Simple Abstract Artwork - How to Have Fun with Acrylic Painting

1. Hello and Welcome!: If you've never painted an abstract artwork, this class will be your first. It's amazing what you can obtain with just one brush and a couple of colors. After finishing a bachelor's and master's degree in fine arts, I have learned a lot of painting techniques that help me expand and explore many art skills and concepts. Since 2018, I've been working in art restoration while also developing a strong passion for teaching both online classes and also in-person. Abstract art can be a beautiful experience through which you can express yourself while also learning basic concepts about color, value, and shape. Hello, my name is Christine, and welcome to a new abstract painting course. Playing with simple shapes, you will create a pleasant sense of balance in your artwork. You will learn how to use contrast to create harmony in your composition. You will understand the importance of using a limited color palette when creating abstract paintings. Using the plasticity of your paintbrush, you will make your creative process much more fun and enjoyable. You don't need any prior experience with acrylics. Every step is detailed and well-explained. Whether you want to decorate your home or make a painting for a loved one, welcome to the course. 2. Materials: For gorgeously colored but easy to make painting, you will need the following materials: A canvas that has 40 by 40 centimeters or any kind of squared canvas, one single medium flat brush, this is a synthetic one, and the mixing plate where you can add and mix the colors, and a couple of napkins for discharging the brush from excess color or any other messy accidents. The acrylic colors you will need to create this abstract acrylic painting are the following colors: Titanium white, plenty of it, some warm and vibrant cadmium light yellow, obviously blue, this cyan blue dark, a small amount of tylor green, some beautiful and vibrant orange color. This orange color is matte, but it doesn't matter. You need just a very small amount. Let's not forget of black, just a small amount of black to get some dark and contrasting nuances of blue and turquoise. Now that you know what it's needed, make sure you have a good source of light and a free table, an easel, or a wall to place your canvas. Now let's get into the first step. 3. Big Shapes - Establish The Direction: Let's take a step back before starting to better understand some core principles used in this painting. As you can see, the paintbrush is pretty stiff. You can wash it before starting to not be dry and let the colors better get between the hairs and fill the paintbrush. The color palette is ready. Here we have the colors. There is the cyan blue, black, phthalo green, yellow, and of course, titanium white. The color palette is limited so the colors can harmonize and better blend and combine on the canvas. In this exercise, you will see how easy it is to give a direction to your composition. The most important tool and friend for this adventure is your paintbrush. As you can see, it is pretty wide and thick and can be used in multiple ways. You can use the wide side of the brush or the thin side to create shape diversity or better navigate between the different shapes. Now let's spread with the brush some of the blue on the mixing plate but not too much so they don't get dry too fast. Now when you are taking color with your brush, it is important to fill it with color and not take the color just with the tip of the brush. When creating the main big shapes, it is very important to not use the tip of the brush to create the main shapes. By using only the tip, the shapes you create are not clear, the edges are undefined, and the direction of your composition is hard to establish. What you want to do is to fill your brush with a generous amount of color and use the entire body of the brush to describe the shape. Of course, this implies to press on the brush. By pressing on your brush on the canvas, the shapes described will be much more expressive and will create interesting textures. Start with simple shapes and basic colors so you can later add secondary nuances. Another important thing is to apply generously the color so it can stay wet a longer time. Let's now create the second shape on the opposite side of the first. We will use the phthalo green this time. It don't matter if you still have the color from before inside your brush. Let's now take the color and apply it on the bottom left side. Make sure the edges of the canvas are covered with color and then press and drag the brush to describe the shape. Of course, you don't have to use only horizontal shapes. You can add vertical shapes as well. Now to diminish the conflict between the two very edgy shapes, we will create a color bridge by mixing on the plate the two colors. Let's go to the mixing plate and mix some blue inside the turquoise or the other way around. It doesn't really matter. Now we will use the entire surface of the brush to drag some color from the top, down to the turquoise shape. Flip the brush to use the color from both sides and repeat the movement, focusing on describing the shape. This is all you need to know for this step. Let's start painting. The canvas is ready and the mixing plate is nice and clean. Make sure that the mixing plate is dry as well so the colors can stay nice and thick. Of course, here is the medium flat brush, the simple plastic brush, short and sturdy. Now we will start to add the colors to the mixing plate. The colors will be used in multiple steps, so make sure the quantity is generous and the plate is large enough to have space for all of them. Let's start by adding a generous quantity of cyan blue, because you will use plenty of it. The next color will help you obtain more intense nuances of blue and turquoise. Let's add just a tiny bit of black. Try to use it scarcely and keep it away from other colors, especially from white because we don't want any grayish colors in this painting. The next color is this intense turquoise that can be used in combination with white and blue to create new interesting color variations. Of course, if you don't have turquoise, you can create it by mixing a darker shade of blue with this beautiful bright yellow. A little bit of warmth in these colors will make the nuances slightly more sweet and lovely. Now, the last color you will use is titanium white. This white is very good to create new color nuances without introducing other kinds of paint. Of course, before starting, make sure the brush is clean and dry so you can obtain a pasty and nice color consistency, and maybe create some interesting textures. Don't be afraid to use and mix generous amounts of color. In this step, you will focus on creating a couple of simple color blocks displayed horizontally on the middle of the canvas. The objective is to play some strong colors in order to create the focal point of this painting. Now we will start playing with the blue color, getting some of that thick paint into the brush, and spreading it on the plate to see how it blends with a dark color. Let's search for a deeper, darker nuance of blue. You can flip your brush from one side to another to obtain a uniform color. Let's make a bigger quantity of this color by mixing more of the blue and a tiny bit more black. Don't spread too much color on the mixing plate in order to have space for the next nuances. You'll use the same mixing plate and colors in multiple steps. If you want, you can add even more black to the color, but don't forget that acrylic colors tend to appear slightly darker when they get dry. After you found a beautiful dark blue color for the first shape, let's see where we can place it. In this acrylic painting, you will use only horizontal and vertical directions which will help you trace beautiful rectangle shapes. Let's place the first horizontal rectangle on the middle right side of the canvas, slightly higher from the middle. Place the tip of the flat brush on the place from where your shape starts and where it ends. In this case, on the edge of the canvas. After you've decided the start and the end of your brush stroke, let's start from the left side of the shape and drag the brush to the right pressing generously. Repeat the movement and flip the brush to help the color get into the fibers. Let the brush create thick textures so the canvas can have a good coverage. Looking closely at the textures, they create some small stripes of light along the shape that gives it that subtle feeling of a long stripe of color. Of course, these stripes are much more obvious on dark color textures. Let's grab a lighter shade of the blue and put it on the bottom of this first shape so that it don't look like a hole in the canvas. Now, the first shape is finished. Very simple and straightforward. A strong, beautiful color to start with. So is the time for the second one that you will place it to the left side of the first shape. Make sure you link the two shapes and make the second one maybe a tiny bit lighter in tone. As you can see, the shapes keep expanding to the left side of the canvas, slowly changing in tone and shade, but keeping the direction of the textures. Now that we've reached the middle of the canvas with this intense nuance of blue, it's time to introduce another color slowly into the blue. Let's introduce some of this turquoise into some clean blue. There is no need to clean your brush. The paint is still fresh, so it will mix very well with a turquoise from the plate. Just a little bit of turquoise to shift the blue into a warmer nuanced color. Now let's create the third shape continuing to the left side. Keep in mind to hold your brush horizontally and use its corners and wide surface to cover the canvas in a very efficient way. As you move to the left, you can introduce even more turquoise to create a smooth and interesting gradient between colors. Now let's create a very beautiful turquoise square to the left. As you can see, two strong brushstrokes are enough to cover what's left of the white canvas. After this bluish turquoise square is created, it's time to add some white to this color. Use the corner of the brush to grab a tiny bit of white and mix it with a turquoise and blue. Mix it in one place repeatedly until the turquoise becomes visibly slightly lighter than all the other nuances used previously. With this color, you will create three shapes overlapping the dark turquoise square. One on the bottom, flipping the brush in order to discharge the brush of color. Now let's grab some more of the same color and add it to the left side of the shape, creating one more square. We've almost reached the left side of the canvas with this beautiful shades of blue. Now, at the end, let's change the direction of the last shape and place it on top, overlapping the turquoise square just a tiny bit. Now, this short and beautiful step is done. Let's move to the next one and continue expanding the blue nuances around the shapes that you've already created. 4. Medium Shapes - Expand the Color Variety: Let's take a very short break and see how we can build the secondary shapes. These shapes will be of lighter tones and smaller sizes than the first. Let's mix on the plate a little bit of white with the turquoise or the blue color from the previous step. In this step, you will create a big variety of color nuances, so don't be afraid to mix different quantities. The places where you will want to create these shapes are around the main shapes. You can overlap the edges of the shapes to create a connection between them through color and shape. Of course, these shapes can vary. You can make them longer or vertical if you want, but try to stay away from diagonal shapes to not create conflict between them. The next step is all about playing with two colors and white in order to expand the composition slowly to the edges and away from the middle. By adding more white, you can progressively reach the edges of the canvas while still keeping the main direction of the big shapes. Don't forget that you can use the paint from the canvas to create color variations in your new secondary shapes. Once your secondary shapes are placed, you can add smaller details by using the thin side of the brush or the white tip of it to disrupt any kind of pattern created or re-balance the composition. Of course, it is very important to press on your brush in order to have decisive and very expressive brush strokes. In this step, we will play around the first shapes created with darker and lighter blue and turquoise nuances. You will alternate between horizontal and vertical moves as you will slowly transition to vertical lines further into the creation. What you will want to focus on this step is to create more color variety for your composition. Let's start by mixing a little bit more cyan blue into the light turquoise created previously. Give it a light mix to fill your brush and obtain a smoother color consistency. Fill your brush with a good amount of color and now let's begin from the top of the first shape and trace a tall vertical line on the edge, getting the color nicely into the fibers. Now, we will expand with some smaller shapes to the left side, creating something like some stairs. Let's make three shapes that blend on the right side and overlap just a tiny bit with the blue shape from the bottom. Now, the transition between the edge of the canvas and the dark colors is much smoother. Of course, as you extend the color variety away from the focal point to the edges of the canvas, some of the contrast starts fading slowly. An easy way to anchor back the attention to the horizontal lines from the middle is to add over the shapes from before small accents of a darker color. Let's grab some of this turquoise and mix it with the black from the corner. Don't forget that black can easily overpower any other color so, use it scarcely. Let's mix the black and the turquoise right next to the black, away from the light color nuances from the mixing plate. After a quick mix, the color is ready to be applied. Let's move over to the left side over the light and dark turquoise and add over their intersection a strong brushstroke of this color using the entire surface of the brush to create interesting shapes and small details. If you want, you can create even darker nuances to create small lines using the edge of the brush, but don't make these lines too obvious, just gently touch the canvas. Let's look for another place for one more dark-colored accent. This time you will use the thin side of the brush to create some stripes on the right side of the canvas. This will create a little bit of variety in shapes and brushwork, thus breaking the lego look of the shapes. If you feel like bringing attention to another spot that you find pretty, you can place a couple more of these lines created by the thin edge of the brush. If your brush gets too heavy from the color, you can use a dry napkin to discharge the brush, but don't wash it. Keep some of the previous color inside the brush to create interesting future nuances. Now, that we've reached a darker tone for the middle of our shapes it's time for some lighter tones that will be placed further away from the shapes from the middle. You will use turquoise and white to create a lighter nuance and expand the color variety to the bottom left side of the canvas. Let's spread some of these turquoise on the mixing plate and then add to it just a tiny bit of this titanium white and mix them in one place. After your color is ready, you can place it over the blue light turquoise from the bottom left side. Let's create one more horizontal shape over the first one and maybe get a little bit more outside of it. Even though the color we've created was light, it combined with the color from the brush on the canvas arriving to a very similar tone with the one from underneath because we want to expand even more the color tones to some lighter ones. Let's take a little break and make sure the brush is discharged from the axis color. Because the brush is flat and quite thin, it's pretty easy to clean. Just wrap it's tip in paper and press the color outside the brush. After you feel that your brush is lighter and a bit cleaner it's time for some even lighter nuances. Let's get to the mixing plate and grabbing some of the white once more, let's edit the color created previously. Mix it in one place. Flip your brush from one side to the other to help the white get into that turquoise and make it lighter. This time, the tone of the color should be somewhere in between the lightest turquoise from the canvas and the original white color of the canvas. Let's move to the left side of the canvas and dragging the brush vertically to the bottom of the canvas, create a long strip of color as wide as the brush repeats the movement a couple of times until the colors gets very nicely into the fibers of the canvas. Let's break a little bit of the contrast from the bottom of this shape from between the two, and now you will use the same color to create one more rectangle on the top of the dark turquoise nuance. Drag the color upward and elevate it until it's shaped like a square. As you can see, the light turquoise is very beautiful and fun to watch. Let's add some more of it on the right side as well to balance the composition. You can use the thinner side of the brush to create a smaller shape on the bottom of the first and mix just a little bit of the color into the one from the top, as the blue from the top is still pretty wet. Now, let's grab some of the blue color from the middle to create a darker shade of turquoise, and add it to the left side of the canvas, right over the edge to close the line created by the shapes over the middle of the canvas. Let's fade the edges of this little shape as this side of the canvas doesn't really need to be in focus. After this is done, you are ready for the next step, so let's not wait longer. 5. Conquer the Big White: Before getting into this step, let's look at the ways you will cover the free space from the canvas. To paint these spaces, you will need to use a very light color, but not clean white. If you use clean white, the shapes you've created will still look as strange from the space from around. So, let's give a light mix to this white and add to it a small amount of any blue shade used previously. As you can see, this color is much better integrated into the painting now and the cold blue can create a very nice and subtle color variation. When covering with this light color, make sure you don't leave blank canvas between the shapes. It is much better to overlap a color than to have blank canvas. As for the previous steps, keep applying the new bright color using vertical or horizontal motions. After you've covered the canvas with this color, you can create a playful interaction between the shapes. For doing this, your brush needs to be discharged of colors, so make sure you use a clean napkin to pull the color out of the paintbrush. Then you can drag the color from the big shapes over the white colored spaces to create interesting color textures. These textures will create that tiny bit of diversity needed in this abstract painting. After this textures will be created, you will be able to use clean white to disrupt those strong directions. You can use the white paint to introduce back color contrast by overlapping it with the big dark shapes. Now let's get back to our painting. This step will be very satisfying as you will play with some very light blue nuances and cover half of the canvas, the bottom side. Let's just start by getting rid of the excess color from the brush. Squish the brush on both sides and inspect it for any small chunk of color, but don't wash it because you will need that tiny amount of color to shift the bright titanium white into a cold, nuanced white. When covering with this cold white, the bottom of the canvas, you will use vertical motions to grab some of the colors from the top and drag them over to the bottom to create small color variations and give a sense of direction to the brush stroke and the textures. Make sure you have free space on the bottom of your canvas and nothing stands in your way. After you are done creating your cold white, you can start applying it to the bottom right side, massaging the surface of the canvas with the brush to get that color inside the textures of the fabric. If you need to create more of this cold white, you can grab a small amount of any cold nuance from the plate and add it to the white. The cyan blue from the top is perfect for turning this white into a cold one. Mix the two colors into one place until your colors are nice and uniform. Then you can continue covering the bottom side of the white canvas. After discharging the white color on the canvas, you can go to the top edge of the white color and drag down some of the dark color from the top to create interesting lines and textures over the bottom side. Keep these textures aligned and fade them as they get closer to the bottom. By doing this, you will reduce the conflict between the edges of the shapes and the light color from the bottom. They will much better harmonize and blend by just slightly going over their edges. Now, let's continue to the left with some more of this cold white color. If you need more color, you can always grab some more of the color from the top and add it to the white color. Of course, you can make a larger batch of color from the start and apply it over the entire surface. But a little bit of color variation can enrich quite significantly the complexity of your artwork. Let's place one more long light brush stroke over the dark shape from the top, dragging its beautiful color to the bottom and mixing it into the rest of the white. Remember that acrylic colors tend to dry out a little bit darker than their wet form. So, avoid adding too much blue to the white. If your color gets too dark, you can add more titanium white back into it and give it a quick mix. Let's move to the left side and continue covering the white canvas with this beautiful cold white paint. Make sure you use the white color to cover the blank canvas from between the shapes. Progressively, you can cover the bottom side of the turquoise shapes and after that you can go over the turquoise shape from the top and drag this still wet turquoise color over the cold white from the bottom. To cover the surface of the canvas even faster, you can blend the colors on the canvas, so it don't really matter the nuance of blue you use to color the white. If your brush creates color variations, it is no problem, but make sure they follow the vertical elongated shape created. Getting closer to the bottom left side, let's go to the mixing plate and grab some more of the white and add it below the blue shapes using the entire surface of the brush to cover the canvas. As before, make sure you cover the edges from between the colors and there is no more blank canvas left to be seen. Pay a little bit of attention to the edges of the canvas as well and make sure the colors cover them very well. Now let's move further into the next step to cover what's left from the canvas with the same cold nuance of white. 6. Playful White Nuances: Now, it is time for the top side of the canvas. You will continue covering the white of the canvas with a cold nuance of white, so make sure you're mixing plate has enough white color on it. To make the process much easier, you will grab the canvas and flip it so the uncovered canvas can stay on the bottom now. As you can see, by flipping the artwork, you can help it regain some balance by fixing angles and inclinations of the shapes. Let's position it right in the center, and now you can start once again mixing some of the color from before creating some more of it. Let's add some more titanium white right next to the spot where you want to create the color, and then you can add to it just a small touch of the blue from the top and give it a light mix. Let's continue covering the canvas, focusing on the edges of the canvas and the ones of the blue shapes, very lightly, and loose, and very relaxing. This brush can very easily cover big surfaces, so this process can be very fast and effortless. Let's move further and cover the edges of the turquoise shapes. By lightly wiggling left and right your brush as you drag it down, you can make your painting process a tiny bit more efficient as this motion helps the color get into those textures of the canvas. Moving more to the left and covering with this white the canvas using vertical motions to get a smooth and clean surface. Let's make a beautiful clean white edge with the blue shape from the middle, and then drag the color from the top down to create some more interesting textures just like for the other side of the canvas. If you feel like creating more of these interesting effects, for example, you can grab just the tiny amount of one color from the plate, for example, this turquoise, and add it right or the edge from between the two colors. This can be useful in the case in which the blue shapes from the top are dry. Just a little bit of color variety and vibrance into the flat white will make it beautiful and lovely. Let's continue covering the bottom edge of the canvas. Remember to give some extra attention over the edges of the canvas and the ones made with a blue shapes. After this, you are ready to create some beautiful interventions over the edges from between the colors to fade some harsh lines and harmonize the colors. For that, you will create a light turquoise color, so let's use the light color from the brush and mix it with the light turquoise color from the mixing plate to create an intermediate nuance, and now let's use this color around the turquoise shapes to disrupt a little bit of their shapes using vertical and horizontal moves. Let's cut the corner of this turquoise square and add on the top near the other long shape two horizontal lines, one over the cold white, and one more over the dark turquoise from the bottom. This color works like a bridge between the other colors, harmonizing and softening the highly contrasting edges. Let's move to the bottom left side and continue creating some of these textures over the white paint and over the edge of the shape. Use the color scarcely. Don't take too much color with your brush from the mixing plate. But when you apply it, use bold and simple moves. Don't soften the textures by repeating the brush stroke too many times. Keep them nice and textured. Let's make some more of this beautiful light turquoise and place it right over the textures from the left side using horizontal moves. Now that we have created a little bit of variety for the turquoise side of the painting, it is time to add some small light blue brush strokes, so let's mix some of these gorgeous blue into the white to obtain a very soft light blue. Make sure that the brush doesn't hold too much color in it so you can create some interesting textures and effects. With this light blue, we will once more play around the edges of the beak shapes and create small bridges. Let's say right on the top of this beautiful blue block of color and below of course to make the shape maybe look thinner and more subtle. These small brush strokes help you create fluidity in your creative and colorful language. Let's add some small brush strokes over the right side of the canvas over these 90 degree angle as well, and over the right edge of the canvas. Some of these shapes can seem too blocky and rough against the soft white nuances, so you can use the blue to cover a little bit of this corners using vertical and horizontal moves. With one more brush stroke, let's break this big mass of turquoise and add a little light window in it's shape. Further into the step, you will use some clean white in order to bring maybe a little bit of calmness to a couple of two energized spots. Let's get to the mixing plate and give a quick mix to what's left of the white. You can make the color a bit more pasty so it can be able to cover generously and maybe make some textures as well. The spots where you will want to apply this white is where you feel like there has been a pattern created. These patterns tend to attract too much attention, so it's best to calm them a little. Let's say in this bottom left corner the colors are a little bit too agitated for the edge of the canvas. Move along the bottom side and follow any brush strokes that attract your attention in an unpleasant way. After you feel like the bottom of your canvas is a bit less messy, you can move to the top and do the same over the cold white nuances. Here on the left side right on the top of the beak blue shape, it seems like the textures are creating a big mess because they describe too many directions and nuances, so let's make a hole in them to bring a little bit of calmness. Make the white patch of color look less blocky, and fade the edges of the white shape by adding small details over it's edges, and fade down the shape so it can blend into the big mass of cold white. Now, you can grab some more color and move to the right side, and find another place to put some of these clean white. This white can help you enhance other colors as well by placing it on the edge of a shape or you can place small white brush strokes inside the big shapes to create even more contrast and enhance the focal point obviousness. Using the thin side of the brush, you can go along the edges to make them look slimmer or straighter. Don't forget to alternate between vertical and horizontal motions to avoid repetition and create a pattern among your brushstrokes. Now, this beautiful abstract painting is getting more interesting by just playing with a couple of cold blue nuances. Now because in the next step we are going to use warmer nuances, let's clean the mixing plate and the brush so you can have plenty of space and clean vibrant colors. 7. Sprinkles Of Yellow: Now it is time to introduce some warm-colored shapes, so let's firstly see how we can do this. These shapes will create color contrast with the rest of the composition, so you will want to keep them close to the main shapes and away from the edges. When introducing new colors, you can do that by firstly mixing the new color, in this case, yellow, with a color already existent in the painting. By mixing the yellow with a tiny bit of blue or turquoise, you will obtain a light green color. This light green color will create a bridge between the standalone color, in this case, yellow and the painting, so let's add this green in the middle of the painting choosing three spots, make the shapes smaller than the main shapes, and closer to the secondary colors. After this middle nuance has found is placed on the Canvas, you can add small accents of yellow to create some bright contrast. Apply the color generously, but keep the size of the shape small by using the tip or the side of the brush. Make sure you firstly follow the middle nuance created, and then you can add this color by its own, following the big shapes and their direction. As you can notice, the yellow can have a great luminosity when applied over light color, but if you apply it over a dark color, the yellow stands out through contrast. Now, let's get into this step to play with some warm-colored shapes. Now, as you can see, the Canvas is back in its initial position, the small brushstrokes from the last step are harmonizing with a big shapes, creating a beautiful bands of color and light. Now, as you can see, the mixing plate is clean and dry, and the brush as well, so it's time to create our new color palette. Let's start with a small amount of blue. This cyan blue can be useful if you want to quickly cover mistakes or help the new colors harmonize better with the painting. The next color that will beautifully contrast with the blue is yellow. By combining yellow with blue or turquoise, you will obtain a couple of diverse nuances of green that will help the painting regain some of the color play we all desire. Of course, let's add to our mixing plate a little bit of turquoise. This time, you will need just a small amount of these colors, so you don't need to add too much. But when you are painting, it is always better to have your colors available so you don't interrupt your creative process. The next color you might want to add to your artwork is just the touch of orange. It's up to you if you want to use it or not, but the contrast between blue and orange is one that you might want to have in your painting. At the end, let's not forget to add a bigger amount of white to help those warm nuances get into the bottom and the top of the Canvas into the cold whites. After all the colors and the white are placed on the mixing plate, you are ready to paint. Let's start by mixing a little bit of orange into a small amount of turquoise, these two colors are very well pigmented and vibrant. The orange color brings that warmed that it's needed to give a healthy and strong green color to start with. Very intense and Christmassy this green. Let's add some yellow to make it a tiny bit more fresh and luminous. As you may already know, acrylic colors tend to get slightly darker when they get dry, so make sure you keep that in mind when you are mixing your colors. For the moment, you don't want to add white to make the colors seem lighter, but make sure you add enough yellow to make the color seem more vibrant and fresh. Make this green just a tiny bit darker than the blue nuances from the middle. After you have found the beautiful green neurons to play with, it's time to create some gorgeous green shapes over the blue shapes from the middle. You will want to limit the number of green shapes to just a couple of two or maybe three, so let's start by placing over the blue, a couple of green brush strokes. This time, you don't have to make them too big, just play with this green color around the middle, and place small accents. This can help you identify the places where you will want to build your green nuances. As you can see, the green is slightly darker than the blue from underneath, which will help the next color contrast and pop out. Now let's get back to the mixing plate to create the next green neurons by adding more yellow to the previous color, keep the color nicely packed on the mixing plate to not waste it by spreading it around. Let's add more yellow and a tiny bit more turquoise to make this green color more vibrant and closer to the colors that you've applied previously. After real quick makes on the plate, this time you will create some more extended shapes that will overlap with the white sides from the top and the bottom, this will make the green appear more vibrant because of the white from underneath. As for the shapes from before, keep your directions limited by holding the brush horizontally or vertically. This is very important if you want to keep the style of this painting. You can add even more turquoise to the color and then use this color to get closer to the turquoise nuances from the left side of the composition. Remember to use these green nuances scarcely and not create big shapes out of them. You don't want to spread the focal point too much on the size of the Canvas. Now, let's grab some yellow on our bright green brush and apply it over, and next to the places that you've found suitable for your greens. As for the previous steps, you will want to use the thin side of the brush as well to create shapes of different sizes. Use clear and short moves to obtain striking and colorful yellow accents. If your moves get too repetitive, make sure you diversify them by adding vertical brushstrokes or steel ones. Looking for another place to add some of this yellow, and it seems like we can add some bright yellow accents over the left side of the Canvas to spread the focal point and make it seem less decentered. This yellow-green sits very well just right next to the bright turquoise. Let's add one more bright green accent on the top right side to create the link between the yellow accents, and the top side of the Canvas. As you can see, the shape overlaps the dark nuance of green and the cold white from underneath. This color is very thin and transparent. Now we will make it look more opaque and less vibrant by adding a small amount of white to this bright green. The color obtained should look like a clayish color and should have a low color intensity. Let's create with this greenish-white two more shapes around the middle of the Canvas to create a link between the green shapes and the top and the bottom side of the Canvas. The two sides that are painted with a cold white. Now that we have placed these beautiful white accents, it is the time to move to the next step and spread them to the top and the bottom side making our colorful composition much more whole and well-balanced. 8. White Stands for Light: Now the first yellow accents have found their place in the middle of the Canvas, it's time to bring warmth to the brighter side of the Canvas as well. For that, you will use a small amount of the greenish, yellowish color created previously, and you will combine it with a generous amount of white. This step will be very satisfying and beautiful. Let's get into it. Because we want to make this white color very light, the first thing is to make sure the brush is not heavily loaded with color. After this, let's spread a little bit of white onto the mixing plate and add to it a small amount of clean yellow. Mix it very well together until you see a very small change in warmth. If you can distinguish the difference between the titanium white and the color you're mixing, it means that the color is ready to be applied. Let's start from the bottom of the canvas and create some very beautiful and thick vertical brushstrokes. Don't forget that you can use the thin side of the brush to create small breakthroughs in the dark colors. Another way to enhance the look of the painting is to build this brush strokes in a diagonal manner. This will make the painting look a bit more dynamic and playful. Look at the difference in brightness between the cold white and the yellow white. This cream color will soften the cold look of the painting by just adding a small amount of yellow to the white. Now that these beautiful blocks of white have been placed on the bottom of the Canvas, you can fade the edge of these shapes over the cold white from around. After this, it is time to move further on the left side and create some more stripes of this yellowish white. After the blocks of white are placed, lightly go over them and spread them over the cold white from the bottom. As you can see, the yellow is visibly shifting the white into a darker and visible color. If you want, you can add over the yellowish white, small brushstrokes of clean white to break the flat look of the white blocks. Let's extend the white and add luminous brush strokes to the right side, blending the clean white with the cream white and create smooth transitions. Let's move to the top edge of the canvas on the left side to bring a little bit of light over the top as well to balance back the composition. As you can see, the blue shapes from the middle become more and more clear and obvious as we get nearer to them with this beautiful cream white, another accent of clean white on the bottom middle of the Canvas. Now that the big white shapes aren't done, it is time for some small light flickers for this layer of color as well. Let's use the white tip of the brush to create some small cuts into the blue shapes. Let's lift up this side of the blue horizon by covering its bottom side with this beautiful bright white. Now, as for the other white shapes, let's disrupt it's clean and contrasting edges by lightly going over them with a front edge of the brush. A light brush stroke over the top side, and now on the right side as well, changing the direction of the brush stroke to a horizontal one. Let's place one more small white brushstroke near the light turquoise shape to accentuate the contrast and near the turquoise from the bottom as well, creating some medium-size blocks of white color. It seems like the warm wide brush strokes are getting more and more immersed into the look of the painting. Let's move a bit lower on the right side and cover a bit more of the edge, lifting up the color from bottom to top and creating interesting textures. A small accent of color, and your beautiful abstract painting is almost finished. Let's get into the last step to add some more of this beautiful clay color over the cold white and the warm white to harmonize and bring together all these beautiful colors from this gorgeous abstract painting. 9. Calm Clay Accents : Now for the last step, you will reintegrate the clay color over the white nuances from the bottom, and the top, and the middle of the canvas as well. Let's grab a little bit of white on the brush and then mix it with a small amount of that bright yellowish-green created previously. Mix the color in one spot to keep its thick consistency. Now, let's start applying it over the warm white nuances from the bottom. At first, use the colors scarcely and slowly expand the clay-colored surface following the direction in which you've applied the warm white. As you can see, the color is rather pretty dry and thick, which is very good. This will create interesting textures and beautiful color variations. Let's extend the color around the white and create small aisles of color. Lightly go over the blue nuances as well, and now let's look for another spot marked to the left side. As you can see, these colors are used very scarcely and the shapes created are limited. After two or three brush strokes, you should move to another place to create your clay shapes. Let's now introduce a little bit of this clay white back in the middle of the composition over the yellows and the greens to create a link between the clay color and the bright greens from the middle. You can see how beautifully the dark turquoise contrasts with the clay color. Now is the moment for the top side of the canvas. Let's fill our brush with some more of this final color. Now, you will brush it over the cold and warm white creating the third nuance of white for our abstract painting. This top of this turquoise shape seems a little bit too blocky, so let's paint the top-left side of it, covering it with this beautiful clay color. At the end, you can create one more small variety of this clay nuance, so let's add to the color a small amount of yellow from the top of the plate. This color should feel a little bit dry on the brush so make sure you don't saturate your brush with paint. Let's look for an empty spot for this light green over some light nuances of blue would fit perfectly. We don't want it to stand out too strongly. It seems that it would fit great on the bottom right side of the canvas along the edge. Keep the shapes simple and don't expand too much on the surface. As you can see, the color from the brush is very dry and the color sticks only to the strong texture of the canvas. A small touch of this light green on the bottom middle of the canvas and this beautiful abstract painting is finished. It was such a fun and relaxing time to play with different blue and green nuances. Thank you so much for taking this easy-going class. If you enjoyed it, make sure you leave a review and share with us your beautiful abstract painting. Thank you once more for your interest in art and see you in the next class.