged edge. Then you can see better with it looks like, Here we go. Okay, I've decided to take that off. Here's the final piece. Isn't that easy? You could choose to put it any which way you want. It's a really fun project. See you in the next video. 12. Creating an abstract using circles on a dark background: Circles on blue. We're going to do the same project as before, but we're putting it on a blue background. I saved you the trouble of watching me paint a blue background. And here we are just stamping with a toilet paper roll. And again, taking off the tape to see. And we're just going to have to tweak that edge. Again. If you want to paint a large canvas with this, find a large lid. And it's so easy. Make sure you use thick paint. Liquidy paint doesn't work very well. Thick paint is awesome. It works really well. So just take your time. Take off the tape. This tube stick so badly and it must be old, but I just bought it. Anyways. No more complaining. It's a really fun project. You'll like this. I chose bright colors because the background is dark. I chose red, yellow, and blue. And you can see that some spots and blue work. Some spots barely show and they look green against the blue. Try this again. And we'll see you in the next video. 13. Conclusion to the course: Conclusion. Thank you for taking my course. I had a lot of fun making it, and I hope you had a lot of fun just doing all the exercises. It's always fun to experiment. The techniques that you have learned can be used in other paintings. And I hope you had fun experimenting with them. Keep in mind that playing leads to great results and it's often by accident, we get our best work. Enjoy making art and look for my next course really soon. And thanks again for taking my course.