Paint it Yourself – Red Abstract

I thought I would share some step by step instructions on one of my much older paintings that uses a different type of texture. It is quite a basic one and you have my permission to copy it if you want to!

This is a relatively easy abstract to do and you can choose whichever colours you wish to use in your painting – I have chosen a red background with gold highlights.

You could do it in blues and greens with silver or I have also done similar versions using browns and gold.

The first thing to do is to apply the ‘texture’ that you are going to use to create the crazy gold pattern in the middle. I have used a couple of things when creating these kinds of lines – you can use PVA glue (but this does sink into very low profile lines) or else you can use caulk – the kind of thing that you use to fill holes in your house. In this painting I used a squeezy bottle of caulk that remained very solid when it dried and so gave some good lines to paint on.

Obviously you can make any kind of patterns you like and can possibly also incorporate some words in the painting.

Then you need to leave this to dry completely – usually overnight is best.

Next you need to give the canvas a coat of paint in the main colour you are using – in this case the red, so that the whole thing is covered and you will get a good base for your painting. Also let this coat dry (which shouldn’t take long if you are using acrylic paint).

After this, apply more paint to the main painting – this time graduate the colour slightly using a bit of burnt umber with the red to the outside of the painting and then gradually change the colour as you go into the centre by adding orange or yellow to the red you have chosen.

Ideally you will have at least 2 coats of paint on the painting but it often looks better with more coats. You will need to work quite quickly to blend the colours together.

Once the background colour is completely dry then you can start painting the gold highlights. You can either paint them with a small thin brush (and a steady hand!) or else if the highlights are raised enough you can gently use a roller or a sponge to just cover the raised marks.

I finished the painting with a spray coat of varnish which made the colours even brighter. The painting sold pretty quickly.