Tiny Tutorial: DIY Minimalistic Art

Have you noticed how as the world gets bigger, a lot of things are only getting smaller? Think of it: mobile phones, houses, minds….I jest. Similarly, we have also seen a rise of what’s starting to be known as Minimalistic Art.

Simply put, minimalism is a style that captures only the most important elements of an image or a set-up, and includes a lot of negative (or blank) space. This creates an appearance of very neat, clean lines. Minimalistic desks always look so organised, it’s a type-A person’s dream!

So here’s a super quick tutorial on how to create your very own minimalistic art, so you can join in on all the clean fun!

Today I’m going to show you how I created a little painting which literally took me about 15 minutes (not counting drying time).

First, start by picking your tools of the trade. I chose watercolours because I have been obsessed with them recently, but feel free to use anything at all. If it can stain paper, it works!

Now for my subject, I chose the magnificent, adorable Hulk. Why? Because who doesn’t love the Hulk?!

1.  Begin by painting a strange shape, somewhere between a circle and a rectangle, for the head. Now of course this would be closer to a circle for most other human(ish) characters, but the Hulk has a very strong jaw!Add some cloud-like bumps on either side of the head, to create an outline  for the shoulders and upper arms, as shown above.

   

   Side note teeheee

    

2.  Paint the body in however/ as much as you like. I chose harsh vertical strokes because I wanted it to look quite raw and imperfect. Allow this to dry completely if you’re using paints like I did!
3. For the final step, paint in a few quick details using a darker green. You can do as much or as little as you like, I mostly used this step to define some of the outlines and to separate the head from the body.
   Add in some hair without worrying too much about the dimensions.

And you’re done! That’s my finished piece, and I quite like how the accidental deposits of the light green gave his face a spherical appearance. Happy accidents, as Bob Ross always says!

Another cool way to create minimal art is to use white space to create false dimension, like I did with the painting of Natasha Romanoff below.

The white of the paper acts as a placeholder for highlights, making the entire shape appear a bit more three-dimensional.

Now, of course, these techniques can be applied to any other piece, and it would look just as good, if not better!

So what are your thoughts on minimalism?

As always, remember to follow this blog for more fun tutorials, and like this post so I know to make more of these! Perhaps drop a comment below to tell me what you think? 🙂

Thank you so much for reading, and have a splendid week!

S.

3 Ways To Grow Your Art Portfolio Quickly

Starting out as an artist can be incredibly daunting, especially if you’re self-taught like I am. You don’t usually know where to begin, and should you bring up your passion for art, the first thing people want to see is a body of work that they assume you’ve already built.

Many new artists often take a while to amass enough work to show off, and often lose potential opportunities (competitions, commissions, placements etc), purely because there isn’t enough tangible evidence of their skill!