Jan 10, 20183 min read

Poured Paintings featuring horses, of course!

Poured Paintings featuring Horses, of Course!

I love doing my pet portraits and custom horse paintings but I also love playing with new art materials and trying new things. These poured paintings definitely fit the bill for fun, unexpected and spontaneous! What a fun way to play on a grey winter day! Follow along for some fun and DIYs ….

Poured paintings using acrylic paint.

Materials:

canvas or gesso board

acrylic paint, many places recommend craft paint- better quality paint will give better color. I found craft paints grayed out really easily- yuck!

Flood brand Paint Thinner ‘Floetrol’ available at building supply stores

Empty plastic bottles or cups – approx. 8-16 oz. ex. recycled dish soap bottle, pop bottles

Water

Silicone Oil available at places like Loew’s or Hair Oil (dimethicone) available at drug stores such as CVS

Large cardboard box with low sides

Plastic to cover your work space– this is MESSY!

Blocks or similar objects to raise your canvas off the bottom of the box.

The Process:

Prep:

Collect your materials and cover and your work surface covered with plastic. This can be a messy process.

Get your canvas or board set up in your box on blocks.

Have empty plastic bottles or cups ready. If using cups you will need stir sticks. I prefer using recycled bottles with their lids so I can just shake to mix the paint. Dish soap bottles work great too.

Choose Paint Colors:

Use White and then collect 2-3 more colors as your color palette.

To start off I would suggest white + 2 colors and one smaller quantity of a dark – not black but indigo blue or deep purple for example.

Mix Paint:

Keep colors separate at this point in their own container.

2 parts paint + 1 part Floetrol + 1 part water + (White Only– 2-3 drops oil) — Mix Well

The paint should be the consistency of thin pancake batter.

Prepare for the Pour:

In a clean plastic cup add approx. 1/2 cup of your white + oil drops paint.

Pour or drizzle into the cup slowly a small portion (approx. 1/8-1/4 c) of each color paint – Do Not Mix or Stir

Let sit for a min. or so. You may see the paint beginning to interact– this is good!

Once you have added each color, slowly pour onto your canvas in a zig zag fashion. You can pick the canvas up and tilt it to get it to move around the canvas. Running or the edge is fine.

Experiment with leaving white spaces. Or painting the canvas beforehand with a complimentary color. There is no wrong way to do this!

Once the paint is on the canvas you can take a flat object like a spatula and lightly ‘swipe’ just the top layer of paint. This may help cells to develop or for more interaction between the paint to happen.

Let sit and dry over night.

Troubleshooting:

paint cracked after it was dry- your paint was too thick

bare spots on the canvas- paint too thin- you can re-pour over this is you want.

no cells- try adding more oil or a different next time.

If you like these but would rather just buy mine… go here: