I love this project! It’s fun, easy and doesn’t require any artistic skill to make. Each piece will be unique. There are so many possibilities with this due to color combinations and pouring techniques. For this post I’m going to keep it simple.
Supplies
- Canvas
- Acrylic paints
- Small cups
- Clear Acrylic Sealer
- To start off make sure your work space is big enough and clean. You will probably want to put down a plastic sheet or something similar to keep paint drippings off of things.
- To keep things simple and to keep your paint from looking mixed and muddy keep your color pallet simple with just 4-5 colors. For me, I always have white as one of my colors. As my main color in fact.
- Use a cup or container of your choice, (I use small plastic cups that I buy at the dollar store) put some acrylic paint in it, and then, add just a little bit of water. Mix carefully until it’s the consistency of honey or syrup. Keep adding small amounts of water until the paint is the right consistency.
- Do this for each of your paint colors.
- If you want to have cells in your paintings, you can add 1-2 drops of silicone oil, rubbing alcohol, or I’ve even heard of people using dish soap and mix it in.
- Take your cups and pour them alternately into a new cup. The aim is to have all the colors form layers on top of each other. I typically start off with white and end with white.
- Flip your canvas over your cup and flip it back over without any paint spilling out. Place your canvas on something level and raised such as cups so that it is in a raised position and won’t stick to to your workspace.
- Lift the cup very carefully so that the paint runs out. You can move the cup around the canvas in a very small circle until all the paint has run out of the cup.
- Now, pick up the canvas and tilt it gently moving the paint around until all of the canvas is covered.
- If you used silicone oil you will need to blow over the canvas with a butane torch to let the cells pop up.
- Make sure that the canvas is laying level and let the paint dry for a couple of days. Crack my happen if your paint was too thick, or if the room is too hot and dry.
- I use Mod Podge Clear Acrylic Sealer, Gloss that I buy at Michaels. It’s around $10 and gives me a great glossy finish.
Some Acrylic Painting experts say that, “In Acrylic Painting, you use water to dilute your acrylic paints. This works well, but is not recommended for Acrylic Pouring. Water changes the consistency and the pigment density and the adhesion of the paint to the painting surface. This means that the colors are lightened and no longer so bright. Also, drying this diluted mixture is problematic, since cracks can appear in the paint surface due to the rapid evaporation of the water.” I have never found this to be a problem. And for this simple project “Pouring Mediums” aren’t needed. If your planning on pursuing this as a career then you’ll want to look into professional paints and pouring mediums. I found this article on acrylgiessen.com titled Acrylic Pouring Guide – Pour Painting for Beginners [Guide] that really goes deeper into pouring mediums and their mix ratio’s.
Here are some that I’ve made that have cracked because the paint exposed to the air dried faster that the paint underneath. Honestly, I love how it turned out. At first I was upset because, “cracking is bad” but you know what SCREW THAT! I love them in these pieces. I think they add an extra element a fun surprise to the pieces. Art is subjective so don’t ever let someone tell you that you did something wrong, or that’s bad, or that’s not how you do it. It’s your art, so you do what you want! If you like it that’s all that matters!
Here are some that I’ve made. And you can always find inspiration on Pinterest for color combinations and other pouring techniques.
If you’ve tried your hand at acrylic pouring posts a picture in the comments and let me know how it went!