Getting Started With Acrylic Pouring

Acrylic pouring is a more recent method of painting that is incredibly simple, as long as you know a couple tricks and have all the right tools. Of course there are going to be items that will make your painting even better, but today I am going to keep it simple and talk about the minimal supplies you need to start playing around.

Here is a quick list of the items you will need, and I have the items listed at the end of the post.

You are going to need:

• stretched canvases- I think the 10x10’s are a nice place to start because squares look bad ass, plus it is not too much canvas to try a new method on.
• Acrylic paints- Apple Barrel is a great brand, Sgt Art is another, and any brand of metallic colors look really nice mixed in too. Of course you can spend more on better quality, but especially starting out I would not go for the expensive items first.
• Floetrol- this can be found at any Low’s, Home Depot, or store like that. Personally I am a fan of things being delivered right to my door (especially now that I have a two year old that makes everywhere we go a big deal) so I usually will use Amazon.
• Silicone Treadmill Lubricant- this is the way you will get those beautiful cells without having to do any torching or anything at all to your paints. And I have found that less is more, so using somewhere in between 3–5 drops per cup of solo color is the magic number. Of course this will all depend on which brand paints you get, the type of silicone you find, etc. But, generally I would use a few drops with each color, mixing them THOROUGHLY before combining them all together.
• Craft sticks are a must- for mixing the colors before combining and layering them, and when the paint is spreading on your canvas, you can encourage the paint to go certain directions (especially on the sides and edges of your painting) extremely easy with craft sticks.
• Plastic cups- I would not get a hard plastic and not paper dixie cups because the bottom will for sure fall out with the paper, and the hard plastic will crack when you squeeze the cup to mix and get the paint out. The last one is from experience, can you tell:)
• Acrylic Topcoat- totally optional, but looks so very nice as a final touch.

This method of liquid pouring will make you question ever using a paint brush again. Kidding, not kidding. Totally up to you how much energy you want to put into it, and how meticulous you are in general with your creations.

Below is one of my favorites, just to give you an idea of what the final product can look like:

The painting damn near paints itself, but don’t fear messing with it a little bit to make the final product look the way YOU want.

This tool is meant for clay, but I LOVE it for touching up acrylic pours. You can create some really beautiful wisps and delicate swirls. So, if your painting turns out a bit unbalanced, add in the colors where you want them. This tool will make your interaction look natural. When you use it, make sure to BARELY touch the paint with the end that has the metal ball on it and drag it where you want it.

There are a billion different kinds of mediums you can use with acrylic pouring, but today Floetrol is the one I used in my painting, and is super cost efficient. Floetrol makes your paints “flo” and play nice with each other. Plus, the ratio is 1:1 so you will save a ton of actual paint this way.

Next you will need some type of liquid silicone which will really help create the beautiful cells that are so loved with acrylic pouring.

Amazon has this treadmill liquid silicone that works awesome, not expensive, and the bottle will last you for a lot of paintings (I bought a spray bottle of auto lube from the dollar store and it worked good too), but you can use any silicone based type of drops.

The Acrylic Pour Painting Method:

Once you have all your paints, silicone, and Floetrol…time to start setting up your workspace. If this is your first pour ever, I would suggest using 3–4 colors tops until you get used to how the paints and additives flow together.

The results truly will be subjective to the brand of paint you use and the type of silicone. Seriously take some time to find videos on YouTube because there are so many different ways to do your acrylic pouring, so it is nice to have multiple methods to try until you develop your own groove.

Step by step:

Set out your 4 plastic cups for color, and one plastic cup for the final “dirty pour” mixture. Squeeze a nice 1/4 cup(ish) size of dollops of paint (of each color separately) into your plastic cups.

Add a few drops of silicone to each cup, and an equal dollop of Floetrol, and a tiny splash of water can add more cell effects.

Now, stir each cup of color WELL with your craft sticks. Take your one cup that you reserved for the final mixing of all the colors, and add a tiny bit of Floetrol first, then take each cup and add a splash of each color (layering and mixing them in your final cup) with a couple drops of silicone and Floetrol in between layers.

I have found that the smaller amounts of paint you use, the more layers and intertwining of colors will make your final acrylic pour more magical and awesome.

Once you use all the paint in each individual cup to be combined into your final cup, you are ready to rock and roll. I let the final cup sit for just a minute to let everything kind of mix and settle (you usually can see cells and cool swirls start to form in the cup). Then you will want to flip the cup upside down and let it sit for a few minutes on top of the canvas in the cup, and then when you feel ready, go ahead and slowly lift your cup.

From this point you can play with the colors by tilting the canvas slowly and encourage beautiful patterns and designs to emerge. Don’t be afraid to have a craft stick ready in case you want to blend an area a bit better.

Tips:

This is also the time that you can use the clay tool to gently guide a stream of paint to go in a certain direction, add little whisps, or manipulate the paint however you see fit. When I first started painting this way I was completely afraid to touch it at all with fear that I would destroy this self painting picture. But, this is very untrue, and the painting usually will need your loving touches to finalize and fix parts that you may think feel unfinished.

I try not to guide too much in the method because it really is all about you finding the style and method that works for you. Using the colors that feel powerful to YOU. So, I just wanted to share this new found way to create beautiful works of art, and to let you know that this is something damn near anyone can do once you know that basics.

PLEASE feel free to comment or ask questions below, and I would love it if you share come paintings you have created!

Happy painting:)

Here are the first batch of acrylic pours that I created…

Also, keep in mind that besides directly selling your acrylic pours you can also scan in and digitize your work to sell via Print On Demand Sites. Personally I love this method for my absolute favorite works of art because I can still keep them while also sharing them with others.