presents
ABSTRACT
PAINTING
TECHNIQUES
Learn How to Abstract
Paint with Any Medium
ABSTRACT PAINTING
TECHNIQUES
Icebreakers and Warm-Ups
The projects in this section allow you to get going on something without thinking or worrying about what you’re making. Keep in mind
that these projects are designed to be fun to do, so don’t be self-conscious about “making art”—just enjoy the freedom of playing
in the sand again!
Start with eleven dots
EXERCISE 1: Connecting Eleven Dots
This project suggests that you begin your drawing or painting by
Remember the only rule here is to simply connect eleven dots
placing eleven small dots, at random, on a piece of paper and
with lines. Questions may come up such as “How many lines do
start connecting those dots with lines. Think of the dots as hubs
I make?” “Are these straight lines, curved lines, broken lines?”
or anchors for the lines to connect to in a variety of ways. You
These can be answered in so many ways, and the pleasure of
could approach this project as a kind of game to see what dif-
this line game is discovering new solutions each time you work
ferent compositions evolve as you explore variations that come
on this project.
with the placement of the dots on the page, their proximity to
I don’t recommend thinking about many of your choices before
one another and how your composition develops using different
you start working. This project, like many others in this book,
techniques and mediums.
works best when you approach the challenge spontaneously.
This content has been abridged from an original book, Creating Abstract Art by Dean Nimmer, F+W Media. © F+W Media, Inc. All rights reserved. F+W Media grants permission for any or all pages in this premium to be copied for
personal use.
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ABSTRACT PAINTING
TECHNIQUES
Because there are so many possible directions to go with this
if you choose. As with all projects in this book, you start with an
project, I want to keep things simple at first, so I recommend you
initial set of guidelines and then you take it anywhere you want
use only one color or black and white for the first eleven dot proj-
from there.
ect and save color and collage variations for separate projects. Of
course, you can always skip ahead to color or collage variations
Recommended Materials
monochrome (one color) or black-and-white
media (any wet or dry media including water- or
oil-based paints, pencils, charcoal, pastels, markers or wax crayons)
plain drawing paper, 9” × 12" (23cm × 30cm) or
larger
optional: ruler, French curve templates, erasers
Eleven Dot black-and-white line composition
The beginning of an Eleven Dot line composition
Lines Connected to Pulleys
ink on paper
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ABSTRACT PAINTING
TECHNIQUES
EXERCISE 2: Connecting Eleven Dots With Color and More
In the second project you can use the initial eleven dots as a way to
begin a composition and keep going by adding color, collage, shapes
and textures along the way. Think of the original lines you make as
part of a skeleton or superstructure that you’ll use to build your com-
Recommended Materials
colors, techniques and materials are open to
your preferences
position. There are limitless possibilities for compositions that begin
with just eleven dots!
Eleven Dot color line composition
colored pencil and watercolor
Eleven Dot color line composition
Janet Stupak
markers, crayons and watercolor
Eleven Dot color line composition
Talya Sahler
charcoal and watercolor
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ABSTRACT PAINTING
TECHNIQUES
EXERCISE 3: Automatic Drawing — Just Start and Go!
This is a good project to help you get past thinking about the
outcome before you start the making. A key aspect is that
you must keep focused on moving forward rather than try to
control what is taking shape in front of you. This is kind of a
natural metamorphosis in abstract art since there’s always the
prospect for the shapes, lines and textures to evolve into new
structures as you draw or paint.
Begin your automatic drawing by making a mark on a piece
Recommended Materials
18" × 24" (46cm × 61cm) drawing paper
charcoal (soft and medium)
colored pencils
compressed charcoal
erasers
pastels
of paper with any kind of black-and-white or color medium
and just go wherever that takes you. No need to predetermine
what kind of mark should come first or how to proceed from
there, nor is there any model for what the resulting drawing
should look like.
You simply have to trust the process, keep making more
lines and shapes and repeating actions as your composition
starts taking form. If you haven’t done this kind of spontaneous
drawing before, think of this process like you did the first time
you tried to ride a bike without training wheels—get on, start
pedaling, build momentum and ride!
Dena Hengst working on an automatic drawing
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Untitled
Christopher Willingham
charcoal on paper
ABSTRACT PAINTING
TECHNIQUES
EXERCISE 4: Automatic Drawing —
Delete, Delete, Delete
Recommended Materials
18”× 24” (46cm × 61cm) drawing paper
compressed charcoal
kneaded or white erasers
pastels
This is a variation of automatic drawing, similar to the process in the previous exercise, involving toning the paper
first with charcoal until the entire surface of the paper is
covered with an even shade of dark gray or black. Proceed to make initial marks as you did in the last project,
except use an eraser as your drawing tool, carving out
your white marks as negative shapes from the field of
black charcoal. Once you open up some white areas, you
can add lines or textures with pastels as positive shapes
anywhere in your composition.
Untitled
Amber Krawczyk
charcoal, pastel and erasers
Untitled
James Presnell
charcoal, pastel and
erasers
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ABSTRACT PAINTING
TECHNIQUES
EXERCISE 5: Action Painting — Easy to Start, Hard to Stop
Before you do anything, put down some plastic drop cloths and
get the cats and dogs out of the room so you can have some fun
with this by yourself.
This project asks you to revisit those basic creative passions
that were so strong in your childhood by sticking your fingers in
paint and playing for the pure pleasure of the process. If you can
Recommended Materials
plastic drop cloths
roll of butcher or wrapping paper
tempera colors or cheap water-based house paints
any other materials of your choice
suspend your inhibitions about acting like a kid for a few hours,
this project will help you find the roots of your creative intuition
and inspire a renewed sense of excitement and adventure in your
art making.
Try using brushes of different sizes and paints of different colors, and let your marks merge together on the canvas.
The first few times you try action painting should be purely
Action painting is nothing more than letting the paint do what
experimental. The important thing to remember is that unpredict-
it wants to do with a little help from you. The first thing to try
ability is what you are after, so you can revel in the pure enjoy-
might be the loosest form of action painting, where you begin by
ment of playing with the paint. Begin to experiment with different
soaking a brush with paint and dripping and splashing paint onto
approaches: Try flinging paint off the brush to create explosive
your paper or canvas. Let the paint spatter and drip as you make
spatters, dripping paint from different heights or pouring paint of
bold, impromptu gestures, or change to more subtle patterns of
different thicknesses (diluted with various amounts of water) onto
movement to see what kinds of marks those gestures create.
the canvas at the same time.
Action painting
Janet Stupak
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ABSTRACT PAINTING
TECHNIQUES
One of the unique things about action painting is that the resulting
pictures are a visual record of the artist’s “dance” that created the
painting in the first place.
Action painting emphasizes the dynamics of the painting process
with a focus on movement, gesture and free-form play. This approach
is a good place to start using your intuition because it allows you to
use materials freely and to explore spontaneity and dynamic change
without exerting overt control over the painting process. Action painting can involve your whole body, not just your hands, and allow you
to use new tools and movements to make a work of art.
Ink on paper
Acrylic on paper
Peter Franchecetti
Action painting project
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ABSTRACT PAINTING
TECHNIQUES
Realism and Abstraction —
The Odd Bedfellows
The projects in this section challenge you to base your abstract
qualities of temperature, smell, touch and even taste in a few
drawing, painting, collage, etc. on an observed figure, still life or
effortless brushstrokes.
landscape viewed from different perspectives.
I don’t think that Turner ever fully understood the implications
Joseph Mallord William Turner, J.M.W. Turner for short (1775–
of the transformation he had undergone as an artist, nor was he
1851), was, in my mind, one of the most inspiring and influential
self-consciously invested in taking a place in art history as a rebel
abstract artists in the history of painting. Turner was a master
proclaiming to be the inventor of a new kind of art. Simply put,
realist, a classical landscape painter, in his day. That is, until he
Turner’s passion was to reach under the surface of things to find
discovered the newest technology of the early nineteenth cen-
another level of consciousness he could only access through
tury—the medium of watercolor. Not only did watercolor free
painting. John Cage once identified this process of abstraction
Turner to sketch and record nature without worrying about oils
saying, “I prefer to interpret nature in her manner of operation
not drying in a timely fashion, watercolors gave him the ability to
rather than her outward appearances.”
spontaneously record his impressions of sunlit scenes in fleeting
The irony is that Turner is a unique example of a “naïve” artist
moments of time that eventually dubbed him “the painter of light.”
whose career spiraled in reverse gear. He begins as a child prod-
Beyond the fact that his work proved to be an important influ-
igy with incredible technical skills to render and illustrate classical
ence on Impressionists many years later, Turner’s watercolors
iconography only to abandon that craft once he saw the oppor-
cut to the core of what it means to abstractly interpret nature as
tunities to capture the abstract essence of nature by letting go,
a living, breathing entity, right down to reading the full-sensory
painting what he felt and sensed in his gut. Inspirational indeed!
Heidelberg,
c. 1846
Joseph Mallord William Turner
watercolor, pen and
ink on paper
courtesy of Scottish
National Gallery, Edinburgh/The Bridgeman
Art Library
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ABSTRACT PAINTING
TECHNIQUES
EXERCISE 1: Sharing the Spotlight
Recommended Materials
When working from observed subject matter, the central idea is
camera or sketch pad
to see beyond the name of what you’re looking at—whether it’s
materials of your choice
a still life, a figure or a building—to find the qualities you want to
dramatize and transform. This process of observation is similar
to projects in the first chapter, which centered on making use of
basic elements where you are accentuating a color, line, shape,
form, value or texture that you want to bring to the forefront.
In other words, if you’re looking at a subject such as a tree, you
want to see that tree through the lens of these basic elements,
rather than see it as a static object you already have an icon for
in your head.
This is a very different kind of observation that needs to come
from your art brain, looking for the uniquely aesthetic elements
that comprise the tree and not your cosmopolitan brain just seek-
Note how the sunflower and seashell compositions were
inspired by taking a close-up view of the subject. Digital photography and smart phone technology have made it possible to
always have a camera with you, ready to capture a scene on the
spur of the moment. Using a camera is the best way to capture
fleeting moments where light and shadow change the look of a
scene over time or when studying moving cloud formations and
changing weather. Another advantage of using a camera is that
you can take many photos in a short period of time (that’s more
difficult to sketch by hand). By the way, selfies don’t count for
this project.
ing a tree for shade on a hot day.
Therefore, you need to train your art brain to see more clearly,
to look deeper at the world for the benefit of any realistic or
abstract art objectives you may have.
This first project centers on training your eye to look close-up
at segments of the world from different perspectives to see the
potential for creating abstract art hidden from casual observations. To do this, select an object to zoom in on, taking a macro
view of what you see to use as your subject.
For example, Tyler Vouros’s composition of a sunflower uses
a close-up view to transform his observation into a dramatic
abstract version of the object. In addition to a zoomed-in view,
part of the drama here comes from high-contrast black and white
charcoal in place of color. The result is an intriguing marriage
of the real thing he’s looking at and the dramatic effects of the
close-up view and stark contrast. This is realism and abstraction
working together as equal partners.
This process of zooming in on something aids in the process
of seeing that something differently, and that’s the main objective
of this exercise. There are many ways to abstractly transform
what you see simply by looking at the world from your art brain’s
perspective.
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Leviathan
Tyler Vouros
charcoal and water on paper
ABSTRACT PAINTING
TECHNIQUES
Nature’s own abstract art
Seashell macro composition
watercolor on paper
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ABSTRACT PAINTING
TECHNIQUES
EXERCISE 2: Good Subjects Are Everywhere — Really!
A typical creative block faced by both representational and abstract
artists alike is the quest to find an “interesting subject” to draw, paint,
sculpt and so on, that will ensure a good outcome. After you’ve
painted wine bottles and grapes or a sunset in Cadmium Orange
and Yellow for the one-hundredth time or you’ve made yet another
Recommended Materials
copy paper or a digital camera for sketches
HB or B pencils
your choice of mediums and techniques
Pollock-esque drip work or minimal, one-color composition, they
kind of lose their appeal, don’t they?
My view is that there is no such thing as an intrinsically wonderful subject with a monopoly on personal satisfaction and creative
significance when making art.
So what do you do to break this habit of relying on traditional
subject matter? When you’re stuck looking for inspiration, simply
look around you to see the potential in ordinary objects or parts of
your environment. A key factor in this approach is enlisting the help
of your innate curiosity. Nothing is boring to the artist who practices
responding to what he sees with a fully engaged imagination.
If the subject isn’t coming to life in front of you, take the creative
challenge to make it more interesting than it appears. After all, the
idea to make reality more interesting is the true calling for all artists.
There are many approaches to take with this project. To begin with
you must look for something different than whatever you’re used to
drawing or painting. I recommend looking up around the ceiling or
down near the ground rather than searching at eye level. Eye level
is OK as long as you don’t compose a still life of familiar objects
you’re already comfortable drawing. (This project works better out
of your comfort zone.)
Remember, you’re looking for new ideas in commonplace settings. You can make this into an art scavenger hunt by looking for
accidental compositions that no one else is paying attention to. I
found an interesting composition of light fixtures when I looked up
in a building that was being renovated. While on a walk in the woods
I came upon a great composition of tree roots and dried leaves that
was inspiring.
Of course, you could have a rich photo itself be the final artwork
as it combines realism and abstraction in a unique way just as it is.
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Sketching store windows
You could also transform the photo in an editing program as I did,
using the Threshold function to create a high-contrast pattern of
textures and rhythm of lines. This is another method of extracting
abstract forms from the realistic observation.
I had my students go into a downtown area and make sketches
from what they saw in store windows. Here you have a treasure trove
of interesting objects, shapes, colors and textures that have already
been arranged for you by someone who thought they were just making an interesting display to attract customers.
Once you see something interesting, start making quick thumbnail
drawings with line only or take a quick picture, but keep it simple.
Don’t start working into anything until you’ve got at least ten to twenty
sketches with potential to take further.
If you prefer, you can always use a digital camera or smart phone
as a quick way to record places or objects of interest, rather than
drawing. You would then use the photos to draw or paint from later.
Once you have your sketches, look through them for places to
start and get going on your drawing, painting or sculpture from there.
ABSTRACT PAINTING
TECHNIQUES
Tree root photo
High-contrast rendering of tree root photo
Cable TV wires composition
Exit composition photo
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Untitled (based on cable TV wires)
James Presnell and Amber Krawczyk
charcoal, pastel and erasers
ABSTRACT PAINTING
TECHNIQUES
EXERCISE 3: Meet the Interchangeables
This project shows you how to use both photography and drawing
Recommended Materials
your choice of mediums and techniques
or painting to represent abstract compositions originating from
the same subject matter. Carolyn Horan did this by first photo-
that this is sunlight peering through leaves, again demonstrating
graphing a group of shadows on the ground, a form of abstrac-
how realism and abstraction can be interchangeable aspects of
tion created naturally. She then created an abstract charcoal
the same thing.
composition, which was an interpretation of the shadows she
had photographed earlier.
There are several ways you can approach this project, including finding your own abstract organic form to photograph and
Carolyn’s drawing is fairly true to the photograph she took
then using it as a source for a composition in another medium,
since she faithfully recorded the shapes, values and textures she
or reverse the process and create an abstract drawing or painting
saw in the camera’s image. The irony is that the photograph itself
and search your natural surroundings to photograph something
reads as an abstraction because there’s very little there to reveal
in nature that looks similar to the composition you made earlier.
Life and Limb
Carolyn Lyons Horan
photograph
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Life and Limb
Carolyn Lyons Horan
charcoal on paper
ABSTRACT PAINTING
TECHNIQUES
EXERCISE 4: Taking a Broad View — Landscapes, Seascapes, Cityscapes and More
Eric Aho religiously paints and sketches outdoors, and his compositions have developed over the years from more realistic renderings
to much more abstract compositions as a kind of natural evolution
Recommended Materials
your choice of mediums and techniques
he didn’t foresee. Eric is not alone in his love of working on the
edges of both realism and abstraction. There are many well-known
artists—J.M.W. Turner, Claude Monet, Georgia O’Keeffe, to name
a few—who would paint and draw directly from observed nature,
extracting something of the essence of what they saw into a newly
created abstract image.
When many of us make art, we are in our studio—albeit in our
attic, basement or at a kitchen table—hibernating there even when
the weather is ideal to go outside. I’m sure many realist painters follow the long-standing tradition of plein air painting and drawing by
going out into the elements, but you’re unlikely to see many artists
these days who are making nonrepresentational images by braving
of tattered facades of old buildings, back-alley trash and junkyard
chaos to work from that you won’t find in a more pristine landscape.
By the way, it isn’t necessarily better to make finished works outdoors in order to earn your art merit badge for getting it done in one
sitting. Artist Charles Burchfield famously went out in Buffalo, New
York, blizzards and painted until he and his brushes were frozen and
snowflakes created ghosts in his watercolors—a true Olympian of
plein air painting!
While completing your work on-site is a good ambition, I recommend that you simply make a habit of sketching outside as a way to
expand your artistic vocabulary for what’s out there to use in your art.
the elements to find and observe their subjects outdoors.
I had a student in an advanced painting class who was struggling to paint a seascape from memory. He said he had lived near
the ocean all his life and felt he should have been able to make a
more accurate depiction of the sea he knows than the one he was
churning out. When I asked him if he had actually gone out and
sketched or painted the ocean much, he said, “No.” To me this is
the equivalent of assuming you should be able to play golf because
you lived next to a golf course. Clearly, you can’t expect to know
a subject through some process of osmosis; you have to study it
to gain knowledge.
As with the last project, you need to inform your art brain by
physically and mentally looking at your subject to retain as much
as you can about what you see. And since those artists who prefer
to work abstractly are among the most handicapped for their lack
of experience working directly on location, I highly recommend
getting yourself outside as soon as possible.
You may get more food for thought if you are searching for gritty,
unusual scenes to work from rather than those that are pretty. One
of the advantages of working with cityscapes is that there are plenty
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Mountain
Eric Aho
oil on canvas
ABSTRACT PAINTING
TECHNIQUES
Outdoor landscape painting became popular with the advent of
portable media like charcoal, graphite and watercolors starting in
the early eighteenth century. Today you have options to use acrylic
paints, watercolors, water-based oils and dry media such as pastels,
colored pencils and oil bars, allowing you to create your composition
on the spot if that’s what you wish to do.
Yellow Mountain III
Yuan Zou
oil on canvas
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Untitled landscape
Joanne Holtje
acrylic on canvas
ABSTRACT PAINTING
TECHNIQUES
EXERCISE 5: Earthworks — Working Hand in Hand With Nature
There’s a tradition of artists working directly in the open landscape
that started back in the late 1960s by pioneers such as Dennis
Oppenheim, Michael Heizer and Robert Smithson. Though their
Recommended Materials
your choice of mediums and techniques
intentions were more about testing the boundaries of art beyond the
gallery walls, they also demonstrated the possibilities for creating a
new abstract art form that combined organic and inorganic elements
introduced into the environment, changing our perception of a scene
from picturesque to something abstractly surreal.
Chris Nelson’s Inside Out earthwork is a good example of how the
temporary introduction of a polypropylene rope suspended over a
granite quarry, with no practical function, makes a dramatic change in
how we think about what we see. The work exists as an event during the
time it’s up and with photo documentation once the rope is removed.
The resulting artwork is a kind of collaboration between the artist and
Mother Nature. There’s lots of room to explore the vast opportunities to
partner with natural elements to create abstract art yourself.
EXERCISE 6: Tell Me What You See
Inside Out
Chris Nelson
polypropylene rope, water and granite quarry
Recommended Materials
I don’t know whether I invented this project myself or I heard
box of crayons
something like it that a colleague mentioned to me, but it’s defi-
sketchbook
nitely a fun and fascinating exercise that requires two people
cooperating with one another to make an abstract composition.
Two people sit or stand back-to-back, one having a sketch pad
and a box of crayons, and the other talking out loud about what she
sees from her opposite vantage point.
The describer can say only what she sees in terms of the basic
elements—line, shape, color, texture, value and form (from chapter
one)—without using the names of things she sees in the landscape—
rocks, grass, trees, people, dogs, etc. The describer can use emotional inflections and adjectives to describe what she sees such as
turbulent lines, bright colors, soft shapes and the like, as long as she
doesn’t say what something is.
The drawer must use his crayons and imagination to render what
the describer is saying without resorting to using any symbols, words
or images of things in his abstract picture.
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Each partner takes a turn playing the role of the describer or the
drawer, and there is no time limit assigned to switch places.
I know this sounds a lot like the classic game show Password,
but in this case there is no correct answer to the question, so what
should the resulting drawing look like? That’s what makes this project
so creative and fun to do!
Describe what you
see . . .
ABSTRACT PAINTING
TECHNIQUES
Your Artistic License — You Have
to Use It or Lose It!
In this section, I hope to push you even further in your thinking
And please ignore the snobbery of those art experts and
out of the proverbial box, and I hope that the projects that fol-
critics who, under false pretenses, claim to have the final word
low expand both the process and results in your art.
on what real ART is, tossing aside any creative form of making
One of the most important goals I have in writing this book
(particularly crafts, the non-art, poor cousin of high creativity)
goes beyond that of encouraging you to make abstract art. My
that they perceive to be unworthy of praise or encouragement.
hope is to have you see the multitude of ways you can engage
Bowing to any of these cynical attempts to define what art is
and cultivate your own innate creativity as part of your daily
jeopardizes your potential to fulfill the most important mission
bread—your nonreligious spiritual self—to make your life a
for all those who desire to make as a way to substantiate who
richer experience overall.
you are: You are, first, last and foremost, an artist!
Do this without being deterred by the naysayers who insist
And if you still think you need an official permit to practice a
that making art, in whatever form, is just a novelty sideshow,
more daring art, I hereby ordain and decree such certificate of
a hobby that in the real world won’t earn you a living however
expressive impunity thereby liberating and absolving your artis-
much you enjoy it.
tic personality from the scourges of innovative constipation.
(See certificate.)
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ABSTRACT PAINTING
TECHNIQUES
EXERCISE 1: Bad Art Can Be Good!
Of course all of us want to make “good art,” whatever that means
to each individual, but it’s exactly that noble, make-nice goal that
keeps many artists from exploring new untested territory, and
Recommended Materials
materials of your choice
once again, we are protecting our comfort zone against unwanted
strangers lurking in the shadows.
This project is a kind of shock therapy for those of you who
or if you thought it had a strong narrative, obscure any
evidence of that idea.
are set in your ways of working. And if you have your own tena-
The point of this exercise is to see that some of your attempts
cious innerchild who doesn’t like being out of that safe zone for
to make something good into something bad have the opposite
too long, this project can be the reverse-psychology medicine to
result: The bad piece can be a new good idea! The trick here,
get her to snap out of it.
however, is that you’ve got to tune out the bad-can-be-good
To make this project work, you need to think like a good football
coach who has to run through all kinds of what-if scenarios to
come up with a game plan that includes what happens if things
go wrong.
So here’s what you need to do:
objective and just move ahead without thinking too much about
that question while you’re in the process.
I don’t think you can do just one of these good/bad pieces to
test the theory here, and I recommend you try this strategy with
at least three pairs of compositions.
1. First you need to pick out at least three pieces of your
It’s best to not choose too many different qualities to change in
own recent artworks that you feel were successful and
one piece. If you’re making a bad painting or drawing, for exam-
really look at them to think about why they work for you.
ple, it may be enough to just change the nice colors to ones you
Some of those reasons may be that they have a bal-
hate to make the point. Photographers may want to subvert the
anced composition, one or all three may have a strong
way they process a photograph in the darkroom or on the com-
color palette, you like the narrative one or more reflects,
puter to see what the difference is. And sculptors can create a
they’re the best of a series you’ve been working on, and
similar form using materials that they normally would stay clear
so on. (You can also do this project by simply starting a
of. But this is another one of those projects that you can’t know
new composition with the full intention of making good
if it has some positive effect on your work unless you try it and
art. And even if that doesn’t completely meet your cri-
see what happens.
teria for a good artwork, make a second piece that’s the
When this process works, it reveals that all your efforts to
worst possible result for this composition, in effect trying
defeat your best artistic instincts—using the worst colors, making
to sabotage the work by using all the bad choices you
awful compositions and having no regard for common sense in
can think of.)
art-making—are actually liberating forces that demonstrate new
2. Once you’ve decided what makes these pieces so
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pathways to make art that were not considered before.
good, your task is to pick at least one of them that’s the
I’m purposely not including any examples or material list for
best of the lot and make another composition that is the
this project to avoid a debate about what’s good or bad about
evil twin, bad-art version of this wonderful artwork. In
choices other artists make. And I fully acknowledge the fact that
other words, if it has good colors, mix colors that you
beauty or good are in the eye of the beholder. So go ahead and
hate; if you liked the composition, throw it off balance;
make good and bad art as best you can!
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ABSTRACT PAINTING
TECHNIQUES
EXERCISE 2: Create an Alter Ego to Strengthen Your Art
A friend of mine once said, “Did you ever notice that abstract
art isn’t funny?” Thinking about that, there is a form of subtle
humor in the abstract works of artists like Paul Klee and Joan
Recommended Materials
whichever media your alter ego prefers
Miro, but there aren’t any real knee-slappers out there, whatever
exuberant as your sense of humor, it can take away some of the
that means.
joy you feel when making art. So on those occasions when I’ve
OK, I confess, I have an alter ego named Unique Fredrique and
built up frustration over not letting the child in me participate in
I’m glad I do! My Unique personality comes from my insatiable
the process, Unique Fredrique comes to the rescue and lets me
drive to create without being bound by the conventional norms of
just have fun for a change!
what is acceptable picture making for a serious painter. Of course,
There are no restrictions on what materials you use for your
anytime you start thinking about what your audience might say
own alter ego, nor are there any step-by-step processes to show
about your work, you’re already in trouble.
you how to go about creating that art.
But with an alter ego who doesn’t care about such things as
The examples you see here of Unique’s work are provided to
good taste in art or being true to the style of art you’re known for,
get you thinking about what you might want to do. “Oh, the places
you can do anything you want and blame it on that shadow figure
you’ll go!” But please don’t feel obligated to make something that
known only by the name you give him.
looks like one of his art pieces. He has a big enough ego as it is!
The idea that you make up a quirky character who masquer-
So my own Mini Me is not at all interested in good art, aesthet-
ades as your other self is not necessarily for everyone, particularly
ics, art history or any other conventions or proprieties of the art
if this whole notion strikes you as farcical nonsense.
world, including making anything that qualifies as abstract art.
I chose to make up this character because my own sense of
As a matter of fact, he is a steadfast nonconformist who paints,
humor—something I hold dear to the nature of who I am—is usu-
draws and sculpts however he wants to by depicting his own
ally restrained from joining the process when I’m making serious
ideas that define his twisted personality.
abstract art in my studio. And when you restrain something as
Self-Portrait
Unique
Fredrique
Did I mention that he has no scruples about appropriating
unsigned art made by others—particularly art made by overseas
art farm factories—that he finds at yard sales, flea markets and
thrift shops, adding his own ingenious touches to complete a new
work of art never intended by the original maker. (See The Real
Cause of Forest Fires.)
The fact is I do enjoy having fun with social satire, comic-book
parodies and all that is deemed inappropriate in our conservative
culture today, and I don’t think that engaging an alter ego to create
art using battleships, tanks and Barbie dolls is a deception about
who I am as an artist. Rather, adopting an alter ego personality
extends the breadth of who I am as an artist so that I know there
are no boundaries to enjoying the process of making art if you
just let go!
20
www.artistdaily.com
ABSTRACT PAINTING
TECHNIQUES
Of course, most everything I’ve suggested so far in this book
can act as a surrogate alter ego simply by trying something new
you haven’t practiced before. The goal of this book is to give you
options for maneuvering around those particularly pesky mental
obstacles that get in your way when you’re trying to make art.
Giving yourself permission to be slightly outrageous and unconventional in your art from time to time may be the right chicken
soup for your own art-block head cold when you need it.
If you decide to invent a pretend character like this, you might
want to decide how public his antics are going to be. It’s perfectly
fine to just keep all this to yourself and the privacy of your studio,
but I’ve enjoyed putting U.F. on stage acting as the out-of-control
other me. Part of the fun for me is sharing this quirky artist persona
with friends and those who get what I’m up to. By the way, Unique
Fredrique has his own shameless commerce store on the popular
website Etsy, if you’d like to see what he’s doing these days.
The Real Cause of Forest Fires
Unique Fredrique
oil over appropriated painting
B + Banana + Teeth
Unique Fredrique
21
www.artistdaily.com
ABSTRACT PAINTING
TECHNIQUES
Advantages of Having an Artist Alter Ego
1. You can say that the crude aesthetics and bad taste produced
by your alter ego are his responsibility—you weren’t even there
when it happened.
2. Like the art of a two-year-old, I consider Unique Fredrique’s
art to be “priceless.” This affords me the option to give his
art away to those who admire these zany creations. You can
assign very low prices to work that’s not in line with whatever
you might ask for your own art. For example, at a recent yard
sale of his work, Unique made a sign that read, “You decide
what you want to pay and then take 10% off of that.” Such a
deal!
3. Your alter ego is immune to criticism
about his work since he doesn’t care
about making good art and he has no
scruples about offending people.
4. You are free to just have pure, unadulterated fun, making art like a kid with
an unbridled imagination that knows no
bounds. The only potential downside I see
may be that this boisterous, high-spirited
character takes over your art-making altogether, but worse things can happen.
Pipe Smoking
Snow Men
Unique Fredrique
22
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