There is no need to be stymied by not being able to draw when you are wanting to create a painting. The pure joy of squeezing out paint colours and painting them on a surface is always such a thrill. Don’t miss out on the fun due to a lack of drawing skills.
Painting abstracts is a wonderful way of working directly with colour, texture and patterns. The sky is the limit when it comes to all that you can bring to an abstract painting and with such freedom too. Just start layering on colours, blend some areas leave others alone. Scrape off paint here or add more there. Have some soft edges and in other areas hard. Use a variety of brushes for different effects. Use palette knives. wooden sticks, sponges, rags and your fingers to get that paint moving around on your canvas or paper.
If you’d rather have more structure in your painting you can approach it in another way. Geometric shapes are a simple and effective way to design a painting. Trace your circle shapes from templates, saucers, plates and glasses to get a variety of sizes. Then add intersecting lines using masking tape or any straight edge to add movement and direction. Use triangles and squares too. Layer them and then wow you have great elements to paint into a dynamic painting.
Mixed media paintings can be achieved without drawing too. Cut up collage papers, photos, cardboard and glue down and then you can add string, wool, fabrics, and paint. Inks, pencils, markers and pastels can be used too. It could end up as an abstract or a dynamic loose painting of a landscape scene or still life or portrait.
Without the need for drawing you can use stencils. They are available in letters, numbers, swirls and decorative embellishments, animals, birds and flowers to name a few. You can also use inks and ink stamps. Paint in your background colours and then layer away.
The more you get to play with making art the more you will realize that it doesn’t have to be formal and accurate to be beautiful. You are one of a kind so your art creations will be too. Just jump in and have fun and if you’d like, please take a photo of what you’ve created and email it to me so I can see your results.