Your Guide to Acrylic Pouring

Have you tried your hand at acrylic pouring yet?

Acrylic Pouring is a fun and easy way to create beautiful and unique abstract art. It incorporates the simple technique of pouring acrylic paint onto a surface, giving a fluid style effect to your artwork.

What you will need

Surface

First up, think about the space you might like to hang or place your artwork. Then, choose a size that will work well in that area. You can go for a thick edge canvas, or even a thin edge canvas. If you want to take your artwork up a notch, try a round panel. These could be a canvas panel or even a thicker edge round wooden panel (you can prime this first with an acrylic gesso to really make your colour pop).

Acrylic Paint or Ink

Most acrylic paints will do the trick but we recommend a light body acrylic such as Matisse Flow Formula Acrylic Paints as it is easier to mix with the pouring medium. Worth noting when selecting your colours is the opacity or transparency of the colours you choose, since they will result in different effects once dried.

Alternatively, or for a more fluid effect, you can use an acrylic ink like Liquitex Acrylic Inks which are highly pigmented and will remain very vibrant once mixed into your pouring medium.

Pouring Medium

You can’t go past Liquitex’s Pouring Fluid Effect Medium. When combined with your acrylic paint or ink it creates a smooth and seamless mixture that will give your artwork a high gloss finish.

Other Supplies:

• Cups or containers for mixing
• Palette knives or paddle pop sticks (uncoloured) for mixing
• Drying rack
• Table cover or drop sheet
• Gloves
• Apron
• Silicone Oil (optional for creating ‘cells’)

Method

1. When using paint, mix approximately one tablespoon of paint or ink to one cup of Liquitex Pouring Medium. If using ink, add approximately 3-4 drops of the Liquitex Acrylics Inks to one cup of the Liquitex Pouring Medium.
2. Premix any custom colours prior to adding the medium.
3. Mix the colour and pouring medium using either a palette knife or paddle pop stick. Try to prevent bubbles by slowly and gently stirring and allow it to sit for 10 minutes after it is combined.
4. Prop your surface up on a few cups or on an old cooling rack to allow the paint to drip of the sides. You want your surface to be as flat as possible, consider using a spirit level to achieve this. We recommend covering the surface of your table or bench underneath, you could use a drop sheet or sheets of paper palettes (reverse side) and create a secondary artwork with your excess!
5. Pour your mixtures directly onto your surface. To help move that paint around and blend your colours, pick up your surface and tilt it in different directions, forcing the paint to move around and cover the surface.
6. Continue to pour as many colours as you like onto your artwork and manipulate the paint around by tilting it until you are happy with the outcome. Keep in mind that the paints may continue to move around on your artwork a little while it’s drying which is why it’s important to have a perfectly level surface so that all of your beautiful patterns don’t slide off your surface and onto the table!
7. Set back down on the cups or drying rack and allow up to 1-2 days drying time.

You can continue to add to your piece once dried, building up additional layers with further pours!

TIP: While your artwork begins to dry, you can use a heat gun or blowtorch on a low heat to pop any air bubbles that might be on the surface of your painting.

Tips and Techniques

“Dirty Pour”

If you’ve started to jump on the acrylic pouring trend then you may have already heard the term “dirty pour”. For this technique, follow steps 1 – 4 of the above, after which, all of your chosen colours are poured first into a single cup (but don’t mix it!). You then flip the cup top down onto your surface. Wait 3-4 seconds for the paint to move inside the cup then lift it up allowing the paint to flow out from the cup. Then proceed with moving the mixture around the surface.

Creating Cells

To create the cell like effect you can see in the image above, you can try adding a few drops of Helmar Silicone Oil to your individual colour and medium mixture prior to pouring.

Share your acrylic pour artworks with us! Tag us at #createwitheckersleys