My Creative Process for Abstracts

I love to read about the creative process of other artists. Sometimes that creative process of other artists inspires me to try something new. It may not be a right fit for me but anything that gets you out of that creative routine is a good idea. One idea leads to other ideas. 

Today’s blog I will just outline the basics of how I start and finish an abstract piece like one included in today’s blog. This Blog will not include art basics 101 like composition, color or subject choice. I do love these topics but that is for another day.

For those who are not familiar with how digital art works let me illustrate it this way. Imagine taking a bunch of papers, magazine pages, photographs, pictures of colors, art, fashion etc. Now take all the pieces and rip them up and throw them in the air, mix them up and then like putting a puzzle together but not anything that resembles the original images you collect colors, shapes and textures. 

This works more as a color palate than anything. Once i pic all the pieces I like I take those pieces over to Photoshop and add some traditional hand drawn elements I have scanned and saved. I tweak colors and I may shift more of the pieces. I export that pattern to iPad Pro and Procreate. I use this as a base and paint using the underlying colors , however painting something that looks entirely different. Once in awhile a violin, a small leaf, a tree or something from nature may make it into the actual abstract. I  then add another layer of ink and paint elements highlighting and shadowing shapes. Once this is done I export back to the digital world where I use Corel Painter and Photoshop for more textures and color tweaks till I feel that state of completion. If I don’t feel that state of completion I come back to it another day. These pieces take hours sometimes days to complete. 

All my work I create in the highest resolution that my iMac can manage. I just printed up to 45 inch canvases and they came out beautifully. The texturing looks so real that only until you run your fingers over the printed canvas can you see that the texture is digitally manipulated rather than an actual texture on the canvas.

I hope this peek into my art studio will inspire you to either start creating or mixing up your creative process. 

Have a great day!