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Splash Canvas: Create abstract art (with an attitude)

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Splash Canvas: Create abstract art (with an attitude)

Jun 18, 2026

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

Amit Sood

Vice President and Founder, Google Arts & Culture

Freya Salway

Head of Google Arts & Culture Lab

General summary

Artist David Li has launched Splash Canvas, an interactive web experiment that lets you create abstract art using digital sea creatures as your brushes. These creatures use artificial intelligence to offer playful critiques and share art history insights while you paint with fluid, liquid-like colors. Visit the Google Arts & Culture website to start painting and place your finished masterpiece in a virtual setting.

Summaries were generated by Google AI. Generative AI is experimental.

Bullet points

Check out Splash Canvas, a fun new digital painting experiment from Google Arts & Culture.
Use silly sea creatures like octopuses and turtles as your brushes to paint.
These chatty creatures offer playful critiques and art history facts while you create.
Advanced AI and fluid physics make your digital paint feel and sound real.
Once you finish your masterpiece, decide where it belongs, like a museum or card.

Summaries were generated by Google AI. Generative AI is experimental.

Basic explainer

David Li created a fun new digital art tool called Splash Canvas. You use silly sea creatures as brushes to paint on your screen while they chat with you and give feedback. The AI makes the paint act like real liquid and creates cool sound effects as you work. Once you're done, you can even decide where your masterpiece belongs.

Summaries were generated by Google AI. Generative AI is experimental.

Explore other styles:

A digital canvas showing a colorful abstract painting being created by 3D animated sea creatures, including octopuses, a squid, and turtles

Listen to article

[[duration]] minutes

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.

Meet your new silly studio sea creatures: Splosh, Splish, Splat, Smudge and Scrape

Meet your new silly studio sea creatures: Splosh, Splish, Splat, Smudge and Scrape

Meet your new silly studio sea creatures: Splosh, Splish, Splat, Smudge and Scrape

Meet your new silly studio sea creatures: Splosh, Splish, Splat, Smudge and Scrape

Meet your new silly studio sea creatures: Splosh, Splish, Splat, Smudge and Scrape

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.

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