How I Got into Acrylic Pouring

 

Dear Pouring Friends, 

 

So, I stumbled onto Acrylic Pouring.  I wasn't looking for it.

It was my husband's birthday weekend, and there was a free admission day at the local science center, complete with live alpacas and a free planetarium show.  

 

(My husband is an avid stargazer, so this was perfect.)

We got to the planetarium late and it was the last showing of the day.  Consequently, we were at the end of a very, very long line.  And there was nothing to do but wait and look around.  I noticed that the woman ahead of me was holding something carefully in a wad of paper towels.

It turned out to be a wet painting.  I asked her about it (I can talk to strangers easily, for some reason), and fortunately for me, she was the chatty type.  She eagerly told me that there had been an art booth for the kids, and that it was very easy to do, and that just used Elmer's Glue and acrylic paint, and that you could even make jewelry from it somehow.

Well, I thought, if it's easy enough for kids, maybe I could learn how to do it!

(I have a background of 35 years in calligraphy and its related arts, so I’m not entirely new to art, design, and creativity, but I am definitely not a painter.)

With that small amount of information, that evening I googled "Elmer's glue painting kids".  And that opened up a whole new world for me.  A wonderful, colorful world called "acrylic pouring".  Now that I knew what it was called, I could google and learn about it much easier.

Soon I found myself on YouTube and binge watching videos.

Fortunately, I found the AcrylicPouring.com free e-mails right away and bought their online video class.  And I found Julie Cutts, of Pouring Your Heart Out, on YouTube about the same time and started soaking everything in.

I was excited and making a shopping list for my new painting passion.  Amazon couldn't deliver the goods fast enough.

. . .

That was October 2018.  And I have been pouring ever since.  It is so exciting and always wonderful.  I primarily do layered flip cup pours, and you never know what you're going to get when you flip that cup over!

We pourers joke amongst ourselves that it is an addictive hobby and that it would be best if you had a trust fund.  You can’t have too many blank canvases or tubes of paint.

Very early on, on Day 4, I began using Julie Cutts' Elmer's Glue recipe of 60% glue + 40% water.  And I used that until February of 2019.

Then I tried Liquitex Pouring Medium.  ♥   And my world changed again.

All of a sudden I was getting crazy, vivid results and beautiful, fluid cells.  I was hooked.  For a while I used both recipes, and while I still recommend the glue recipe, I have now switched over to using Liquitex Pouring Medium exclusively.  No mean feat, given how expensive it is.

I can get away with this mainly because I work on such little items, like 5 and 6 inch wood circles and 3 or 5 inch square canvases or gesso boards.  Every time I end up with a piece that I like, however, I always wish that it was on a 12 x 12 inch canvas.  <sigh>  Well, hopefully someday.  It's good to have goals.

So, that's how I got started in all of this.  This exciting fluid painting art form that gives me such satisfaction and joy.  Truly, I am in a state of Flow every time I step into my studio.  And at night, I dream about colors upon colors.  Now, how does it get any better than that??

And that free planetarium show that started all this?  Well, my husband says that it turned out to be kind of expensive after all.  LOL  

 

Love,

Donna Livingston
♥

 

 

 

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A Brief Introduction to Acrylic Pouring and This Blog

 

Dear Pouring Friends,

Hi!  Welcome!  This is my new Acrylic Pouring blog!

I have so many people ask me questions, that I thought it might be nice to put all my information in one tidy space. 

So, let’s get right to it so that we’re all on the same page and so that you know where I’m coming from.  First, let’s begin with an overview of the art of Acrylic Pouring.

Acrylic Pouring is a wonderful method of painting without brushes.  Like the name implies, you pour the paint straight onto the canvas.

But there isn’t just one way to do this art form.  There are many techniques under its large umbrella.  Too many to go into here!  And most of them involve acrylic paint, a pouring medium, and something to pour on.  Some of them also use an additive to make cells, usually silicone. 

(The bloom technique, from SheleeArt in Australia, is a whole ‘nother thing entirely.  It is very different from traditional acrylic pouring and won’t be addressed here, since I have no experience with it.  But if people are using words like “pillow” and “cell activator”, they are using this technique.)

Since we want the paint thin enough to be pourable, we combine the paint with a pouring medium.  The pouring medium serves to dilute the paint instead of adding water.  If you used only water, you would risk breaking down the paint’s binder and having your paint flake off years down the road.  (Yikes!)

There are several choices when it comes to your pouring medium, but there seem to be 3 really popular ones:  a commercially-made art product (like Liquitex or Golden’s Pouring Medium), a homemade recipe using Elmer’s Glue-All and water, and Floetrol (a paint additive found at Lowe’s and the like). 

Most of us choose our pouring medium with our pocketbook, but actually, they each yield different results.  And sometimes you use one product with a particular technique and a different one with another.  But in general, it seems to me that most people have their favorite pouring medium and that they are very loyal to it.  I love Liquitex Pouring Medium.  (I just wish it wasn’t so expensive!)

I use silicone oil to create cells, the goal and dream of most pourers.

Cells are little bubbles of color that are indicative of this art form that create beautiful patterns in our pieces.  I use a torch to heat the silicone oil, and then it rises up through the paint to the surface, bringing the colors up with it.  And sometimes, if it’s a good day, the cells will have beautiful multi-colored rings around them!

Again, there are many products out there, but 2 popular choices are:  OGX Coconut Milk Hair Serum (dimethicone-based) and Spot On Treadmill Lubricant (silicone-based).  I use the latter.

As previously mentioned, there are several Acrylic Pouring techniques for you to try and many directions that you can go.  I love Layered Flips Cups, so that is what I will be sharing about in my blog.

The pouring community is large and most of us are on Facebook together in different Acrylic Pouring groups.  There are several groups to join, and the benefits are great.  You get exposed to so much information and eye candy!  There are people creating with all sorts of different techniques.  You can ask questions and learn from each other, share photos, and receive daily inspiration from all over the globe.

Another thing that I want to mention:  When I first started pouring, I found the website AcrylicPouring.com and its 5 free lessons, which I signed up for.  Then they offered me a good deal on their 17 video course, and I immediately purchased it.  While I do things a bit differently these days, I found it to be a very systematic introduction to our art form.  You might want to check it out.

But the biggest place on the Internet that acrylic pourers seem to frequent is YouTube.  There you will find more Acrylic Pouring videos than you could ever watch!  Explore and binge watch videos until you find your favorite channels, and learn from these wonderful sharers. 

I have enjoyed videos from so many people, but I mainly watch Julie Cutts, of Pouring Your Heart Out, and Karen Durishin, of Waterfall Acrylics.  I have learned so much for these two ladies!  I heartily recommend them, especially their videos that mention flip cups.

. . .

Okay!  That is pretty much it for the general information. 
Now about my blog…

My hope for this blog is to give people a place to come to for some pithy, written information (I’m a very visual person!) on how I pour, not to write an entire encyclopedia on the subject matter.  (As if!)

I want to address each step of my pouring process systematically, but I will be sharing with you only what I personally do.  I will not be addressing all the possibilities out there.  How can I share what I do not know about?

I did feel like a short overview to start off with would be helpful, but this blog is meant to be a personal account of how I work.

And, of course, this is just my way of doing things.  There are gobs of different ways, and you will find your own.  And if I can be of any help to that end, I would be thrilled.

Love,
Donna Livingston
♥

Instagram = DonnaLivingstonArt
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Facebook = Fluid Art by Donna Livingston
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PayPal Me (an easy way to sponsor my work)
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