Summer Camp Crafts: How To Make An Acrylic Pour Painting

I’ll assume that you are familiar with the look of acrylic pour paintings, which is a very organic, marbelized look as a result of letting physics and chemistry dictate patterns that are created! One can swirl together many colors and create interesting shapes, though all pour paintings look like pour paintings, just as a tie dyed shirt looks like a tie dyed shirt. There are many techniques for applying the paint to the canvas, so really the possibilities are endless. At the moment I’m thinking that creating an interesting piece of wall art without my usual artistic angst/challenge might be really enjoyable! Just keep in mind that acrylic pour paintings will not likely help you find your own unique voice via artistic expression, but rather enable you to create some interesting and possibly even stunning art with relatively little time investment. Sounds good to me, or at least something I’d love to try, and I am hoping to do this with my teens, as it would be a perfect summer vacation art activity. Okay, lets cut to the chase and look at the pros and cons of acrylic pour painting:

Pros Of Acrylic Pour Painting:

• Suitable for beginners, meaning no drawing or painting skills needed
• Not a lot of supplies are needed
• One can start out using inexpensive options and buy more expensive professional supplies later
• Can be done in as little as half an hour
• Unlimited color combinations and truly original one of a kind results
• Perfect as a group activity for a party or get together
• A really exciting process of combining colors and getting unpredictable results

Cons Of Acrylic Pour Painting:

• Uses lots of paint and pour medium relative to creating an acrylic painting
• Somewhat messy, or could get really messy
• Long drying time, at least several days
• Need a dedicated space to let paintings dry, laying flat on a table
• Some waste of paint that drips off canvas/base onto protective surface
• Results are unique but at the same time have a very specific look, like spin paintings, for example

Supplies Needed For Acrylic Pour Painting:

• take a quick look at the instructions, product reviews and in depth information for all things acrylic paint pouring.
• a base for applying the paint: canvas, wood, or paper coated with gesso
• acrylic paint
• pouring medium
• silicone oil
• a heat gun or torch (optional but useful)
• a blow dryer (optional but useful)
• cups for making mixes of paint/pouring medium/silicone oil
• sticks for stirring
• gloves
• protective surface
• push pins to elevate canvas, if using canvas so paint drips off canvas onto protective surface
• a few palette knives or cake icing spreader to move paint around once poured

A Word About Pouring Medium:

If you are an art professional and you sell your paintings, you know that using high quality supplies like paints and mediums is a must to insure longevity of your work. The same applies to acrylic pour painting. That said, all beginners should spend as little on supplies as possible until they’ve mastered their art or craft, and that of course applies to acrylic pouring as well. One can invest in the more expensive and quality acrylic pouring mediums, or start with the least expensive pouring medium option which is a product called Floetrol used either separately or together with Elmer’s glue all.

What Is The Mixing Ratio For Acrylic Pouring?

Finding the perfect ratio of acrylic paint to pouring medium does take some practice, though a general rule of thumb is one part pouring medium to one part paint, resulting in a mixture that is slightly thinner than liquid honey. To increase the viscosity of the mix one can add more medium or water, but no more than 30% of the total mixture should be water, and the less water the better. One can add about 3 drops of silicone oil to the mix in order to generate cells in the painting.

Viscosity is the key to successful pouring. If it is too thin, your beautiful patterns and cells will run off the canvas. If it is too thick, there will be no cells and it will be difficult for you to spread the paint. But once you have found the right consistency, it will be relatively easy to get consistent results in the future. One can combine different pouring mediums and develop your own recipe.

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1. Mix acrylic paint with pouring medium and add a few drops of silicone oil (treadmill oil is very inexpensive and it works, try to find a bottle, not aerosol)
2. Make sure mix is viscous enough to pour freely but not too viscous such that it runs off the canvas immediately. To make mix more viscous add either more pouring medium or a small amount of water
3. If using a stretched canvas prop the canvas up on something (even a few bottle caps) so that paint can run down the sides an onto a surface that will catch the puddles without them adhering to the canvas. If using paper, make sure the paper has a coating of gesso.
4. While many pour paint at this point, some flood the entire surface of the canvas with a thin layer of a background color mix, and white is a good start.
5. Now is the time to pour, so put on some gloves!
6. There are many methods for pouring the paint. Some simply pour the paint onto the canvas and then employ simple techniques such as rotating the canvas or blowing with a hair drier to move the paint around. Small manuevers of the paint can be done by simple blowing on the paint, with your mouth or even a straw. Others pour layers of color into one plastic cup or small plastic container, and then pour that mix onto the canvas. There are many ways to go about this, which is why experimenting using paper is a good idea!
7. Bring out the cells by heating the paint slightly with a torch or a heat gun.
8. Fill in any blank areas by adding extra paint to that area and very lightly manipulating it with a palette knive or cake icing scraper.
9. Set it aside to dry in a place where no animals or children can disturb it and wait a few days.
10. If the piece is stunning and truly a work of art, consider giving it a protective coating with acrylic varnish, namely a product that is used to seal acrylic paintings.
11. That is it, wow, lets do this!