 Welcome to Monet Cafe. I'm artist Susan Jenkins and today's video will have everything including the kitchen sink If you're a little afraid to paint outside of the lines and get a little bit abstract Then today's lesson is going to be amazing for you I'm gonna give you five easy tips for abstract painting Including the many benefits of this style of painting plus it's gonna be a lot of fun If you would go ahead and like this video Go ahead and subscribe if you haven't already and if you hit the little bell next to the subscribe button You'll be notified of any future videos I post I am so grateful to those of you who have decided to become patrons of mine on my patreon page For only five dollars a month you keep these free videos coming and you get extra content And we're gonna dive right in to tip number one use a scrap surface or a piece of pastel paper That you may have had a previous painting on in this case I had a little piece of fissure paper and I used it for I can't remember some example or a study and I decided to repurpose it I brushed off most of the pastel with that bristle brush you saw and I can literally wash off this fissure Pastel paper the same with you art paper or with pastel matte now I'm trying to do this with one hand So I did have to put my camera down, but basically you scrub off the rest of the pastel under water And because I did this particular painting with acrylic ink You've got a little bit of a ghost image and I'm gonna show you how that doesn't even matter It was still a bit damp So I just blew dry the back and then flipped it over and blew dry the front side as well Using scrap surfaces like this helps to take away the stress of creating a perfect painting So I highly encourage this now. Let's move on to tip number two create a bold underpainting in my case I had a surface that had a little bit of acrylic ink on one side and nothing on the other side So I'm gonna use this airbrush medium Now you could do anything you could do the same technique that I'm doing right here with just a pastel I'm choosing my color now and water or alcohol. So these all seem to be a little bit too dark I want to brighten it up a bit. So I found this kind of pinkish almost fluorescent Prismacolor new pastel. So I'm sort of matching the color that was underneath a little bit on the left side And you'll see how even though that paper Had a little bit of ink on one side and nothing on the other isn't even gonna matter And I'm using a little bit of the ghost image to my advantage in this case I'm letting it be a little bit of a guide for getting creative and tip number three when it comes to what are you Going to actually paint I Suggest painting a macro image or painting from imagination. I'll talk a little bit more about that as I paint I chose to paint from imagination because like I said, I had a little bit of a an image that was there And I use it as a guide to inspire me I'm using a charcoal pencil to just loosely sketch in a concept of some flowers Oh, and I'm relaxing relaxed during this as well Also tip number four use creative color or color you never use look for those colors that often just lay in your palette and I really don't use this green very much and also the lime green. You'll see me using as well I want to talk a little bit more about my process as I'm painting here But first I want to give you three Benefits to this type of painting one benefit is it's a great way to loosen up before a painting Doing these abstract and a bit intuitive paintings Really is like stretching before going on a marathon run And I really believe this is a great little exercise to do before starting a more serious piece Another benefit is it's a great way to get back into the swing of things if you've been away from painting for a while I hear all of your comments or many of your comments here on the YouTube channel From my patrons and on the fate in the Facebook groups the Monet Cafe art group on Facebook And also my patreon group on Facebook that's exclusive to my patrons and I hear you guys saying oh I've been away from the easel too long. I can't wait to get back I'm missing it and then you know you feel a little bit rusty when you get started so this is a great fun way to ignite your painting passion and get back into things and It's also another benefit is a great way to get out of an artistic rut Have you ever felt like you were in the painting doldrums and you just felt like we all kind of We feel Not confident about ourselves as artists and we can be our own worst critics. Have you ever said? I know I've said this many times my husband can attest to this. I've said oh my gosh Especially when I was beginning. I'm just not any good anymore or I have forgotten how to paint I have literally said that so this is a great way to get out of those ruts and Just have some fun and I'm gonna add that fourth benefit having fun Sometimes we forget that this is supposed to be fun. I use this analogy a lot But do you ever see kids when they paint or they you know get some finger paint or a coloring book? You don't see see them Analyzing everything they just have a good time and enjoy the process So this is a great way to do that as well. Alright, so what I meant before when I said paint from imagination, of course That's what I'm doing here But the other one I recommended was painting from macros if you want to go well, how do I paint abstract? Sometimes it's hard when you're looking at an image that makes sense But often it's really a lot easier if you take it could be a landscape image It could be floral images are good to do this with or just some grasses and you do a macro is just a really zoomed in image I'm just blending here in case you're wondering with a little chamois cloth macro images cause things to look a little bit abstract and You know I for example have seen some exercises where things are really zoomed in and it's it's like a little riddle or a Little test to guess what the object is because sometimes you can't tell when you're zoomed in a lot So give that a try. That's a good way to break out of realism and get a bit abstract now I am kind of intuitively using color here and this will Most likely be easier the longer that you've been painting and while I love to just get creative with color and sometimes go Oh, let me go over to my all of my pastels and choose a color I find that sometimes that can take the creative energy away so I Suggest that occasionally you might try picking out a color palette Like I said with some colors you never use pick some colors that you think look good together and have them immediately at your disposal when you start these types of paintings so that you can just enjoy the moment and put on some Creative music I often recommend playing music that doesn't have any words that way your mind isn't Distracted by the words and you can just be inspired by the music and what I've been doing thus far is kind of getting in a little Bramble of you saw I added the darks and then I added that beautiful kind of muted purple for some of the flowers And I decided to make my light My light source is coming from the upper right Another neat element I think you can add to abstract painting is to create some interesting outlines or linear marks within your painting sometimes in painting tutorials that I give I often Don't advise to make harsh outlines, but I do believe some of these linear marks can really add a bit of abstraction a little bit of interest and fun and Your abstract creation doesn't even have to be something from reality It could be interesting shapes or patterns and I also believe that these linear strokes Can enhance the energy in your painting and create strong focal points as well So those were the five tips and also I shared some of the benefits of this type of painting Oh, and I also recommend trying to do some of these a bit small Just to get warmed up rather than getting a big surface to try on so I hope you will give it a try by the way this video is all real-time and I'm going to continue to let you watch me paint I hope it's really relaxing and I'm gonna add some soothing Peaceful music once again. I highly recommend that you put on some music yourself when you paint this way and try to Voyage yourself from Distractions and the chaos in the world right aren't we blessed to be artists and by the way as I mentioned those who become patrons of mine on my patreon page for five dollars a month often get extra perks We have a lot of fun. I give them homework on the weekends. They have a homework album where they submit their work and It's just really a great. It's like a family. I really love what we have going on with my patrons Oh, I zoomed in a little bit more here, too you can see a little bit better and Also, too my patrons get some extra goodies and one of the extra goodies is my patrons sometimes get early release videos They'll get an earlier version of this then you're seeing if you're on Monet cafe So if you're patron, thank you so much for supporting this channel And you're the reason why lots of people get the benefits of the free videos on Monet cafe That's how I'm able to keep doing this. Oh and YouTube has just added the ability for my Subscribers and followers on my YouTube channel to be able to give a tip for videos If you felt like you learned a lot from a particular video and you're of the financial means to do so You can give a couple of bucks tip or whatever. There's some Amounts in there that I didn't set YouTube set those amounts. So that would be awesome and Also, too whenever anyone gives a tip their name shows up in the comments of that particular video So you get a little recognition. So anyway, I thought that was pretty neat. But anyway, enjoy this Here's the music and I will be back at the end I hope you've enjoyed this so far if you've continued to watch and I really do like that I kept it real time and just added some music because again abstract painting is truly a lot about the experience and getting into a state of creativity and inspiration so hopefully That helped and it helped to watch the process in real time and also, too I really had fun with color on this one as you can see I snuck in some purples and those flowers with some blues for highlights along with some gorgeous Pinks and brilliant yellows and once again, there's that thanks button that you see at the bottom there That if you'd like to give a little tip for this video, it would be much appreciated and you'll get recognition in the comments section So I hope you enjoyed this if you're a patron again You will see this before everybody else and as always God bless and happy painting happy abstract painting