First Attempts at Acrylic Pouring

I went to the university of YouTube to learn how to make acrylic pour paintings! You can find some excellent tutorials from Caren Goodrich.  If you prefer a website then Acrylic Pouring is a good one.

I used ordinary cheap acrylics from Spotlight mixed with Floetrol which is available at Bunnings DIY store. Mixing the paint with Floetrol makes it much more fluid without watering the colour down. I also used pure silicone lubricant (found in the personal section of the supermarket next to condoms!!) in each of my colours to help them rise and make beautiful cell patterns. The white paint was left without silicone so it would sink down whilst the colours rose through it. I used the dirty pour method on these paintings. When they were dry I added shine with a layer of pouring medium from the art store.

The kids had a go too!

By R

By L

Although these pictures look very nice there is no real skill in them, it's about 99% luck what you end up with. I wanted to take it further so I've been thinking about ways to combine the acrylic pours with other materials. First up I tried fusing some fabric to a canvas panel with a soldering iron. I then filled in the spaces between the shapes with a dirty pour applied with a syringe. I think I should have used more contrasting colours.

I have another experiment waiting for its layer of acrylic pour. Watch this space.