They say boldness can’t be taught but I disagree. It’s a skill, and like all skills you get better with practice. In other words, what I am saying, my friends, is fake it til you make it. In this easy abstract art tutorial, we’re going to practice our creative confidence, working on a simple abstract piece to lower the stakes. When you’re not trying to make something look like something else, it’s a lot easier to just make marks without overthinking it.

Step One: Gather your supplies

You’ll need two colours and one dark outline colour. Use your preferred tools so long as they let you work quickly (so no oil paints for this please 😉 ). I would suggest crayons, soft pastels, highlighter pens, colouring pens, etc I’m using something called Paint Sticks (well these exact Poster paint sticks to be precise) which are a delightful art supply that’s usually marketed at kids.

Paint sticks go on slightly ‘wet’ and can be blended and scratched into, a bit like oil pastels but less oily. Within a few seconds they are completely dry and you can layer on top of them. They’re my current favourite quick and easy art supply.

For the dark outline I’m using a black Posca pen, but you could use anything – a biro, pencil, charcoal, colouring pens, etc.

You’ll also need some paper that works with the tools your using. In most cases even basic printer paper would work fine. I’m working in a Pith sketchbook but it’s not necessary. Whatever you have easily accessible is the best paper for this.

Step Two: Draw some blobs

I tried to make this as accessible and ‘low lift’ as possible, so here, all you need to do is draw some blobs on your page with colour #1 and colour them in.

I’ve made mine have different sizes and shapes, with some fully on the page and others partly cut off my the page edges. Give it a try!

Step Three: Layer some colour

Take colour #2 and layer this on top of your first colour in some places. Happily colour outside the lines where you feel like it. Add more blobs using this colour only if you feel like there are gaps on your page that would look better with another wee blob on them.

Step Four: Give it lines

Taking your dark outline colour you’re now going to add linework to the blobs. Although I think of these as ‘outlines’, I think they look much more interesting if they don’t exactly line up with the shapes you’ve drawn. Off-set and slightly different shapes are all welcome. So, take a calming breath and then give each shape an outline using one, continuous, stroke. 

This is your chance to be really bold, so give it a try. 

Step Five: Add final touches

I added little blobs to my lines where they didn’t quite meet. This was a spur of the moment sort of decision, and after I did it to one outline I thought the rest would look good with their own wee blobs too even if there was no lines-not-meeting-up space to hide.

I also added some ‘ghost outlines’ – outlines with no coloured blobs inside. I did this wherever it seemed like the page was too empty and needed something to make it feel complete.

Step Six: Enjoy your blobs!

And that’s you done. Take a minute or two to enjoy what you’ve made and the feeling of satisfaction at having practiced your boldness.

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If you enjoyed this easy abstract art tutorial, you might like the class it comes from, Breaking Through Hesitation: Create with Courage 

You can see the class trailer and an excerpt from this class (in Shorts format) below