There’s something about Picasso’s first cubist paintings that set the world on fire. He and another artist, Georges Braque, started the entire modern art movement away from realistic photo-like precision painting with oils, latex, watercolors, and other media from 1907-1914 in Paris, France.
Paint your first Cubist painting on your iPad with Procreate today!
Picasso Steals African Art Style and Makes Cubism World Famous?
Inspired by African art he saw in an exhibit in Paris, Picasso set about to revolutionize the entire art world.
How? He began painting 2-dimensional art with 3-dimensions. Not physically, but in the mind. In one painting he sought to show the main figure(s) with not just a front perspective, but other angles as well.
Not only this, but he stopped using a realistic perspective like everyone else. He distorted the faces and shapes in the painting to be more dramatic, emphasizing parts he wanted to and de-emphasizing others. Sometimes it looks almost random, but often there is meaning behind the madness.
So you can see, Picasso borrowed techniques he saw in other art and made it into his own style. This is not plagiarism. This is the way art advances – isn’t it? Some of you refuse to be inspired by other art you see, or if you are inspired, you’re shy to do anything with it because you feel like you’re stealing something.
Look around. See all those Cubist paintings? Everyone stole from everywhere. Where did the Africans get the idea to paint two dimensional art representing 3-D art in paint? They likely were painting their masks and other 3-dimensional objects they used in their culture.
What About Finding My Own Style of Cubist Art?
Cubism can be part of your own style. If you like it, incorporate it into what you paint, what you create.
If you study Cubism, you’ll see that each artist has a slightly different take on it. You can change so many aspects of it to find your own style or what you consider interesting. Here are a few aspects of Cubist art you can experiment with to see what resonates more with your style as an artist.
Color
I really don’t like some of the uses of color that I see in many artists Cubist artwork. Is there really a point in putting every color in the rainbow in your painting? Is there really a point in using only the colors in your tubes and jars? Why not mix colors a bit? A lot? Why not use some of the 14 billion colors the iPad Pro gives you?
I think one of the most important aspects of painting with Cubist features is to use colors that are interesting… that go together, or that contrast starkly. If I see another Cubist-influenced painting with the primary colors I’m going to scream out loud. No kidding. Here’s a clue to finding your own artistic style – it shouldn’t involve PRIMARY COLORS. It shouldn’t only consist of unmixed colors you get from your tubes!
Add emotion to your still life with colors of blood, sunshine, red lips, dark nipples, dirt, etc. My next painting will be mostly black and white and grey tones with some weak color to emphasize something. Not sure what yet, but I’m excited to give it a try!
Experiment with all kinds of colors and palettes. Copy palettes from an image you like. Import it into Procreate and sample each color -adding it to your digital palette. Add more colors that match. Add grey too. EXPERIMENT with what looks nice!
Perspective
Cubist painters typically paint a subject with a front-on perspective and that same subject at a 90° angle to the right. Why? Open it up. Sure, do that. a few times as you are learning. But change it up at some point and start experimenting with all kinds of different perspectives.
Upside down. 240° to the right and angled downward. Upward. 40° left.
Blow some things out of proportion. Focus even more on eyes than usual. Focus on colors of eyes. Make the focus the bizarreness of perspectives. Distort the arm of a figure to enhance the size of the hands. Or shrink them. Or remove some fingers. Or add some.
Or change the fingers to represent something from Alien. Make some fingers thick, some thin, based on what each finger means. Pointer means authority, power, control, ring finger means family is important. Middle finger means – whatever it means to you. Ha!
Limits of the Canvas
Some artists respect the limits of the canvas (drawing area). Others don’t. Experiment with putting parts and pieces of the objects in your painting on the canvas and letting some of it hang off, beyond the borders. It’s another way you can add a dimension to your Cubist art that others don’t.
Dimensions
Add or remove dimensions at will. Choose what YOU want to choose. I think too many people follow too closely the artists they admire and few step outside the bounds and hit on something truly unique.
Isn’t that the goal though? Uniqueness? Being able to express yourself through art in as unique a way as possible? Isn’t that THE GOAL?
Texture
Adding texture to some of the main features of the painting changes it dramatically. Or, to all surfaces. To the background.
Line
Short lines vs. long lines set a mood for the piece. Rounded lines vs. straight/blunt lines sets a mood. The thickness of your black lines that define the objects in your painting can be there or not. They can be thick or thin or micro-thin. Up to you. Everything is up to you when you’re painting the way you want to paint.
Form
Artists can distort or simplify forms to emphasize shapes or structures, which is key in Cubism where objects are usually broken down into geometric forms.
In the Procreate on iPad painting above I drew freehand without consideration for perfection or even correcting obvious errors. I had a Buddhist amulet in mind that is from a monk whose trademark design is that swirl. He built the temple in Krabi close to our home. He is known as a sort of mystic monk. Magical. The painting is flat with curvy lines, bright colors, and mystical eyes.
The yellow comes from the color of his home at the temple. The blue on the far left side suggests another head behind the one in the foreground. The one we see prominently is projected through the force of this monk’s consciousness to be as we see it here. He is really not there, but we are seeing what he wants us to see.
Detail
There are Cubist paintings with lots of detail and those with very sparse detail. Experiment with both. I tend to want to fill up the canvas but I do leave some white space. You may not leave any. Or, 95% may be white space. Everything, every detail, is up to you.
Movement
Most Cubist artwork looks very static. Still-lifish, right? What if you let the brush drag and didn’t make a smooth stop to the lines? What if you added action lines to some of the objects? What if something looked as if it was falling? You could incorporate any of this into your paintings to make it something more like you appreciate.
How To Create Your Own Cubist Art on iPad with Procreate
Embedded here is a video slowed down to show the creation of the Cubist painting on the top of the page. You can choose to follow the video tutorial (example) closely and recreate it – or, just draw your own and use your own colors. You’ll be happier if you do your own, believe me!
Here’s the post at Instagram: Making a Cubist Painting on iPad/Procreate >
[Painting Top: A quick Procreate painting on iPad Pro showing a simple style of Cubist art with geometric shapes and pushing the bounds of dimension, form, perspective, repeatability, beauty, and color. © 2024 Vern Lovic.]