How to make a squeegee abstract like Richter
Make a squeegee abstract in Easel by Zaweba with the squeegee tool or the Richter squeegee preset, dragging wet layers across one another.
For a squeegee abstract in the style of Gerhard Richter, use the squeegee tool in Easel by Zaweba, or start from the built-in Richter squeegee preset. Lay down bands of wet colour, then drag the squeegee across them so the layers smear, break and reveal one another. The technique depends on wet paint behaving like real paint, which is exactly what Easel is built for.
Gerhard Richter is a German painter well known for his large abstract paintings made by dragging paint across the canvas with a long squeegee. The results are rich, layered and full of happy accidents: colours pulled into streaks, earlier layers peeping through gaps, and edges that skip and stutter. It is a very physical way of painting, and a satisfying one to try.
What makes the technique work
Three things matter. The first is wet paint that stays wet long enough to move. In Easel, oil stays wet for impasto, and the squeegee drags it as a real one would. The second is colour that mixes like pigment where layers meet. Easel mixes with Kubelka-Munk maths, so a drag of blue through yellow gives green rather than grey. The third is layers. The magic of a squeegee painting comes from dragging over colour that has dried, so earlier layers show through where the new paint breaks.
Building the layers and dragging
Pick a surface. Canvas or a primed panel suits the technique, as it does on real canvas.
Lay down the first layer of colour in broad bands or patches. Don't plan too carefully. Bright, contrasting colours give the strongest result.
Drag the squeegee across the paint in one confident movement. Straight across, at a slight angle or in a curve, each gives a different character.
Let it dry. Easel's drying speed slider runs from 0.25 to 4 times, and Ctrl+D dries the paint now.
Add a second set of colours over the top and drag again. Where the new layer skips and breaks, the dried one shows through. Repeat for as many layers as the painting needs.
Using the Richter squeegee preset
Easel has 28 built-in presets, such as pencil sketch, loose wash, impasto knife, Pollock drips and Richter squeegee. The Richter squeegee preset is the fastest way to start. Use it as is for a first try, then adjust and save your own preset once you know what you like.
Getting a painting that holds together
Limit your colours. A painting with three or four strong colours, plus white, often feels more deliberate than one with ten.
Drag fewer times than you think. Each pass mixes the paint more, and too many turn everything into a single muddy colour. Stop while there is still contrast.
Use the light. Easel lights thick oil with a light you can move, so impasto ridges show real highlights. The squeegee leaves ridges and edges, and moving the light shows them off. Switch to the flat light, L by default, to judge colour without highlights.
Check from a distance. Step back shows the picture from across the room, which is how abstract work is usually seen. The values view shows whether there's enough variation between light and dark.
Other tools to combine
The palette knife and scraper push wet paint aside to reveal what's underneath, which pairs naturally with the squeegee for smaller passages. The comb and graining rocker add striated texture, and the sgraffito stylus scratches lines through the top layer. Easel's tilt dial also lets wet paint run downhill, which adds drips to a squeegee painting if you want them.
Keeping the squeegee painting wet for later
A .zeasel file keeps wet paint wet, so you can come back tomorrow and drag through it again. Easel also keeps a frame after every stroke, and squeegee paintings make wonderful time-lapses, exported as WebM video or a web page. Easel by Zaweba makes it easy to try a technique that would use up a lot of real paint and canvas.
