Splash Canvas: Create abstract art (with an attitude)

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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.

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.

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.

• Arts & Culture