Fresh examples of examples of creating abstract art with mixed media techniques

Vivid examples of creating abstract art with mixed media techniques

Let’s skip the theory lecture and go straight to the fun part: actual, paint-under-your-fingernails examples of creating abstract art with mixed media techniques that real artists use in 2024–2025.

These aren’t museum-only ideas. They’re things you can try on a kitchen table with a drop cloth and some stubbornness.

Ink, acrylic, and salt: atmospheric abstract landscapes

One favorite example of a mixed media combo that almost paints itself is ink, acrylic, and plain table salt.

You start with a sheet of watercolor paper, tape the edges for a clean border, and lay down loose washes of liquid ink or very watery acrylic in two or three colors. While it’s still glossy-wet, you sprinkle salt into the puddles. As the paint dries, the salt crystals pull pigment around and create starburst textures that look like distant galaxies or windswept fields.

When everything’s dry, you brush off the salt and go back in with thicker acrylic paint. Use a flat brush, an old credit card, or even a piece of cardboard to drag opaque color across the textured surface. The transparent, speckled underlayer shows through in places, giving you an abstract landscape feel without ever painting a “tree” or “mountain.”

This is one of the best examples of letting materials do some of the work for you. You’re not carefully drawing; you’re orchestrating chaos.

Collage, graphite, and soft pastels: graphic, layered abstractions

Another set of examples of creating abstract art with mixed media techniques comes from combining collage with drawing media.

Imagine you start with torn pieces of old book pages, music scores, or packaging. Glue them down with matte medium on a sturdy surface like mixed media paper or a wood panel. Once dry, you sand parts of the collage lightly so the edges soften and some of the print blurs.

Then you switch to graphite sticks and soft pastels. Draw loose geometric shapes that cut across the collage pieces: arcs, rectangles, intersecting lines. Smudge some areas with your fingers, leave others crisp. The printed text and images peek through in unexpected spots, but your drawn shapes organize the chaos.

This gives you a layered abstract piece where history (the old paper) collides with fresh marks. It’s a real example of how abstract art doesn’t have to start from pure color; it can start from everyday scraps.

For inspiration on collage and contemporary abstraction, many art schools share student mixed media work and tutorials. The Museum of Modern Art’s educational resources at moma.org often highlight how artists combine drawing, collage, and paint in modern and contemporary abstraction.

Acrylic, spray paint, and paint markers: street-art energy on paper

If you like bold color and high contrast, here’s another example of a mixed media approach that borrows from street art.

Begin with a quick underpainting in acrylic: big blocks of color, no details. Once dry, add loose shapes and gradients with low-odor spray paint (outdoors or in a well-ventilated area, mask on). You can mask off areas with painter’s tape or cut simple stencils from cardstock to create repeated shapes.

When the spray layer is dry, you come back with paint markers or acrylic pens. Now you’re drawing on top of the color fields—scribbles, symbols, quick lines, and invented calligraphy. The result feels like a wall covered in layered tags and posters, but you’re in full control of the composition.

This is one of the best examples of creating abstract art with mixed media techniques if you want to explore rhythm and gesture rather than quiet, meditative work. Each layer has a different character: brushy, misty, then sharp and graphic.

Watercolor, ink, and resist: organic line-and-wash abstractions

Some of the most satisfying examples of examples of creating abstract art with mixed media techniques use resist methods—basically, making parts of the paper reject paint.

You can draw loose patterns with masking fluid, candle wax, or a white crayon on watercolor paper. Think spirals, grids, or wavy lines. You won’t see much at first, which is part of the fun.

Next, you wash watercolor or diluted acrylic over the surface. Wherever you drew with wax or masking fluid, the paint beads up or stays away, revealing ghostly white shapes. Once that’s dry, you add ink lines on top with a dip pen or fineliner, following some of the hidden shapes and ignoring others.

This creates an abstract piece where the resist marks, color washes, and ink lines all compete and cooperate. It’s a real example of how planning and surprise can share the same page.

If you’re curious about how different pigments and papers behave, many art education departments—such as those at major universities—publish open-access materials on watercolor and drawing techniques. You can often find them through .edu art program pages.

Gel medium, tissue paper, and acrylic: sculpted surfaces

Texture lovers, this one’s for you.

Take a panel or heavy paper and brush on acrylic gel medium. Press crumpled tissue paper into it, flattening some areas and leaving others wrinkled. When it dries, you have a low-relief sculpture built right into your support.

Now you glaze color over the top with transparent acrylics. The paint settles differently over peaks and valleys, creating shadows and highlights without you painting them directly. You can dry-brush lighter colors across the raised areas to emphasize the texture even more.

Artists often add metallic paint or interference colors on the last layer, so the piece shifts as you move. This is one of the best examples of creating abstract art with mixed media techniques for anyone who wants their work to feel almost like a relief sculpture.

Digital-meets-analog: printing, drawing, and painting hybrids

In 2024–2025, a lot of interesting examples of creating abstract art with mixed media techniques live in the overlap between digital and analog.

One approach: generate a simple abstract composition digitally—blocks of color, overlapping circles, or glitchy patterns. Print it out on heavyweight matte paper. Then treat that print as your starting layer.

You can sand parts of the print, paint over sections with acrylic, add colored pencil, or collage other printed fragments on top. Some artists scan the altered piece again, re-edit it digitally, and reprint, creating several generations of mutation.

This loop—print, draw, scan, repeat—gives you layered abstractions that carry the crispness of digital design and the grit of physical materials. It’s a real example of how mixed media has expanded with accessible home printers and basic design software.

For artists exploring digital tools, many universities and art organizations share open resources on digital art and design workflows. For instance, the digital media programs at institutions like the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and MIT’s Media Lab often feature hybrid analog-digital projects in their public-facing materials.

Ink blots, alcohol, and scraping: controlled accidents

Some of the most interesting abstractions come from letting go of control.

Start with waterproof ink or alcohol ink on a non-porous surface like Yupo paper. Drop in color and tilt the surface so the ink runs. You can add isopropyl alcohol to push the pigment away and create halo effects.

Once things are semi-dry, scrape through the wet areas with a palette knife, old credit card, or even the edge of a piece of cardboard. You’re carving lines and shapes into the color fields. Because the surface is slick, you can also lift color off entirely with a damp cloth, revealing bright white underneath.

This is one of the clearest examples of examples of creating abstract art with mixed media techniques where erasing and subtracting are just as important as adding. The final result often looks like aerial maps, microscopic slides, or storm systems.

Drawing over found surfaces: maps, blueprints, and music sheets

Another family of examples include using found printed materials as your starting point instead of blank paper.

Think old maps, engineering blueprints, or sheet music. You glue them onto a backing with matte medium, seal the surface, and then draw and paint abstract shapes over them.

Because the underlying print already has lines, grids, and symbols, you’re responding to something instead of inventing everything from scratch. You might echo a road line with a painted curve, or completely bury a section under a dark wash.

This is a real example of how mixed media can reduce the fear of the blank page. You’re collaborating with whoever made that map or blueprint decades ago.

Many libraries and archives provide public-domain scans of maps and documents that artists use for collage and mixed media. The Library of Congress, for instance, offers a large digital map collection at loc.gov. These can be printed and repurposed in your studio.

How to build your own mixed media abstract experiments

So how do you move from reading these examples of creating abstract art with mixed media techniques to actually making your own?

Think in layers, not steps. A typical mixed media abstract might go something like this:

You begin with a ground: gesso, a flat acrylic color, or a collage of paper. Then you add a fluid layer—inks, watery acrylic, or watercolor—to set the overall mood. Once that’s dry, you introduce drawing media: charcoal, graphite, colored pencil, or markers for structure. After that, you might bring in thicker paint, texture mediums, or collage elements to add weight. Finally, you add small, crisp marks or lines to pull the viewer’s eye around.

The goal is not to copy any single example of a technique, but to mix and match. Maybe you love the salt textures from the ink landscape idea, the tissue-paper texture from the gel medium example, and the calligraphic lines from the spray-paint-and-marker piece. Combine those into one experiment and see what happens.

For safe studio habits—especially if you’re using aerosols, solvents, or sanding surfaces—organizations like the U.S. National Institutes of Health and university art departments often publish guidelines on ventilation and material safety. A good starting point is the NIH’s general laboratory safety resources at nih.gov.

FAQ: Real-world examples of mixed media abstract art

Q: What are some easy beginner examples of creating abstract art with mixed media techniques?
Try watercolor plus ink on watercolor paper: lay down loose color washes, then draw lines and shapes on top once dry. Another simple example of a starter project is collage plus graphite—glue torn paper scraps, then draw geometric shapes across them.

Q: Do I need expensive supplies to try the best examples of mixed media abstraction?
No. Many of the best examples above use very basic tools: student-grade acrylics, cheap brushes, printer paper, glue sticks, and a ballpoint pen or marker. Higher-end materials last longer and handle differently, but you can learn the core ideas with budget-friendly supplies.

Q: Can you give examples of how to mix drawing and painting in one abstract piece?
One approach is to start with acrylic or watercolor backgrounds, then layer charcoal or colored pencil on top for structure. Another is to draw first in graphite, seal it with a clear acrylic medium, and then glaze transparent color over it so the drawing shows through.

Q: What’s a good example of using digital tools in mixed media abstract art?
Create a simple digital composition—blocks of color or a gradient—print it, then sand, paint, and draw over the print. Scan the result, tweak contrast or color on your computer, and print again. Each cycle adds new layers and artifacts.

Q: How do I know when my mixed media abstract piece is finished?
There’s no single rule, but a practical test is to set it across the room and ask: does my eye travel around the piece, or get stuck? If everything feels noisy, you may need a few quiet areas. If it feels flat, you might add a contrasting texture or sharper line. Looking at finished examples of creating abstract art with mixed media techniques from artists you admire can help you develop an internal sense of “done.”

Mixed media abstraction is basically permission to experiment. Use these examples of examples of creating abstract art with mixed media techniques as jumping-off points, not recipes. The magic happens when you break the rules, mix the wrong things, and discover something you haven’t seen before—on your table, under your own hands.