Alley of doorways, no two the same heightRule nothing. Draw each frame freehand and fast, and let the lintels disagree.
Bare tree at a window, its branches like cracks in the glassUse jagged black strokes that reach all four edges of the pane.
Clock tower bent over a town square at duskCurve the tower like a reed in wind. Give the sky the color of a headache.
Crowded bus where every face is three strokesBrow, nose, mouth and nothing else. Pack the heads edge to edge with no air between them.
Elevator of strangers, each face a different flat colorCrop tight at the shoulders. Nobody looks at anybody, and nobody smiles.
Exam hall of desks running back farther than any roomShrink the desks too fast toward the back wall. Hang one clock there, far too large.
Night street in black and white, cut like a woodcutSolid black shapes from a broad marker. White gaps stand for lamplight and window frames.
Self-portrait with a green face and orange shadowsDraw the features plainly and change only the color. Pick the green that fits the mood.
Stairwell seen from the top, the rail twisting like ropeBend every straight line a little. The steps narrow faster than real steps would.
Street of tall houses leaning in over one walkerTilt every wall inward until the roofs nearly meet. Keep the walker small and upright.
Waiting room with a floor that tips toward youDraw the floor as a steep slope with the chairs sliding down it. One sour yellow over all.
Your own hands, drawn too long, gripping a chair backStretch the fingers by half again. Outline them in hard black and leave the knuckles pale.
Loneliness 12
Bedroom with a bed too small for the roomPush the walls out and the ceiling up. Cold color on the walls, one warm patch on the pillow.
Bus shelter in rain, one person, every stroke on one slantSlant the figure with the rain, as if the weather ran straight through.
Cafe table for two with one cup on itTip the tabletop toward the viewer and leave the second chair pushed in. Wall in blue-green.
Dog waiting at a gate, built from three thick outlinesHead, back, tail. Fill the dog in one flat dark and the lane behind it in pale yellow.
Empty playground swing, red seat against grayEverything gray but the seat. Outline thickly and let the chains hang dead straight.
Farmhouse under a sky five times its heightSet the house on the bottom edge. Fill the sky with long dragged strokes in two grays.
Figure on a long platform after the train has goneMake the platform too long and the figure too small. Run the rails off the edge of the sheet.
One face in a crowd, turned the other wayColor the crowd in one hue and that face in the hue across the color wheel from it.
One lit window in a block of dark onesPaint the block cold violet and the window raw orange. Put no figure in it.
Portrait from behind, looking out over rooftopsOnly the back of the head and the shoulders, in dark blue. The roofs tilt away from the figure.
Small boat pulled up on a wide violet beachGive the sand a color sand never has. Keep the boat small and its shadow long.
Snowy road with one line of footprints, in black and whiteCut the trees as solid black shapes. The footprints are small black notches in the white.
Anger 12
Barking dog behind a fence with its bars bent outwardBend the bars as if the bark had pushed them. Dog in orange, yard in dark green.
Crowd pushing through a doorway, in black woodcut shapesFill the bodies solid black and leave only faces and hands white. Angle every shoulder.
Factory chimneys under a red skyLean the chimneys together like folded arms. Drag the smoke sideways in dry, rough strokes.
Fist around a crumpled letter, knuckles outlined in blackDraw the hand larger than life and crop it at the wrist. One hot color for the skin.
Rooster mid-crow in clashing red and greenSet red feathers against a green ground so the edges jar. Outline the beak in black.
Sea hitting a breakwater, the spray in jagged white shapesNo soft edges. Cut the spray into points with the edge of a card.
Shouting face in red, the mouth its largest shapeDraw the mouth first and far too big. Fit the eyes and brow into the space that is left.
Sink piled with dishes, the outlines scratched in hardPress until the crayon squeaks. Tilt the stack so it looks ready to go over.
Storm over a harbor in red and black slashesLoad the brush and slash on one diagonal. Lean the masts the same way as the strokes.
Traffic jam from above, hot-colored hoods on a black roadJam the cars in at angles so no two line up. Put a thick dark outline on each.
Trees on a ridge, every trunk bent the same way by windEach trunk is one fast curved stroke. Scratch the sky in the same direction.
Two people arguing across a table that tilts between themRaise the table edge like a wall. Paint one figure red-orange and the other blue-black.
Joy 12
Brass band on a bandstand, the horns twice their real sizeBlow up the instruments and shrink the players. Yellow for the brass, straight from the tube.
Carousel at full speed, its horses smeared into bandsDrag the color around the curve with a wide brush. Leave one horse sharp.
Friend laughing, the face yellow and the hair blueChoose the two colors before you start. Draw the laugh lines as thick curved strokes.
Fruit bowl with every color turned all the way upRed apples go scarlet and their shadows violet. Put a thick blue line around each fruit.
Hens in a yard, painted in colors no hen hasPink, turquoise, violet. Keep the shapes simple: a teardrop body and a dab for the head.
Hill village with every roof a different bright colorStack the houses like blocks with no gaps. Lean them a little so the hill seems to bounce.
Kids jumping off a dock, orange bodies over green waterFlat color and no shading. Tilt the dock and make the splash three white strokes.
Kites over a hill, the sky brushed the way they pullCurve every sky stroke along a kite string. Each person below is five dabs.
Spring orchard with pink trunks under a yellow skyGive each thing the color the day feels like. Lay the paint thick, one stroke to a blossom.
Street parade in black and white, the drum its biggest shapeCut it like a woodcut: the drum a white disc, the marchers black, the flags striped.
Two dancers at a street party, arms and legs stretched longLengthen the limbs by a third. Fill each dancer in one flat bright color.
Washing line in hard sun, each shirt one slab of colorUse the paint unmixed. Paint the shadows on the grass blue.
Awe 12
Avenue of trees bent inward until they meet overheadLean both rows to touch at the top. Fill the gap between them with strokes of yellow light.
Canyon walls in hot reds with the river a thin blue cutStack the walls in slabs of red and orange with a palette knife. The river is one line.
Comet over rooftops, its tail dragged across the whole skyOne wide stroke from corner to corner, thick at the head. Roofs low, dark and small.
Forest of red trunks rising past the top of the sheetNever show the treetops. Wide upright strokes for the trunks, blue between them.
Hare under an enormous moon, the field brushed in ringsCircle the moon with every stroke of the field. Keep the hare a small dark shape.
Mountain in violet and orange, too steep to be realSharpen the peak and double its height. One small hut at the foot gives the scale.
Mountain lake in black and white, peaks cut like a woodcutMake the peaks white wedges in a black sky. Repeat them below in broken strokes.
Northern lights over a snowfield in green and pink sweepsPull each curtain of light down with the side of a pastel. The snow takes its color.
Old oak filling the sheet, its branches drawn like lightningGrow the tree to every edge in jagged strokes. Sky in yellow-green.
Sun as a huge disc pressing down on a small seaLet the sun fill half the sheet. Ring it in orange, then red, then violet.
Waterfall as one white slash between black rocksBlock the rocks in solid first. Pull the water down in a single dry stroke.
Whale's back breaking a dark sea beside a tiny boatGive the whale most of the width. The boat is three strokes, left uncolored.
Abstract expressionism 16
A bad day in fast dark marks, a good day painted over itAction painting. Cover most of the first layer with a light color and let some show.
A feeling you cannot name, started with no planAction painting. Make one mark, answer it with another, and go on until the sheet feels done.
A single color on sheets taped as wide as your reachColor field. Up close you should see nothing but the color.
Black shapes on white, then white pushed back over their edgesAction painting. Go back and forth until neither color is the background.
The color of a room you miss, filling the pageColor field. Mix it from memory, not from a photo. Brush it flat to every edge.
Dark field with a bare rim left on all four sidesColor field. Stop the color a finger short of each edge, unevenly, so the dark seems to hover.
One color at full strength beside the same color grayedColor field. Gray it with a touch of its opposite on the color wheel.
One color over the whole sheet, in many thin coatsColor field. Pick the color of a quiet hour. Let each coat dry so no brush mark shows.
Paper on the floor, paint trailed from a stick as you circle itAction painting. Work from all four sides so the sheet has no top.
Sheet split into two colors that are equally brightColor field. Mix until neither half comes forward. No line between them.
Tangle of marks with no middle and no empty cornerAction painting. Spread the marks evenly so the eye finds no center.
Thick paint shoved around with a card until it holds the pushAction painting. Scrape, pile and drag, and leave the ridges standing.
Three sheets side by side, one feeling and one color eachColor field. Calm, dread, relief, or your own three. Choose each color by gut.
Three sweeps of black from a wide brush, made standing upAction painting. Arm straight, no wrist. Stop at three and do not tidy them.
Yellow field with a darker yellow cloud sunk in the middleColor field. Blend the edge of the cloud until it cannot be found.
Yesterday's argument replayed in brush marks, start to finishAction painting. Loud parts get big fast strokes and the silences bare paper. Work left to right.
How it works
An Expressionist picture puts feeling before likeness: a street leans, a face turns green. These subjects are sorted by the feeling each carries. Abstract expressionism, a later movement, has a group of its own.
Read the full guide
Four signs, and the woodcut
Tate lists four signs of an Expressionist painting: intense, non-natural color, distorted forms, free brushwork and thick, textured paint. Each hint pushes one of them. The woodcut belongs beside them, revived by the group four artists formed in Dresden in 1905, arguably the movement's founding group. One idea under each feeling is cut in solid black and white.
Abstract expressionism art ideas
Abstract expressionism came later: American painters of the 1940s and 1950s, mostly in New York. Tate names two kinds. Action painters made sweeping marks with large brushes, and one famously poured and trailed paint onto a canvas on the ground. Color field painters filled the canvas with large areas of one color. The last group holds eight ideas of each.
Choose the feeling before the subject, then choose two colors for it and use no others.
Work fast and stop early. A stroke gone over three times no longer looks free.
Questions and answers
What is expressionism in art?
A movement that began in Northern Europe around the start of the 20th century, chiefly in Germany. It shows the world from one person's point of view and distorts it for emotional effect, where realism would record what the eye sees.
What is the difference between expressionism and abstract expressionism?
Expressionism usually keeps a subject, such as a street or a face, and distorts it. Abstract expressionism is abstract art: the marks or fields of color carry the feeling, with no street and no face. Tate calls it expressionist painting that grew more and more abstract.
Is expressionism the opposite of impressionism?
By one account the word was coined in 1910 as exactly that. Impressionist canvases record light as the eye receives it; an Expressionist picture records what the scene did to the person looking.
What is an easy expressionism art idea?
Self-portrait with a green face and orange shadows: the drawing stays plain and only the color changes. With no subject at all, try Three sweeps of black from a wide brush, made standing up: three strokes and it is finished.