Splash Canvas: Create abstract art (with an attitude)

Ashwani Kumar — Sat, 20 Jun 2026 10:29:22 +0000

Splash Canvas: Create abstract art (with an attitude)

David Li, the maker of Blob Opera, uses Google AI to help you create abstract art — with opinionated sea creatures as your “brushes.”

Google Arts & Culture collaborator David Li, known for blending computational systems into whimsical, squishy digital toys like Blob Opera and Viola the Bird, is introducing his latest experiment: Splash Canvas. This interactive, multimodal digital painting experiment features chatty sea creatures that act as your brushes and guides, giving playful critiques as you dive into a vibrant, fluid virtual painting experience.

David Li’s musical blobs have travelled the world; they have been stretched over 100 million times in over 200 countries. Meanwhile, Viola The Bird has bowed her way into millions of hearts, creating cello-inspired recitals. Now David Li has turned his attention to the world of virtual painting.

How to play with Splash Canvas

1. Drag “Splosh” and “Splish” the octopus or a “Splat” the squid across the screen to splash vibrant colours and get creative. Need to make a change? Use the “Smudge” turtle to blend your work, or the “Scrape” turtle to erase it and start fresh.

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2. Sea creatures, with personalities powered by Gemini and Chirp, are both your “brush” and art critic, offering real-time commentary and share art history insights as you paint. Underneath it all, a fluid simulator helps every splash and scrape react like liquid paint.

3. Once you’ve finished your painting, choose where you think your artwork should live: in a museum? At the dentist? Or perhaps on an anniversary card?

How it works

Splash Canvas is an interactive, multimodal digital painting experience that runs directly in your web browser. It is powered by a system combining procedural painting physics, real-time machine learning and dynamic generative AI dialogue powered by Gemini and Chirp. David Li combines the physics of virtual liquid with local AI (neural cellular automata) to model realistic paint spreads and colour mixing. Plus, your brush strokes produce accurate, synthesised soundscapes in real time for sensory feedback.

“I make interactive playthings with maths, sound, code and squishiness. I’m interested in creating interactions that feel alive and invite play and creative expression. The painting simulation is a GPU hybrid fluid /cellular automata / particle simulation that incorporates ML elements. Character dialogue is generated using Gemini and synthesised with Chirp 3. The painting sounds are synthesised using procedural audio models by Christian Heinrichs.”

David Li

Creator of Splash Canvas

Google Arts & Culture Lab’s long term program supports artists as they experiment with advanced technologies to create playful experiences that allows us to learn in new ways online.

Ready to make a splash? Try Splash Canvas today and let your creativity flow.

Splash Canvas lets you create abstract art using unconventional, highly opinionated sea creatures. It offers a unique, interactive digital canvas where users can explore and design spontaneous and colorful abstract masterpieces. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Creating Physical Splatter Art

If you are looking to create physical splatter art on a canvas, you can easily do it with acrylics, watercolor, or spray paint.

The Toothbrush Technique: Dip a toothbrush in slightly watered-down paint and flick the bristles.
The Brush Tap: Load the tip of a regular brush and tap the base with a stick or another brush to control your splashes.
Drip Painting: Incorporate water to thin the paint and allow it to drip, pour, or splash onto the canvas, letting spontaneous patterns form.
Alternative Tools: Experiment with splashing techniques using materials like straws, twigs, and sponges. [1, 5, 6, 7, 8]

Discovering Splash Artwork

If you prefer to collect or admire colorful abstract art without making a mess, you can explore pre-made splash and splatter canvas art from online galleries.

You can check out digital and canvas art galleries such as Fizdi for expressive, vibrant, and expressive art prints. For ready-to-hang modern pieces, you can browse collections at KunjCart (which also has physical stores in the Chandigarh/Mohali region) or VibeCrafts. [2]

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