digital abstract paintings

I’ve found a new way of creating that I reallyreally enjoy. I’ve been following so many abstract painters on Instagram lately, because I just adore their work, especially those really creamy acrylic paintings.

And when Xanthe mentioned Kyle’s brushes in her Q&A-video a while back and I downloaded the wonderful gouache ones (they are all free for Creative Cloud-users!) I realised that I could get effects that I wanted digitally too.  Using his brushes, a few different tools in Photoshop (smudge mostly) I’ve started making these abstract digital paintings and it is sooo much fun??

And while I always try to create more physical things in my life – as a way to cut down on screen time (which is bad for headaches and stuff) – I really enjoy this process as it feels as intuitive and relaxing as painting while I can still keep the lovely undo button.  Here’s a picture taking during the process, and it seriously just looks like stupid scribbles at this moment, but it did get better. (Although I did struggle a lot with this one.)  The wonderful but also slightly problematic thing about digital creating is that it’s so easy to change the hues and colours in a piece, which I did here. I was insecure about the pink combinations (even though I do love them too) so I made a more monochrome blue. I thought it’d be a fun thing to ask people on social media what they thought but it just left me more confused as it’s basically fifty-fifty.

Anyway, I’m having a lot of fun with this. Are you up to anything specific creatively at the moment? I’d love it if you told me in the comments!