Adventures In Paint Pouring, A Beginner's Journey: Dirty Pouring

My fascination ( obsession? ) with paint pouring continues. I am hooked on this! No two pieces are alike and watching the paints as they interact is hypnotizing and meditative. Seriously, I had a really bad day last week and doing some paint pouring completely changed my mood. 

What's that picture at the top? It's actually the inside of the cup I used for this technique called a "dirty pour". 

My simplified explanation of the dirty pour is you layer your paints in the cup vs a clean pour where you pour each color individually. In either process you need to mix each  paint color in its own cup. 

Supplies: 

• Surface to paint. I used an Artist Panel ( aka a piece of wood they get to charge more for) 
• Paints and flow additive
• Cups 
• Stir sticks
• Paper towels or rags
• Lots of stuff to cover your work surface

I got out some paint colors to play with. I had someone in mind for this if it turned out OK and I didn't have to smash it with a hammer, so I went with her colors. 

For my first couple of pours, I used Liquitex Pouring Medium, but at $16.99 a bottle ( before 50% off with an additional 20% off total purchase coupon from Michaels) that's going to get a little pricey while I learn how to paint pour. I'd seen something called "Floetrol" mentioned as a good alternative. This is available at the HW store. I went looking for it but they only had a bigger size than I wanted to get (because what am I going to do with it if this piece turns out hideously ugly and the aforementioned hammer smashing was needed?) BUT they did have this Zinsser Paint Booster stuff shown above that I bought for $7.85 at Lowes. 

Looked like the same contents as the Floetrol to me and MUCH bigger than Liquitex for half the price. SOLD! 

I had a few of these "Artist Panels" in my stash from when Aaron Brothers Art and Frame was going out of business ( RIP AB! I know you're inside Michaels now kinda but I really liked your stores. Sniff) but basically, it's a piece of wood. 

I decided to play with this vs a canvas this time. 

Prepare your paints! So one thing you want to do is make sure you have all your mixing etc. done before you pour because well, you'd have nothing to pour? I've been playing with a ratio of 2:1 paints to additive. The Paint Booster stuff is thin so I think I may up this to 3:1 for the next one. 

Mix each color in its own cup. I have found I like the wide craft sticks the best for mixing. Personal preference. No rules! 

These are the colors I ended up going with. You can see for this 8x10 surface, I didn't need to fill each cup. Now it's time to prepare your pour. Take a clean cup and pour in your first color. Add pours of your other colors, color by color. Again: no rules!! Some people do it making concentric circles ( pour each color dead center of the last). Other people drizzle and drop their color layers. I did everything. Pour. Circle. Circle. Drizzle.Drop. Drop.  Repeat until you have enough paint that it looks like you'll probably cover your surface. For this size piece I filled my pour cup a little more than half full. 

 I actually started with black then blue then green then white ( and just realize this looks like sour cream over guacamole or am I just hungry) and somewhere in there are purples and lavender. Once you're happy with your pour cup, place your surface on top of the cup and flip so the cup is now on top. This is understandably called "the flip" ( oooooooh aaaaaaaaahhhh).

 You can see the paints start to work together as they run down the insides of the cup. Isn't it pretty?!

The next step is , and this is the part where if you didn't protect your work surface then you still have time ...."paint pourer lift that cup". Your paints will take off and go making their way across the surface. You can help this along by tilting your panel in whichever direction is needed for the paint to spread. This is where you want to have gloves on if you haven't up to this point.

This is the wet paint after I tilted and turned to cover the entire surface and the sides. I love sitting there watching the paint continue to interact and form new patterns and colors. I could sit for hours.

Since this isn't an exact science with precise measurements I had leftover paint. So I thought I'd use the same colors to do a clean pour. I didn't take pictures but this was done by just drizzling the remaining paints since I didn't have enough to do layered puddles.  The flow additive really made a difference and the paints flowed much more freely than with the Liquitex (which could have been more to do with me not using enough additive).  Blah blah blah...I love the result!

I'm loving this journey because I don't think there's a final destination! Now what can I do with that pretty pour cup ??

My First Paint Pour: Paper Towel Swipe Method

So while I was without a craft room, I became obsessed with paint pouring. I may be very late to the party but I'm here now and I'm so hooked! If you haven't played with this let me warn you, it's so much fun and addictive from the first project and expect to see more projects!

What is paint pouring? In my own words, it's basically thinning acrylic paint with a medium that increases it's fluidity and flow, to create cells that dry into different patterns.  I'm sure there is a more official description but that's what it boils down to for me.  I just decided to experiment based on the concepts I'd seen on Pinterest and You Tube. 

Supplies: 

• Canvas or other surface. I used a 12x12 canvas from Michaels
• Acrylic Paints. I used 2oz bottles from my craft stash, nothing fancy ( in other words, not from the fine art section)
• Flow medium. I decided to go with an official medium and used Liquitex Pouring Medium ( Michaels ) but have seen references to everything from just water, silicone, other brand name pouring mediums, even hair care products.  Since this was my first time I decided to be "official"  and use something designed for this.
• Containers and utensils to mix paint and medium 
• Paper towel

I added enough pouring medium to make my paints pourable. I craft like I cook...by instinct so it was about 2/3 paint 1/3 medium and as you can see, for this size canvas you don't need a lot. 

You will want to make sure you have your work surface covered because it will drip down the sides. I just poured a couple of colors in random patterns as shown and kept adding paint until I felt like I was ready to do the swipe. 

I started with black and silver, and then added gold and white, and just kept pouring and swirling. 

When you're done adding your paint, you'll need a wet paper towel for what is called the "swipe". I went for wet but not sopping and just kept it at the ready in its own cup. This is something you'll want to watch a video to see the technique because I couldn't do it and take pictures at the same time but basically you straighten out your wet paper towel and then line the bottom of it up with the top of your canvas and swipe ( to me it's really more of a drag) your wet paper towel down to the bottom of your canvas. 

You'll pick up paint on your paper towel which you can offload on an extra piece of paper. I actually saved my paper towel once it dried. It looks like a piece of handmade paper which I guess it is! Repeat on the remaining un-swiped area of your canvas. 

Now don't do what I did! I prefer to think of creative mistakes as "happy accidents". I am impatient and I wasn't sure if I'd totally mucked up my project ( I hadn't) because I wasn't seeing the cells develop immediately.  This is the part where you don't want to repeat my mistake ( unless you decide you do!). 

I dragged my paper towel sideways instead of just leaving it alone because I thought maybe I hadn't covered my canvas well enough. I ended up making these kind of wave patterns which in the end turned out fine since there really is no right or wrong here but that's not what you're supposed to do. I also wasn't seeing as much gold as a result because I'd dragged too much black paint over it so I just randomly dropped some from the cup with the gold in it.  

Had I been more patient, I would have realized that the interaction of the water from the paper towel with the paints and the medium just took a little time. As the canvas sat there, the cells began to emerge. I'm still happy with the outcome and it fits right in with the rest of how one of the walls in my office is coming along!

and it goes with my "cement" focal wall: