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Creating abstract paintings is much easier than you would think. Creating abstract art can be easy. It is you subconscious self that produces this art, that's why abstract paintings are always very interesting and appeals to different people in unique ways.

If you use paper, the type of paper you should use will depend on what kind of paint you are using. For starters I recommend acrylic paint. Acrylic paint is easier to use because it dries faster. Using oil paint can get messy because it won't dry at all during one session and when beginners use oils they end up mixing all paint he/she has into a grey-brown abstract art blur.

The paper that you use should be be somewhat thick so the paint does not go through it, and be either primed or unprimed (primed means there is already a layer of white paint on it). If it's not primed, paint on a thin layer of white, but I recommend purchasing the paper already primed.

For paint, get yourself the cheapest acrylic paint you can find because we're assuming you're only trying to amuse yourself at this point and with cheap paint you can splash it around freely not worrying about cost.

One of the keywords in our approach to abstract art is spontaneity. This means letting your brush take control, unearthing visions from the depth of your nervous system like a shaman in trance. The last component of abstract art combines both the instinctual and intellectual.

Intelligence is both beautiful and powerful. If you don't use your intelligence in your paintings they will end up poorly designed and be deemed as bland. If you want to succeed you must have a well thought out plan.

What would you like to paint? If you were a famous artist who would you like to be? Kandinski, Dali, Bosch, Michelangelo, Klee, Chagall? When starting are copying what others have done can be an aid in your success. This has been seen throughout history, where many historians attributed the success of many great French artists to their studies at the Louvre where they studied the techniques of great artists of the past. This is an accepted practice as long as you are aware of what forgery means and you don't attempt to do it. Copying is too harsh of a word to use for these purposes I think it would be more appropriate to call it study.

You can also go about it in a different way, depending on how abstract you want your paintings to be. Painting completely at random is another valuable technique. That is, you paint random forms by instinct, without knowing what you are going to do. With this approach it's important to know when to stop and start thinking about what you've done. A beginner will have a tendency of painting layer over layer and merging down most of the painting's color. Be careful not to paint layer over layer in a random, uncontrolled fashion. When you have the feeling you can't go on without over painting existing brush strokes, stop painting altogether. Don't assume you can get your paintings done in one go, you have to be disciplined in order to know when to stop and wait for new ideas to come.

So suppose you have started a painting that looks expressive. One possible way to elaborate on it is to take a small sized brush and try to accentuate the most relevant elements of your painting. You don't do this by thinking about it in a conscious sort of way, but try to imagine what it would feel like if you applied this brush stroke in that color to that location. Painting is intuition so just go with it. I can't expect you to understand everything I've said on this page, but I think you'll recognize many things as you get more experience. If I can make you think about your painting, instead of just messing about mindlessly (which for a beginner is the natural thing to do), then I think we have gained something.