In this mindful abstract painting exercise we are painting without pressure and without overthinking it.
If you are like me, it’s hard to let go and give up control. I always want to plan out everything beforehand, but that can totally take the fun out of creating. Sometimes you just have to see where your brush takes you and that’s what we’re going to do in this exercise.
It is really relaxing to not have an end goal in mind for once. Just use colors that speak to you or reflect how you are feeling at the moment and start there. Slowly start putting your brush on the paper and see what comes out. As a small guidance, you can create shapes, but feel free to paint whatever comes to you at that moment. Don’t overthink it!
Because this is an abstract painting exercise, you don’t have the pressure of trying to create something realistic. The goal here is to create something in the moment and surprise yourself. It can feel liberating to just see what comes out and not focus on the outcome at all.
To make this even more mindful, try to focus on how your brush feels, what it’s like to swirl your paint, how it feels to glide your brush over your paper… Try to notice all the little things of this painting experience.
For me this abstract painting exercise made me forget about everything for a moment and made me really focus on the painting. To be honest I even forgot to eat lunch, because I lost track of time. Oops, haha. But this shows how effective it can be. (And you can always set an alarm, if you need to be somewhere after.) I felt really energized after this exercise (even without my lunch).
Hope you have fun with this week’s exercise! Please let me know if you’ve tried this, I would love to know how your painting turned out and if it was a relaxing experience!
This afternoon you can find a small video of this exercise on my instagram @thecreativecooldown
Supplies used:
Sheet of watercolor paper (Arches), watercolor (Finetec Arabic Gold), gouache (Holbein artists’), washi tape, water.
Alternative supply suggestions:
For this abstract painting exercise it is easiest to use watercolor or any other kind of paint. It does not have to be expensive or high quality. This exercise is just to play. If you don’t have this, you can absolutely do this with colored pencils, crayons, markers etc. The most important thing is to just use your art supplies and see where they take you.
If you use paint and you don’t have watercolor paper, try to find paper that’s a little thicker than regular paper. This way the paper will warp less.
Washi tape is optional.
Instructions:
Please note that this is a free exercise and you can paint whatever feels good to you at that moment. The steps below are just for some guidance if you need any.
1. Add washi tape (if you have any) to create clean borders and to prevent your paper from sliding or warping.
2. Choose a few colors that speak to you or reflect how you are feeling at that particular moment. Start painting several shapes with your first color. Just see where your brush takes you. Don’t overthink it.
3. Wait for the first layer to dry and then add more layers of shapes with different colors. If you use watercolor and you like it when colors bleed into each other, you can absolutely use wet-on-wet and start with the next color before the first layer is dry. Do what feels good.
4. Add some details to your shapes; lines, dots, other shapes, whatever comes to mind.
5. Add some other elements if you’d like, such as lines, circles, dots, paint splatter etc.
6. Remove the washi tape, when the paint is dry. Now you have created your own abstract painting without planning or overthinking. How did it make you feel?
If you liked this abstract painting exercise and you would like another similar one you could try my mindful galaxy and shadow exercise.
