Abstract flowers add a beautiful touch to any painting. However, getting them right is not always easy. Sometimes, they just quite not look flowers. On the other hand, they might look just too realistic for your abstract painting. So, if you ever wondered how to paint abstract flowers, this guide is surely going to be helpful!
I have discussed painting abstract flowers in my previous post too. Here, I am going to share some additional tips taking another artwork as an example.
Think of the real flower
When I say “think of the real flower”, I mean that you need to start recalling how a real flower looks like. For instance, in my painting, “The Blue Vase”, I have tried to capture the shape of rose but kept it simplistic enough to look abstract. You need to recall how we were taught to make a simple rose in that spiral shape and you can take it from there. You can add details but not too much. Your goal is to give essence of rose while keeping it abstract. Since I make geometric abstracts, I was thinking in terms of geometric shapes like sphere, spiral, circle to get my abstract rose.
Think childhood/imaginary flowers
Remember those childhood days when someone asked us to make flowers and we would make a typical shape. Now this typical shape would not fit in to category of a particular flower (maybe calendula) but still looked like a flower. Taking inspiration from those imaginary flowers and your current artistic style, you can make another abstract flower. In the artwork “The Blue Vase”, I have created such flowers inside complete circles, dividing them into petals with triangles. This way, the flower adhered to my geometric style and resembled those childhood drawings.
Think buds and not fully grown flowers
Another great way to make abstract flowers is to make buds in abstract manner. Think of the real buds of rose or any other flower. There overall body doesn’t have a defined shape but they have some pattern. You can make triangular body but still give it a spiral inner to resemble a bud. Trick is to make a little resemblance to realistic and then play around with your own style.
Add props to add drama
When you have enough abstract flowers in your artwork, you can consider adding some props to compliment your abstract flowers artwork. For instance, in the painting “The Blue Vase”, I added spheres (abstract shaped prop) and bushes (realistic props) to enhance the entire composition. Addition of such props was deliberate and they somehow appeared to be part of the entire flower setup.
Think light source and shadows
Although you are making an abstract art, still considering the light source serves you well. For instance, “The Blue Vase” clearly has a light source at top right of the artwork. Paint your flowers keeping the light source in mind.
Additionally, you can see some suggestions of shadows (through darkness) when one flower is overlapping another. These shadows add more depth and bring 3D effect to the painting.
Conclusion on an abstract flowers artwork
Try all the above tips to make a great abstract flower artwork. Remember to trust your intuition and incorporate your own unique ideas and style in your artwork. Study as many realistic flowers as possible so that you can bring your abstract twist to them in your artwork.
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