Drawing Challenge: Getting Abstract

If you have time for this challenge, use the techniques you learned last Thursday to create an abstract drawing. An abstract drawing doesn't represent things (people, objects, places, nature, etc.) in the real world. Instead, you'll combine lines, shapes, patterns, tones (shading), and textures to make a picture from your imagination.
Think of it as composing music. Use the repetition of lines and shapes to create rhythm in your composition on paper. Get bold with swirling movements of your arm like a conductor of an orchestra. Express your emotions and feelings through the lines that you draw.

Use all different kinds of lines (thick, thin, curved, angled, squiggly, etc.). Try overlapping shapes. Throw in a bunch of patterns and textures to make designs. The only rule: Don't draw any people, places, or things from the real world.

Ideas for Your Abstract Drawing
These paintings by the modern artists Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) show ideas for your abstract drawing using lines, shapes, and patterns. Enjoy drawing from your imagination.





Kandinsky was a very influential artist in Europe during the early 1900s and 20s. He believed that painting should let artists express their own inner lives in abstract, non-material ways. Just as musicians do not depend on the material world for their music, so artists should not depend on the material world for their art. His expressions with line, shapes, and color became the foundation of abstract art.