Experimenting with Acrylic Pouring

 
 

Acrylic Paint & Pouring Medium

The most important thing, which I am sure you already knew, is acrylic paint. Acrylics are available in many different colors from many different manufacturers. Be sure to get high volumes as this technique is know for needing a lot of paint!

There is also specific pouring medium that you can buy which is used to adjust the fluidity of the paint. In addition to the pouring medium you can add a bit of water to make the paint flow better. It will need some time to get the fluidity right. In the beginning they were not flowing well for me…

Canvas & Cups

You can do acrylic pouring on many surfaces: on canvas, on wooden art boards, aluminum sheets etc. I currently use canvas in different sizes, but I will try wooden art boards soon. You will also need cups in different sizes to prepare the paint for pouring.

SiliCon OIL

You can add a few drops of silicon oil to your acrylic paint. It will create so-called “cells”, which adds a nice effect to the painting. So far, I have the feeling the more you use the heat gun on acrylics mixed with a bit of silicon oil, the more cells are coming up.

Techniques

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flip cup

This is one of the most common and most easy. First, you mix your acrylics with pouring medium (and maybe a bit of water). Then, you add one after another to a cup. Now you can either take yur canvas, flip it around onto the cup and then turn everything - or - you flip the cup directly onto the canvas. I assume some colour might be spilled in the process for the latter option, so I prefer the first method. After the paint has dropped to the bottom, remove the cup and move the canvas around to distribute the paint over the whole surface. If you are happy with the result, place it on small cups or similar to dry. Otherwise, move your painting a bit more by tilting it in different directions until you like how it looks like. Don’t worry! If there is one that did not turn out fine, you can just pour over it again and reuse the canvas!

Make sure to fixate the painting with acrylic varnish in matt or glossy.