Using abstraction in art can be a daunting task for beginners, especially since so many people think they don't like "abstract art," but don't be afraid to experiment!
What does abstract mean?
The word “abstract” is often thought of as the opposite of “realistic;” although abstract art is not realistic per se, a work of art can be very abstract or only a little bit abstract. While “abstract” is often thought of as a specific style, there are as many ways to use the “abstract” as there are artists.
The word “abstract” might conjure up the name Pablo Picasso. He is often thought to be the most creative and influential of all the modern artists. He is famous for his bold colours and geometric forms and for his images of women with misshapen features that point in all directions.
But it doesn’t really look like that…
Modern art coincided with the invention of photography; many artists feel that if photography is a perfect mechanism for representing what we see, that painters and sculptors should try to do something different that a camera simply can’t.
My toddler could draw that!
If you think you simply hate abstract art, consider looking for other examples of art out there that use abstraction in a different way and still appeal to you. From folk art to medieval art – any time you see an artist interpreting the world by creating non-realistic realistic images, that is a form of abstraction.
Using Abstraction: the Elements of Art
Warm up by experimenting with the elements of art and seeing how many different types of lines, shapes and textures you can draw. Any image, whether it is very realistic or very abstract, uses these basic elements in different ways. Try using pencil, charcoal, India ink: every medium looks and works differently.
Once you are comfortable experimenting with different ways of representing the elements of art (see below), try drawing to music and using abstract art to visually express the rhythm and mood that you hear.
The next time you sit down to draw from life or still life, think about how you can use abstraction to represent how you feel about what you see.
The Elements of Art:
- Line can be thick or thin, straight or curving, broken or solid, etc.
- Shape is a flat (two-dimensional), closed space whose borders are marked by a line (real or imaginary); it can be geometric or organic, big or small.
- Form is a three-dimensional object and it’s often depicted using elements like value and space.
- Value is a spectrum from light to dark. You can create images with a lot of contrast or only a little between black and white (the extremes).
- Space is also three-dimensional and in a picture (or sculpture) it can be shallow or deep. Space can represent the imaginary 3-D space in the picture that contains objects or it could mean the “negative” space between objects.
- If you want a new challenge, consider looking for resources about something called perspective and the many ways in which it can be used in art.
- Colour can be fun to experiment with! Try using one or more and think about whether and why you want to use bold colours, earth tones, etc.
- Texture is simply a way of visually representing how something feels to the touch (or might feel in the imagination), even if the viewer may never touch the artwork.
