Abstract Acrylic Painting Tutorial for Beginners: Create a Bokeh Effect

Creating your own art to hang isn’t hard! Let me walk you through my abstract acrylic painting tutorial and I’ll help you create a gorgeous bokeh painting!

A Naked House

When I first moved into my new house, I realized we didn’t own nearly enough art to cover all of the walls. It felt bare, and I wanted to fix it. So instead of dropping a ton of money on art, I decided to roll up my sleeves and create some paintings! This fun abstract bokeh painting was one of the first paintings I created for my new home. I saw this style originally from the wonderful artist Rachelle Kearns and knew I had to take a crack at it. Let me share what I’ve learned in this abstract acrylic painting tutorial for beginners so you can give it a try, too!

Acrylic Abstract Painting Tutorial

Step One

Gather your materials and turn on some chill music.

Step Two

Pick your color palette. You don’t have to choose it ahead of time, but I’ve found it helpful while I’m painting. I went with a green, purple, and pink color palette here.

Step Three

Mix your base color with your palette knife. This color will be the darkest shade in your abstract acrylic painting.

Step Four

Use your 3″ paintbrush to paint a flat layer on the surface of your canvas. Let it dry.

Step Five

Mix the color of the first layer of bokeh circles. You will be building up from dark to light, so keep this shade only a touch lighter than your base.

Step Six

Use your flat or angled brush to paint several circles on your canvas. You can create circles by spinning your brush slowly in a circle. If the paint is too thick, add a little bit of water to allow it to flow more easily.

Step Seven

Continue to build layers, getting lighter each time. Add a little bit more white paint to inch the colors lighter. Make sure to allow the previous circles to dry, and overlap circles so you are slowly covering the base layer.

Step Eight

Once you have built up enough layers to cover almost all of the base color, you can begin adding the lightest layer. This will be white or nearly white paint. Add them to your painting and let them dry.

Step Nine

Let the whole painting dry and then hang it!

Repetition Repetition

This abstract acrylic bokeh effect painting is so easy that anyone can do it. All you’re doing is painting the same thing over and over again in different colors. You just need a bit of patience and you can build up enough layers to create a gorgeous painting with depth. I hope you found this abstract acrylic painting tutorial helpful and you give this a try!