# 12 abstract art ideas you can make digitally [Canonical HTML page](https://gradiently.design/guide/abstract-art-ideas) You don't need paint, a studio or a steady hand. Twelve abstract art ideas built from gradients, shapes, texture and type, with the codes and sizes to finish them as prints or wallpapers. ## The short version - Good digital abstract art usually rests on one idea: a colour relationship, a shape, a texture or a rhythm. - Gradients make some of the easiest abstract art, because a soft transition between two or three colours is already a composition. - Grain or noise on top of a digital piece makes it feel printed and hides the banding that smooth gradients can show. - Limiting yourself to two or three colours and one kind of mark produces stronger abstract work than using everything at once. - For prints, work at 300 dpi: an A4 print needs 2480×3508 pixels and an A3 print needs 3508×4961 pixels. The best **abstract art ideas** for digital work start from one constraint: two colours meeting, one repeated shape, one texture, one letter. Below are twelve you can make today with nothing more than a design app or a browser, grouped into gradients, shapes, texture and type. Each one ends as a finished piece you could print, set as a wallpaper or use behind a post. ## Gradient art ideas A gradient is already a composition: it has a direction, a light source and a mood. The trick is to choose colours that mean something together and to let one area dominate. [Gradient art](https://gradiently.design/guide/gradient-art) covers the craft in depth; these four are quick starting points. - **The horizon.** Two bands of colour meeting softly a third of the way down, like sea and sky at dusk. Shift the meeting line off centre. - **The single field.** One colour that slowly darkens towards the edges, large enough to fill a wall. Quiet, and harder than it looks. - **The orb.** A soft circle of light colour floating on a dark ground, off centre, with a wide falloff. - **The corona.** A hot core ringed by cool blue, fading into night, like a star seen through a long lens. - The horizon: `linear-gradient(180deg, #f6b98a 0%, #e98a7a 30%, #5b5f97 34%, #1f2546 100%)` - The single field: `radial-gradient(ellipse at 50% 50%, #c2473a 0%, #8f2a25 55%, #3d1210 100%)` - The orb: `radial-gradient(circle at 65% 35%, #f9e7c4 0%, #e2a26b 14%, #3b2a4a 42%, #120d1a 80%)` - The corona: `radial-gradient(circle at 45% 50%, #ffb27a 0%, #ff8a5c 16%, #b45a7a 26%, #4fa3d9 36%, #1a3358 52%, #0b1426 78%)` The four gradient ideas as live CSS. Copy one, change a single colour, and you have a different piece. These ideas descend directly from the mid twentieth century painters who made huge canvases of nearly pure colour. [Colour field painting](https://gradiently.design/guide/color-field-painting) explains what they were doing and why it still works on screens. ## Abstract shape ideas - **Cut paper.** Five or six flat, hand cut looking shapes in three colours, scattered with plenty of space, in the spirit of Matisse's late cut outs. - **Stacked blocks.** Rectangles of slightly different widths piled into a leaning tower, each a step darker than the one below. - **One continuous line.** A single loose line that never lifts, looping across the canvas, in one colour on a flat ground. - **Repeating arches.** Rows of the same arch shape, alternating two colours, slightly offset each row. - Paper: #f3ece0 - Cobalt: #1f3a93 - Vermilion: #e4572e - Ochre: #f2c14e A cut paper palette: a warm paper ground and three flat, strong colours. Use each colour for one or two shapes only. Keep shapes few and large, and let empty space be part of the picture. Flat colour with no gradients or shadows is what gives cut paper its honesty, so resist adding effects. [Organic shapes](https://gradiently.design/guide/organic-shapes-design) shows how to draw blobs and curves that look intentional; [geometric design](https://gradiently.design/guide/geometric-design) covers the strict, ruled alternative. ## Abstract texture ideas - **Heavy grain.** Take any gradient above and add strong noise until it looks like a film photograph of a colour. - **Fake risograph.** Two flat colours, slightly misaligned, with a speckled texture, like a cheap print run that went beautifully wrong. - **Ripples.** Repeating rings in two close tones, as if a stone dropped into dyed water. Texture is what makes digital art stop looking like a screen default. A little grain also hides banding, the visible steps that smooth gradients can show when they are compressed. [Grainy gradients](https://gradiently.design/guide/grainy-gradients) has the technique and the code. ## Type as abstract art Letters stop being words when you crop them hard enough. Set one letter huge, in a heavy face, and crop it so only a curve and a corner remain. It becomes a shape with a ghost of meaning, which is a lovely quality for a print or a cover. An A4 portrait print with the single word Drift set very large on a soft abstract gradient One word, very large, on a living gradient: the type idea, sized as an A4 print. An A4 portrait print of an abstract surface with a small title reading Untitled no. 4 A small title in a corner turns an abstract surface into a numbered piece in a series. ## How to make abstract art digitally 1. **Choose one idea** Pick a single idea from the list. Write it down in five words, such as "warm orb on night sky", and check every decision against it. 2. **Limit the palette** Two or three colours, plus a dark or light ground. Restriction is what makes abstract work feel composed rather than random. 3. **Set the size first** Decide whether it is a print, a phone wallpaper or a desktop. Composition changes completely between a tall and a wide frame. 4. **Make three versions** Change one variable each time: the angle, the main colour, the position of the brightest area. Choose the best, not the first. 5. **Finish with texture** Add a light grain, export at full size as PNG, and look at it on the device or paper it is meant for. If you'd rather start from a finished surface, Gradiently's Market is full of living gradient and material backgrounds called Marks, each one checked against every other so no two look alike. You can design with any unclaimed Mark for free, set it at any of the sizes below and add type on top; exporting a full size print takes a Mark you own and Pro. ## Sizes for prints and wallpapers - A4 print 2480×3508: 2480 × 3508 - A3 print 3508×4961: 3508 × 4961 - 18×24 in poster 5400×7200: 5400 × 7200 - Desktop 1920×1080: 1920 × 1080 - Phone 1080×1920: 1080 × 1920 Common finishing sizes, drawn to scale. Print sizes are at 300 dpi, which is what most print shops expect. A piece made for a tall phone screen rarely crops well to a wide desktop, so recompose rather than crop. [Desktop wallpaper](https://gradiently.design/guide/desktop-wallpaper-ideas) has more ideas for wide formats, and [abstract background](https://gradiently.design/guide/abstract-backgrounds) shows how the same pieces work behind words. ## FAQ ### What is an easy abstract art idea for beginners? A two colour horizon gradient: two colours meeting softly about a third of the way down the canvas, finished with a little grain. ### Can I make abstract art without drawing skills? Yes. Gradients, simple shapes, cropped letters and textures need no drawing, only choices about colour, size and placement. ### What size should digital abstract art be for printing? Work at 300 dpi. That means 2480×3508 pixels for A4, 3508×4961 for A3 and 5400×7200 for an 18×24 inch poster. ### How many colours should abstract art use? Two or three plus a ground colour is a good limit for strong work. More is possible, but it takes far more control to stay coherent. ### Why does my gradient art look stripy when printed or posted? That is banding, caused by too few colour steps or heavy compression. Add a fine grain and export as PNG at full size.