ABSTRACT ART PAINTING AND DRAWING

UNDERSTANDING ABSTRACT ART

Abstract art, otherwise known as Modern Art is a mystery for many people, including representational artists. The untrained eye might have trouble understanding and appreciating it as a serious art form.

An abstract art painting or drawing  is one without a preconceived idea or recognize-able subject, one which doesn't relate to anything external or try to "look like" something. Instead the colors and shapes are the subject of the abstract painting. It's a completely non-objective or non-representational.

Also classified with abstract art are figurative abstractions and paintings which represent things that are not visual, such as emotion, sound, or spiritual experience. Figurative abstractions are abstractions or simplifications of reality where the image still has representational foot, but detail is eliminated from recognizing-able objects leaving only the essence or some degree of recognize-able form  .

Abstract Art represents what is being felt on the inside rather than what is being seen on the outside. Abstract Art is more than just a randomized mess flung onto canvas. The creativity within these works of art is meant to turn heads and illicit new imaginations within the viewer. In most circumstances, Abstract Art is filled with exciting colors and textures. These elements are what make it one of the most favored forms of art collected today.  A strong piece of art is able to grab your attention and pull an emotional response from within you. This is the artist’s plan to keep your mind thinking, and analyzing and your eyes moving through the painting.

Abstract Art breaks away from the traditional representation of everyday objects and familiar subject. The viewer is not distracted by meaningful  images, so the mind is stirred into feeling the energy and soul of the painting. Abstract Art does not reflect any form of realism in fact, it breaks the rules. The only requirements for such paintings are shapes, colors, lines, patterns, and an unbounded imagination to view the finished work! As artists we all have the need to reach inside ourselves and rouse our inner feelings. Whether to tell a story, to capture an image, or to illustrate an idea it is a universal desire for both.

But if a piece of abstract art is supposed to have significant value to anyone other than the artist, it needs to have something that will retain the viewer's attention, draw them in, keep them looking, and generate an emotional response. In that sense, abstract art is no different from realism.

CREATING ABSTRACT ART

Begin traditionally by copying from life and gradually move into abstraction, try a copy of a photograph or a reproduction of someone else's art, then start to "abstract" or move away from reality, do not feel bound to represent it, only to use it as a starting-off point.

It's much easier to use something 'real' as the starting point for developing an abstract painting like photo and calligraphic marks, then play down the elements like cutting and dragging shapes, adding and subtracting shapes, swirling and expanding, etc. Which is a way or method to distort the images (in computer digital painting we can use available filter features of the graphic program) in order to get along with a completely non-objective or non-representational images, consider alternate colors, see the overall image or drawing to get a feeling of beauty. Then do it again, and again. That's how ideas for abstract paintings or drawings are developed.

If you are feeling a strong emotion of any kind, try expressing it directly through color, line and form on the canvas. But remember that whatever method you use to begin an abstract painting, you will need to pay attention to composition, interest in shapes and lines, dominance, and look at the overall image to get a beautiful feeling in order to complete it successfully. Or you can do like an  Abstract Expressionism  Artist, which emerged in the 1940s, applied the principles of Expressionism to abstract painting in which paint was dripped, dropped, smeared, spattered, or thrown on the canvas, letting the next action flow naturally rather than forcing a preconceived idea of what to paint is a good example of making expressionism  abstract painting.

This abstract image is created with  JacksonPollock.org free flash toy that simulates the “action painting” style of American abstract expressionist painter Jackson Pollock.

In general all painting is abstract in the sense that it is not the object itself. Many who call themselves "abstract artists" are Indeed painting a subject, but freely stylizing that subject to be a un-imagine-able or un-recognize-able object.  If you want to paint "abstract" but have trouble figuring out how to approach the canvas, try taking a subject you have painted before and abstracting it. If you are painting from life, for example, try squinting your eyes until all you can see are the blurry outlines of your subject.  Forget the details.  Take your brush or pencil and sketch in the broad shapes and contours.  Or take a very small section of your subject and stretched it up to cover the whole canvas. 

Now look from a distance and see how your composition unfolds, how the shapes take form and become interesting in and of themselves, without reference to your subject.  Keep playing with your composition, adding and subtracting shapes, modifying color, strengthening lines.  Follow your intuition to what draws you in, scrap what doesn't fit, and use your own imagination of free styling the subject.  Work fast, and then stop and study what you have.

In general developing an abstract art is no different from painting realism. The formal elements need to be there. Your personal signature needs to be there. Just as an author develops his own voice, so does a painter, so that the viewer or reader easily recognizes his style.

Abstract Art cover term that describes two different methods of abstraction: 'semi abstract' and 'pure abstract'. The word 'abstract' means to withdraw part of something in order to consider it separately. In Abstract art that 'something' is one or more of the visual elements of a subject: its line, shape, tone, pattern, texture, or form.

Semi-Abstract is where the image still has one foot in representational art. It uses a kind of free stylisation where the artist selects, develops and refines specific visual elements (e.g. line, color and shape) in order to create a poetic reconstruction or simplified essence of the original subject.

Pure Abstract is experimental art where the artist uses visual elements independently as the actual subject of the work itself in developing a non-objective or non-representational art.

Element  is part of  recognize-able strokes that form a subject or composition visually known as : its line, shape, tone, pattern, texture, or form.