Looking to rejuvenate your artistic spark with some imaginative abstract painting ideas? Whether you're embarking on your very first creative journey or you’re a seasoned artist aiming to infuse fresh vision into your studio practice, these four thoughtfully crafted abstract painting concepts are perfect stepping stones. These ideas are approachable for beginners, while still offering deep creative potential for advanced painters. From fluid motion to geometric precision, you’ll find a technique that stirs your imagination and helps you develop your own visual language.
Note: All painting styles, compositions, and image references discussed in this post are intended for personal inspiration only. The artwork may not be copied, reproduced, or resold commercially.
1. Expressive Strokes: The Power of Movement
In the world of abstract painting, few approaches offer as much emotional immediacy and visual freedom as expressive brushwork. Often considered the heart of intuitive art-making, this technique thrives on physical motion, gestural rhythm, and an unfiltered connection between the artist and the canvas. It’s not only a method but an experiential form of communication that transcends words, rules, and expectations.
Rather than beginning with a pre-conceived sketch or rigid composition, expressive strokes invite you to let go of traditional structures and allow your instincts to dictate the flow of paint. The act of dipping your brush into color and moving across the surface becomes more than technical application—it evolves into a dance between spontaneity and intention. This process can produce artwork that feels raw, cathartic, and deeply personal.
Understanding the Language of Gesture
The fundamental principle behind expressive strokes is the belief that movement carries meaning. Every mark you make with your brush is an extension of your current state of mind, your physical energy, and your emotional terrain. For this reason, expressive painting is as much about how you paint as what you paint.
To begin, focus on variety—change the angle, speed, and pressure of your brush to explore how each motion affects the visual tone. Horizontal strokes often convey calmness or stillness, while vertical lines introduce structure or tension. Diagonal motions offer dynamism and momentum, creating a sense of visual propulsion across the canvas. Meanwhile, circular motions or spiraling gestures can establish harmony, echoing organic shapes found in nature.
One of the key advantages of expressive brushwork is its adaptability to both large-scale and intimate formats. On a grand canvas, broad sweeping strokes feel theatrical and immersive. On a smaller scale, even subtle flicks and strokes can carry surprising emotional resonance. Whether you’re channeling chaos, serenity, conflict, or joy, your brush becomes a vessel for personal storytelling.
Tools and Textures That Transform
Though the brush is a fundamental tool in this method, expressive painting thrives on experimentation. Different implements yield distinct effects, each contributing to the character of your composition. Flat brushes create bold, architectural marks perfect for layering, while filbert brushes allow for softer transitions and rounded strokes. Detail brushes can add contrast through fine linear movement, and fan brushes lend a whispery, atmospheric texture ideal for blending or dry brushing.
Beyond traditional tools, try incorporating objects like credit cards, twigs, plastic combs, or even your fingers to add layers of texture and irregularity. These additions introduce unexpected elements, creating delightful surprises that can inspire new directions. A sponge soaked with diluted paint pressed onto the surface might evoke a cloudy sky or a diffused memory. A palette knife dragged across wet paint can leave behind tactile ridges that shimmer with dimension under natural light.
Another effective enhancement is impasto—a technique where paint is applied thickly to the surface so that it stands out from the canvas. This sculptural quality not only adds texture but also casts subtle shadows depending on lighting, creating a multisensory visual experience. Acrylic paints with heavy body formulas or oil paints are particularly suitable for this effect, but you can also mix standard paints with modeling paste or gel mediums to achieve a similar consistency.
Finding Your Personal Rhythm
Abstract painting with expressive strokes isn’t about copying a style—it’s about cultivating your own. To develop your signature approach, allow yourself to paint without expectations. Dedicate a canvas or sketchbook as your experimental space, a place where you can test new combinations of movement, color, and material without the pressure of producing a finished piece.
Let color lead the way. Start with a limited palette and observe how hues interact emotionally and visually when layered in different ways. Apply paint in various opacities—dense and opaque layers can ground a piece, while transparent glazes can create a sense of ethereality. Pay attention to negative space, as well. In expressive painting, what you choose to leave untouched often holds as much meaning as what you fill in.
Rhythm emerges naturally when you allow the process to unfold intuitively. You may find yourself repeating a certain gesture, echoing a stroke pattern, or favoring particular angles. These repetitions can become thematic threads throughout your work. Over time, they evolve into recognizable elements that define your aesthetic identity. This rhythm is deeply personal—it mirrors your temperament, your pace, your preferences.
Moreover, don't shy away from layering and reworking your surface. Abstract painting thrives on the palimpsest—the idea that previous layers, even partially obscured, enrich the complexity of the final image. Let brushstrokes overlap, scrape away parts, or glaze over previous textures. Each action builds a visual history, adding resonance and depth.
Emotional Intuition and Artistic Confidence
One of the most transformative benefits of painting with expressive strokes is the way it strengthens your artistic confidence. Since this technique resists traditional evaluation metrics like realism or technical draftsmanship, it encourages you to trust your gut and make bold choices. Every decision, whether it's a jagged stroke in deep crimson or a delicate trail of muted blue, becomes a reflection of your evolving creative voice.
Emotional intuition plays a vital role in this process. You’re not simply moving paint around; you’re channeling your thoughts, energy, and inner sensations into the material. On some days, your canvas might become a release for anxiety or restlessness. On others, it might express exuberance or contentment. Embrace this variability—it’s what makes expressive abstract painting so alive and engaging.
This artistic freedom doesn’t mean abandoning structure entirely. As you refine your technique, you’ll develop a deeper understanding of composition, balance, and contrast—core principles that will help elevate your abstract work beyond random motion. Use focal points, directional flow, and intentional contrast to guide the viewer’s gaze. Think of the canvas as a symphonic space where each stroke plays a note, contributing to an overall harmony or dissonance.
2. Shape Play: Bold and Bright Geometry
For artists seeking clarity, structure, or even a methodical rhythm in their abstract practice, geometric abstraction provides a compelling avenue. This approach balances order and freedom, logic and expression, offering a harmonious bridge between the predictable and the unexpected. Shapes such as squares, circles, triangles, hexagons, and more irregular, idiosyncratic forms can become the skeletal framework upon which you build vibrant, dynamic compositions.
Geometric abstraction is particularly rewarding because it allows for both meditative repetition and radical experimentation. With each new shape you introduce, you open doors to symmetry, tension, visual hierarchy, and spatial innovation. Instead of mimicking reality, this style allows you to construct entire visual narratives using nothing more than form, color, line, and texture. For those who may feel overwhelmed by the boundlessness of abstract art, geometric foundations offer an accessible entry point that still allows infinite exploration.
By working with structure, you begin to develop your sense of balance and proportion—a visual sensitivity that’s transferable to all forms of painting. It also gives you a tactile way to understand how colors interact across confined borders, revealing the emotional power of design through shape-driven abstraction.
Building from the Center Outward
One of the most captivating ways to begin a geometric composition is by establishing a focal point and expanding from it. Consider starting with a single square or circle placed precisely at the center of the canvas. This initial shape acts as a nucleus from which your entire painting can radiate. As you build outward, layering new shapes and colors, you create a visual progression—each layer echoing the last, either in harmony or in contrast.
Try applying alternate levels of saturation and transparency as you build your pattern. Vivid, opaque strokes can dominate the eye and ground your composition, while translucent layers introduce a sense of lightness and layering, like stained glass or floating fabric. These effects can evoke sensations of movement, weight, and dimension, all without using realistic imagery.
You can also choose to break symmetry deliberately. For instance, allow one edge of a repeating pattern to fray or dissolve. This disruption adds a human touch to the calculated forms, reminding the viewer that perfection isn’t the goal—presence and spontaneity are. The slight imprecision of a hand-drawn triangle or an uneven polygon offers character and unpredictability, two qualities that elevate geometric painting from sterile repetition to soulful creation.
Another technique is to gradually shift shape proportions as the painting progresses. Begin with tight, evenly spaced forms at the center and allow them to widen, distort, or overlap near the edges. This approach gives your canvas a sense of motion, growth, or expansion—as if the image were breathing or vibrating across the surface.
Exploring Unconventional Forms and Structures
While traditional shapes like squares and circles offer simplicity, the world of abstract geometry doesn’t end there. Push your creativity further by introducing non-standard or complex figures such as rhomboids, quatrefoils, trapezoids, or asymmetrical stars. These less common forms can lend your composition a unique cadence and visual rhythm that distinguishes it from more conventional geometric paintings.
An especially intriguing route is to let shapes interlock or tessellate in repeating patterns. These designs, often seen in Islamic art, mandalas, and modernist architecture, convey an almost hypnotic quality. By working with tessellations, you can play with both harmony and optical illusion—creating the sensation that your composition is vibrating or undulating as the viewer's eyes move across it.
Consider combining organic and geometric elements. A series of angular lines may be disrupted by a single swirling spiral or a fluid curve, bringing tension between rigidity and softness. This contrast energizes your piece and can invite symbolic interpretations—structured thought versus raw emotion, order versus chaos, or modernity versus nature.
Use painter’s tape or stencils to define clean edges, especially if you're working in hard-edged abstraction. These tools allow you to maintain sharp contrasts between shapes, which can be emphasized with bold, complementary colors. Conversely, remove the tape at various stages to leave rough or uneven lines that reflect the human hand behind the work.
Color as Structure, Emotion, and Strategy
In abstract geometric painting, color doesn’t merely fill shapes—it becomes the second protagonist alongside form. When thoughtfully selected, color can alter the perception of space, imply mood, and draw focus. Combining certain colors within defined shapes has the power to evoke tension, unity, excitement, or calm, depending on how they’re applied and layered.
Explore the emotional temperature of your palette. A sequence of cool blues, icy greens, and dusky purples may establish serenity or introspection. In contrast, a spectrum of vibrant oranges, golden yellows, and intense reds can evoke passion, energy, or urgency. Within geometric compositions, these choices become even more potent due to the clarity of boundaries between each hue.
Color blocking—a technique in which large areas of flat color are applied in juxtaposition—is particularly effective within shape-driven artwork. This allows the visual force of each color to stand independently while also interacting with adjacent tones. You can also test tonal gradients within the same shape, allowing light to dark transitions that give a flat form depth and volume.
Complementary colors placed side-by-side create high contrast and intensity. Analogous colors offer cohesion and flow. You may choose to create a color narrative across the canvas by allowing one hue to travel through multiple shapes, subtly shifting in intensity and tone as it moves. This chromatic journey draws the eye and creates continuity even amidst sharp angles and isolated segments.
If you desire more tactile results, incorporate mixed media. Try layering tissue paper for a stained-glass effect, collaging paper cut-outs in structured patterns, or integrating metallic leafing to reflect light and contrast matte paint. The texture will interact with your colors and shapes to produce a multidimensional experience that shifts based on lighting and perspective.
The Meditative Practice of Precision
One of the often-overlooked aspects of abstract geometric painting is its capacity to cultivate mindfulness and focused intention. The repetitive act of drawing, measuring, taping, and filling shapes can become a deeply centering ritual. Each shape becomes a step in a visual mantra, a small commitment to balance and presence.
While expressive or chaotic abstract painting invites spontaneity and raw emotion, geometric abstraction offers the artist an opportunity to slow down. The structure demands consideration, patience, and discipline. Every line must be placed with attention, every hue chosen with purpose. This can be profoundly therapeutic for artists who seek clarity or wish to disconnect from noise and distraction.
Yet, within that structure lies tremendous freedom. As you become more confident, you’ll find ways to disrupt and reimagine the geometric grid—introducing distortion, layering, fragmentation, or deliberate asymmetry. The more time you spend in this realm, the more personal and profound your geometry becomes. Each line speaks not only to form but to your evolving artistic identity.
This method also teaches an essential truth in abstraction: even when governed by rules, your unique perspective always shines through. Whether you're composing a field of mirrored hexagons or overlaying chaotic triangles with precise circles, your decisions build a vocabulary that is completely your own. In this space, geometry is no longer sterile or impersonal—it becomes animated, expressive, and rich with intention.
3. Flow & Motion: Organic Lines and Abstract Curves
When abstract painting feels too restrained by geometry or structure, the liberation of fluid lines and organic curves can provide an expressive counterbalance. This technique is rooted in spontaneity, intuitive gesture, and the innate rhythm of natural forms. Rather than building compositions from shapes or grids, artists who embrace this method allow their brush or tool to follow instinctual paths, forming interconnected lines, waves, arcs, or spirals that move freely across the surface.
The essence of flow-based abstract painting lies in its dynamic nature. These artworks often mimic the movement of wind currents, rivers, ocean tides, or even microscopic life. Instead of containing the composition, this technique expands it—inviting the viewer's gaze to wander, follow, and become immersed. The result is often hypnotic, emotionally charged, and deeply immersive.
This fluid style not only captures visual motion but also lends itself to emotional resonance. The act of creating it is meditative, and the outcome often radiates tranquility, vibrancy, or intensity, depending on the artist’s choices in linework, palette, and rhythm.
Laying the Groundwork for Flow
Before embarking on a fluid composition, it's helpful to set a tone or atmosphere using a foundational background. This initial layer should act as a visual field that either contrasts with or complements the flowing marks to come. If you're seeking a calm, atmospheric quality, consider starting with a subdued palette—cool grays, pale aquas, dusty lavenders, or muted blush tones. These colors lend a delicate balance that supports subtle linework.
Alternatively, a bold and saturated background—such as deep cerulean, crimson, or burnt sienna—provides a striking contrast for lighter or more textured curves layered over it. This dramatic interplay enhances visual tension and draws focus to the movement within the painting. Allow the background to dry completely before proceeding, or work wet-on-wet for a more diffused, blended effect where edges dissolve into one another.
Begin your flow pattern by gently guiding your brush, pen, or tool across the canvas without lifting. Let your hand follow natural arcs and loops, avoiding rigid lines or right angles. As you work, listen to your instincts. You might find yourself gravitating toward spiral forms, branching tendrils, or sine-wave patterns. Allow the composition to build gradually, leaving areas of negative space to balance the intricacy.
As you develop your lines, consider varying their weight and density. Thicker strokes ground the eye and can imply movement with force or energy, while thinner ones evoke delicacy or distance. Try alternating between translucent and opaque paints, matte and glossy finishes, or layering mediums to produce optical depth. Glazing medium, for example, can help create a layered veil of color that appears to float above previous marks.
Techniques That Enrich Fluid Abstraction
To enhance visual complexity and generate unexpected outcomes, explore alternative application methods beyond the brush. One popular approach is string-pull painting. Dip a length of string or yarn into paint, then lay it loosely across the canvas and gently drag or press it. The resulting marks are serpentine and unpredictable, mimicking organic forms such as flower petals, feathers, or algae strands. This technique can be repeated with different colors and overlapping directions to form intricate networks of lines.
Another effective method involves marbling—floating pigments on a liquid surface or directly manipulating them with combs and sticks before transferring the image to canvas or paper. The result is an unpredictable array of swirling, interlaced shapes and forms that seem to defy gravity. These textures can be emphasized further with metallic or interference paints that shift with light.
You might also consider pouring diluted paint directly onto a horizontal surface, then tilting the canvas or manipulating the flow with air (via straws, hairdryers, or compressed air). This process generates elongated, ribbon-like curves and eddies of color that settle into unique compositions. By working in layers and controlling drying times, you can create depth that feels almost three-dimensional.
Wet-on-wet blending is another powerful strategy within this style. By applying multiple hues before the previous layer dries, pigments merge softly, producing diffused edges and ethereal transitions. This approach is particularly effective when aiming for a tranquil or dreamlike mood.
Texture can further enhance the tactile quality of your curves. Consider using gel mediums or adding sand, pumice, or fibers to your paint for raised lines and tactile depth. Dry brushing, splattering, and feathering are additional techniques that introduce nuance and variation into the linear flow.
Building Meaning Through Movement
While the lines and forms of this technique appear spontaneous, they can also carry significant emotional or symbolic weight. In abstract art, movement is not merely a visual experience—it reflects thought patterns, energy fields, and even the subconscious. A single sweeping arc can express release, vulnerability, or growth. Intersecting loops might symbolize connection, cycles, or entanglement.
This is especially evident when working in series. By repeating certain motifs—like spirals, waves, or converging lines—across multiple canvases, you create a visual language. Each piece adds to a broader narrative while retaining individual character. This approach also provides a way to explore different color palettes and emotional tones within a consistent theme.
Working in series also trains your eye to notice subtle variations and developments. You may begin to see how the pace of your strokes changes with your mood, how your choice of line thickness conveys different energies, or how color influences emotional interpretation. This sensitivity enhances your artistic vocabulary and deepens your engagement with the medium.
Additionally, movement-oriented abstraction encourages the viewer to interact with the painting beyond a single glance. Their eyes follow the curves, retrace paths, and linger in the spaces between. This immersive quality makes flow-based artwork particularly engaging in large-scale formats or installations, where viewers can physically move along with the artwork’s rhythm.
Harmonizing Freedom with Intention
Despite its loose appearance, fluid abstraction benefits from intentional decision-making. As the painting develops, consider focal points, contrast, and the overall composition’s equilibrium. Where is the eye being drawn? Does the movement feel cyclical or linear? Is the visual weight balanced across the canvas?
Sometimes, a piece may feel too chaotic or too sparse. In these cases, revisiting your negative space is key. Leaving portions of the surface untouched provides breathing room and highlights your active lines. You can also refine focal areas by increasing color contrast or adding sharp lines where softness dominates.
As you gain comfort with this expressive style, consider incorporating mixed media. Ink, watercolor, pastels, or graphite lines can intermingle with acrylic or oil paint to introduce a range of textures and responses. The juxtaposition of materials adds dimensionality, both physically and conceptually.
Ultimately, this approach to abstract painting is an invitation to trust your intuition and embrace imperfection. It’s a method that fosters fluid thinking, emotional release, and authentic expression. Rather than seeking a final outcome, focus on the experience of creation itself—the way your hand moves, the paint flows, and your internal rhythm aligns with the evolving canvas.
4. Nature-Inspired: Stylized Leaf Motifs
When abstraction meets the natural world, the results are often deeply evocative and emotionally grounded. Stylized leaf motifs offer a unique opportunity to incorporate representational imagery into abstract compositions without sacrificing creative freedom. This fusion of botanical inspiration and imaginative interpretation invites a meditative connection between the artist and nature, allowing visual storytelling to bloom in every brushstroke.
Unlike hyperrealism, which seeks to replicate nature with photographic precision, stylized abstraction captures the essence of leaves—their rhythms, forms, and symbolic resonance—without being tethered to exact likeness. Whether you’re drawn to the serene structure of eucalyptus stems, the wild asymmetry of tropical foliage, or the tender simplicity of a sapling’s first sprout, this method encourages you to reimagine what leaves can be, rather than simply render what they are.
These compositions often invoke broader themes such as growth, impermanence, change, and interconnectedness. Because the motif is rooted in something universally recognizable, it appeals across cultures and aesthetics, making leaf-inspired abstraction both accessible and enduring.
Reinventing Botanical Forms Through Abstraction
To begin exploring leaf-based abstraction, start with the fundamental structure of a plant: a central stem with branching leaves. This simple blueprint can be infinitely transformed depending on your artistic voice. Use gestural strokes to suggest movement, or refine your edges for a more stylized, illustrative quality. The beauty of working with foliage is the inherent variation in nature—no two leaves are identical, and your interpretation doesn’t need to be either.
Allow yourself to distort and exaggerate natural proportions. Elongate leaves to suggest elegance, or widen them to evoke a sense of lush abundance. Introduce irregular spacing, unexpected rotations, or intersecting silhouettes. The goal is to communicate vitality and emotion through design—not to recreate an exact species.
Working in this way liberates you to blend techniques from other abstract styles. Incorporate line work similar to calligraphy for a graphic touch, or blend tones for a soft, dreamlike atmosphere. Try overlaying translucent shapes to mimic overlapping leaves in sunlight or shadows cast on forest floors. Play with rhythm by repeating similar forms in cascading arrangements, echoing how leaves might tumble or flutter.
For those inclined toward minimalism, a few elegant strokes can express an entire ecosystem. On the other hand, maximalists may fill the canvas with dense layers of leaves in motion, mimicking the energy of a flourishing canopy. Both approaches are valid and compelling in their own right.
Exploring Unconventional Palettes and Materials
Color plays a central role in transforming botanical art into abstract expression. While nature provides a rich base of greens, golds, and browns, abstract art invites you to extend far beyond this traditional spectrum. Imagine sapphire blue leaves against a cream backdrop, or crimson foliage dissolving into strokes of burnt orange and violet. Each color palette tells a different story, evoking distinct emotions and settings.
Think seasonally: warm earth tones for autumnal introspection, icy silvers and teals for winter calm, pastel hues for spring’s renewal, or high-contrast primaries for summer energy. Or let emotion lead your choices—use dark, moody tones for solitude, soft neutrals for quiet reflection, or bold neons for vibrancy and defiance.
Don’t overlook the power of iridescent or metallic paints either. These shimmering elements catch the light and change as the viewer moves, bringing dimensionality to flat forms. When used sparingly on leaf edges or veins, metallic accents can mimic the delicate glint of dew or sunlight on a blade.
Experimentation with mixed media can also enhance the tactile quality of your painting. Incorporate acrylic ink for fluid transparency, oil pastels for bold, smudgy texture, or charcoal for raw, linear contrast. You might even embed natural materials—dried leaves, fibers, or crushed pigments—to create a multisensory experience.
These techniques not only deepen the visual richness of the piece but also speak to the very materiality of nature, grounding your work in a physical connection to the earth while expressing it through abstraction.
Compositional Freedom and Spatial Dynamics
Incorporating stylized leaf motifs into your abstract practice opens the door to a diverse range of compositional strategies. You can arrange your motifs in vertical sweeps, mimicking vines or stalks. Alternatively, use radial symmetry to create mandala-like structures that symbolize wholeness and unity. Cluster leaves in tight bunches or scatter them across the canvas in a windblown pattern.
Pay attention to the interaction between positive and negative space. Leaves with intricate outlines offer an opportunity to create rich visual contrast when juxtaposed with open, untouched background areas. Leaving intentional gaps in your composition allows the work to breathe and guides the viewer’s eye with subtlety and grace.
You can also use layering to suggest depth and complexity. Overlay transparent shapes, alter scale, or blur certain edges to simulate depth of field. These techniques suggest a sense of motion and space, creating the illusion that the leaves are emerging, receding, or suspended in atmosphere.
Line orientation is equally impactful. Angled lines can create a feeling of movement and tension, while gentle curves bring softness and flow. By altering directionality across different areas of your canvas, you craft visual pathways that invite exploration and interpretation.
Compositionally, this style works equally well for large-scale murals and intimate works on paper. A single leaf rendered with care on a small panel can hold as much narrative power as a sprawling abstract forest across a gallery wall. Consider series work to explore variations—each canvas a new chapter, each form a continuation of a botanical lexicon.
Symbolism, Serenity, and Decorative Appeal
Stylized leaf abstraction offers more than just aesthetic value—it also carries symbolic richness. Leaves are often associated with growth, cycles, resilience, and transformation. Their presence in art can be calming, reassuring, or energizing, depending on the treatment. These works often radiate serenity and are especially well-suited for tranquil interiors or meditative spaces.
This universal symbolism makes leaf-themed abstract paintings emotionally accessible to viewers from all backgrounds. Without needing to "understand" the imagery in a literal sense, people intuitively respond to the familiarity and subtle movement of botanical forms. The emotional clarity embedded in these works can make them anchors in both residential and commercial spaces, providing beauty and balance without overwhelming the environment.
From an artistic perspective, this motif encourages a harmonious balance between structure and freedom. You are guided by natural reference, yet unbound by its limitations. This allows for innovation within familiarity—a refreshing blend of the known and the unknown.
Moreover, the versatility of stylized leaf compositions means they can be adapted for almost any surface or format. From canvas and paper to textile design or wall murals, the motif translates easily across mediums while retaining its expressive integrity. Whether you're creating original fine art, licensing illustrations, or experimenting with product design, this style offers a wealth of potential.
Final Thoughts
Abstract painting is more than a visual practice—it's a deeply personal exploration of emotion, intuition, and creative expression. Whether you're layering vibrant brushstrokes, constructing bold geometric patterns, tracing fluid lines, or stylizing elements of nature, each technique opens the door to new interpretations and possibilities.
The beauty of abstract art lies in its openness. There's no need to adhere to strict rules or traditional forms. Instead, you're invited to follow your instincts, respond to color and texture in real-time, and let your canvas evolve without expectations. What begins as a simple experiment can grow into a meaningful piece that reflects your inner world.
These four project ideas are designed to spark curiosity and help you build confidence, no matter your skill level. They're adaptable, flexible, and can be revisited again and again with fresh materials and new perspectives. Over time, your personal style will emerge naturally as you embrace both the triumphs and the unpredictability that come with creating abstract work.
Let go of perfection, trust the process, and most importantly—enjoy the journey. Every mark you make contributes to a visual story that is entirely your own.
