How to Paint Abstracts

Школа рисунка / School of painting

by Gabriel Martín i Roig

Books in Barron's Pocket Art Guides series offer practical advice and instruction to art students and amateur painters. Each of these books focuses on a specific aspect of painting or drawing, and includes many tips that even experienced professionals will find new and helpful. All titles have many captioned color illustrations, as well as enlightening notes on how famous artists solved specific problems. This book describes different approaches to creating an abstract painting, ranging from simplification and distortion of identifiable subjects to the rendering of pure abstract forms. It also explains that artists who abandon figurative references must nevertheless demonstrate command of composition and color theory. Examples of abstract canvases by artists including Paul Klee and Robert Delaunay are shown and analyzed.

Genres: Art

96 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2012

About the author

Gabriel Martín i Roig, b. 1970 in Palamós. He holds a degree in art from the Univ. de Barcelona, and specializes in ancient history and legends.

Reviews

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Challenge: Book Club Wednesday October 2021/Artist Julie Fei-Fan Balzer. So enjoyable to read an art book and have it critiqued and explained by another artist (Julie Fei-Fan Balzer) in a book club format.
Having watched so many art journal and collage artists use the principles and techniques presented in this book on YouTube, it was a joy to read about the creative process of abstract art within an historical, philosophical, and developmental context. A great little book to have on one's creative shelf to refer to again and again for practice and process inspiration. Good reference for the fundamental aspects of abstract art signaled by capturing the essence of something rather than realistic details as well as deconstructing the whole to bring attention to its parts.

[Wendy Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick read and comprehensive crash course in how to appreciate abstract art. This book also breaks down the components so that one can try their hand at making abstract art. Highly encouraging. Make art, you can do that.