abstraction - mondrian

once you get good a drawing.. so good that its realistic, the next step is to simplify your work, abstract it, cut away at the details until it is just a representation of your idea.

for example, look at Piet Mondrian.

Pieter Cornelis "Piet" Mondriaan, after 1906 Mondrian (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈpiːt ˈmɔndriaːn], later [ˈmɔndriɔn]; March 7, 1872 – February 1, 1944) was a Dutch painter. He evolved a non-representational form which he termed Neo-Plasticism.   Look at the transition of his paintings, from the realistic first Red Tree (1908)  then the Gray Tree (1912) , Compostion Trees(1920),  Broadway Boogie Woogie (1930) to finally the very linear graphic Composition with Red Blue and Yellow (1930)