7 things I have learnt in one month of acrylic paint pouring.

In this post I am sharing with you the 7 things I have learnt from one month of acrylic paint pouring. If you have read my last blog post, you might remember that one of the things I planned for this year was to work with a different art medium each month in order to find out which one I like working with the most. So I devoted January to acrylic paint pouring.

Last year my husband got me interested in acrylic pouring. It all started with watching videos by some amazing acrylic pouring artists on YouTube. It’s rather mesmerising to watch them create these beautiful and often very colourful paintings. And they make it look so easy. Trust me when you try it yourself, it’s not that easy, as some techniques really do take practice. As I love trying out new things, I decided to have a go myself and bought a small paint pouring experience set by French brand Pebeo. The set had about enough paint to create 3 8×8” canvas paintings. It included only 1 canvas and  4 colours (white, blue, turquoise and gold) plus a bottle of silicone – the secret ingredient for creating cells. The bottles of paints were all premixed and ready to pour.

After my initial experience I wanted to create more paintings, so instead of buying the more expensive premixed bottles I bought pouring medium by Pebeo and lot of different colours of Pebeo Studio acrylics to mix them with.

I already had plenty of small canvasses to use and I also bought 10” round canvasses from Arteza.  Other things to get me started were lollipop sticks for stirring, cups, silicone matts for baking (for covering the surface), gloves (I kept forgetting to wear! dust sheet (though I haven’t used that yet) and bottles to keep the paints in (for leftover paints), a torch, pins and hooks to screw into the canvas (to use as legs). I also needed to use a spirit level to check the canvas is straight and I used our small kitchen scales to weigh paint, pouring medium and water.

I also bought a small split cup for acrylic paint pouring with 5 chambers from eBay and a Kindle book by MixedMediaGirl (that’s her YouTube channel) by Marcy Ferro to get me started. And I joined two Facebook groups for help, advice and sharing my work: Acrylic Pouring UK and Acrylic Pouring.

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Split cup with paints.

Over the whole of January I have created 8 paintings on 8×8” canvasses, 1 painting on a 10” round canvas, 1 A4 canvas board and 11 paintings on 6×6” tiles. Tiles make great surfaces for acrylic paint pouring – you can also test techniques on them and use them for leftover paints. In my video I show you most of these acrylic paint pouring paintings.

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Gold, red and black acrylic pour- still wet.

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Gold, red and black acrylic pour painting – dry

In the coming months I am going to add my paintings to the shop, but before I can do this, they need to dry completely and I need to add hanging attachments to them and varnish them. The backs of my tiles will get a cork backing to cover paint splatters.

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Tile made with leftover paints in gold, red and black.

So, what have I learnt and is this the right medium for me – or you?

1. Paint consistency is key to a successful painting. In order to pour you need to mix paints with pouring medium and water. The ratios depend very much on the medium and the paints you use and the consistency depends on the technique you are applying to the canvas. For example, for flip cups a thin consistency is better than a very thick consistency, while you don’t want it too thin for a ring pour. YouTuber Gina de Luca has a very helpful video about paint consistency on her channel, where she shows the 5 different types of thicknesses which are used for different techniques. Getting the consistency right is part of the way of a successful painting.
2. Save money by mixing your own medium with PVA glue (non washable) and use quality paints such as Pebeo or Amsterdam. Pouring medium is quite expensive if you pour a lot, you can get much more bang for your buck when mixing your own medium with the glue. A lot of artists do this. I haven’t done this yet, but plan to do this later in the year, when I have another go at paint pouring.
3. Make sure you have plenty of space to work in and also to store your paintings to dry. Unfortunately, space is an issue for me, which is why I had to stop acrylic paint pouring -for now.
4. Make sure you cover up your surfaces, paint pouring is incredibly messy.
5. Avoid wasting paint – figure out for each pour, how much paint you will actually need. Some people who pour a lot, keep their mixed paints in bottles, so the paints last for a while. You can find a handy chart by  YouTuber the Leftbrained Artist on his website (you need to subscribe for this) which shows you how to calculate the amount of paint you need for different sized and shaped canvasses. When you start with a base paint you can try and catch the dripping paint in a cup first, before moving on to the next step. Keep the dried skins from your pours – you can use them for creating jewellery or cards or bookmarks.
6. Tiles are great to practise on and also use as actual paint surfaces for your leftover paints.
7. Start with easy techniques such as the straight pour or flip cup with different colour combinations and have fun. I tried other techniques such as the swipe and ring pour and noticed that I need need more practice to get them right.

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Red, turquoise and blue pour painting with lots of cells on a tile. Still wet.

Would I pursue acrylic paint pouring as my go to art form?

Short answer: no. While I really enjoyed this month of acrylic  paint pouring and will probably create the occasional paint pour painting in the future, I don’t see myself doing this as my main “thing”. Our home is tiny and so is my working area. Acrylic paint pouring and storing paintings needs a lot of space. I find mixing the paints is a lot of faff and even though I try my best not to waste paints or cups, I still end up with wastage. Cleaning up the mess also takes a while.

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Tile with beautiful colours and cells – still wet,

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Tile with beautiful colours and cells – dry.

However, I love that all my paintings are unique and different and I like the unpredictability of the pours. Acrylic paint pouring is great  to use as art therapy. It’s also great for when you want to have a break from creating very detailed paintings or black on white lino prints. And if you want to create beautiful painting quickly. Most of these paintings don’t take long to do (15-30 minutes for the actual pour, this doesn’t include colour mixing) – drying though takes up to 3 weeks and if you use silicone you will have to wash it off carefully before varnishing your paintings.

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Swipe pour on tile.

Another thing I also like about these acrylic pour paintings is, that you can use them as backgrounds to paint more details onto. I have seen a lot of artists do this.

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Seascape pour using flip cups on round canvas.

I hope you enjoyed reading this post. Let me know in the comments below.

Thank you for reading

Helen x