Courtney Throndson’s Virtual Art Academy

1. Courtney Throndson’s Virtual Art Academy

2. Nonobjective paintings like Wassily Kandinsky

3. Materials • Drop Cloth • Blank canvas • Various colors of acrylic paint • Various circular containers such as buckets, cups and lids. Make sure they are of various sizes. • Scrap paper • Textured rollers • Spray paint • Syringes

4. Laying out the background colors. Decide the overall tone of the painting and pick 2 colors that represent that tone. For example calm songs might have a blue and purple background. Crazy songs might have a yellow and red background. Angry songs might have a red and orange background. Squirt the 2 colors on the canvas Using your fingers push the paint up and down side to side till the canvas is covered. Don’t over mix these colors you want areas of all one color, and the other and the two mixed together. It is easy to over mix this part so stop when the canvas is covered.

5. Roll on some patterns! Load a textured roller with dark colored paint. Roll the designs onto the canvas. Go up and down. Go side to side. Do not roll back and forth because it blurs the design and over mixes the paint.

6. Create subtle circles: Get circular shaped containers such as buckets, cups, lids of all different sizes. Place the opening of the containers on the canvas and turn it a little till the paint smears a circular design into the thick paint. Scatter these circles around the canvas. Do the smallest circles using a paint bottle lid and twist the circles the in sets of three. This provides pattern and structure in the composition.

7. Spray paint rectangles: Cut or tear scrap paper into rectangles or other shapes you enjoy. Place the paper shapes around the canvas in open spaces. Spray paint around the perimeter of the paper. Spray paint a few spots here and there to balance and scatter the color around the canvas. Lift the paper off of the canvas. See the shape disappearing?

8. Splatter paint: Pick a full bottle of paint with a bright contrasting color. Stand above the canvas at a bit of a distance. Throw a couple of splashes of paint in the general direction you want it to go. Try to do it in an open space. Don’t do to many it will overpower the composition. Be brave and just do it! You can’t control how it lands completely but don’t hesitate hesitation shows!

9. Create control: Splattering paint gives the look of chaos so to balance that out squirt a few circles here and there in open spaces holding the bottle upright and directly over the spot you want circles. Work in 3s Stick your finger in the blobs and swirl the paint a little.

10. Add more splatter with syringes Load a syringe with paint. Push the paint out and swing your arms back and forth to get aggressive but thin lines. Go in the direction of the larger splatter paint. Also add some perfectly round controlled spots of paint here and there to balance out the chaos of the aggressive lines. Also squirt a swirl on an open space for some playfulness!

11. Final touches Now is the time to see what you are missing. You might not need to add anything at all. Often times knowing when to stop is a fine line between harmony and business. I often will squirt s final color onto the drop cloth and dip the pads of my girl scout fingers in the paint. Then I swipe a few sets of three strikes of color in our usual horizontal and vertical direction. Make sure they are close to the edge and are in an open space. We don’t want to many elements competing with each other. You might not need to do this step at all.

12. Examples