LOOSEN UP! ABSTRACTION TECHNIQUES

Do you want to work less realistically and more abstractly? Letting go takes practice. Open up with these ideas.

Base an artwork on a piece of one of your own sketches. Here's one of mine, below, which I cut into sections.

On pastels paper, using water-soluble oil pastels, I made the quick abstraction below based on just one of the pieces.

Here's another way to find abstract compositions: Cut out just a small portion of a magazine photo, as I did below. 

Then I played with soft pastels

(Rembrandt is an excellent brand).

Be loose...you're not trying to be exact!

I'm not crazy about the red in the center!