How to paint an abstract painting

Paint an abstract painting in watercolor using only cool colors.

If I want to paint but I don’t have a subject, I will just put the brush on to the paper and do shapes, and maybe use a different technique to make it interesting. I know not everybody is like me, but give it a try if you like to try something new.

Watercolors are most often painted in many translucent layers that overlap each to create vibrancy. For example, comparing watercolor to oil painting, the translucent layerings are the quality of watercolor. In watercolor one of the most important principles is that you let the paint dry before applying the next layer of paint.

My supplies

• Gansai Tambi Watercolor set
• Paintbrush, from “Billy Showell Extra fine for watercolour.” size 6
• Handmade watercolor paper  KHADI WHITE  320G ROUGH

The brushes from Billy Showell are just “crazy good”.  And I love the handmade paper from India that I recently discovered.

 

My plants are the inspiration

How to paint an abstract painting the easy way.

• First I decided what color pallet I wanted
• Then I decided what shapes I wanted.
• On a fairly wet paper, I dripped some paint on to the wet surface and let it dry.
• For the next layer I covered the paper with circles and to create some drama, I worked on the textures in some of the shapes by sprinkling a pinch of salt.
• On the last layer, I made sure all of the circles were touching another circle so that they were all connected.
• The last thing I did was to paint some shapes using shimmering silver paint (a very good paper from India).

The salt technique

The salt soaks up water and leaving cool little dots all over.

I sprinkled the salt on a wet wash. This will pull in and concentrate the watercolor pigments. You will have to wait for the paper to absorb some of the water, but it has to be still wet. You should test this before you do your painting.

The texture will be different depending on how wet the wash is and the dryer the paint is, the lighter the texture will be. The effect will also vary, depending on what type of salt (coarse or fine grains) and the pigment in the color you are using. The chemical reaction makes slightly different effects. Some colors are amazing for this technique and others are less impressive. You can experiment with your preferred paper and paints to learn how it works for that combination.

My salt was already mixed with pepper.

 

If you try this technique please share what paper and paints you are using and what worked for you.

I am loving the texture.

 

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