This started out as a quite nice large swipe pour on a 26×20″ Yupo. There were a few details I wanted to change, but started using it as a spot to experiment with. Since then it’s gotten three layers of pours and various other splashes of acrylic paint on it, so it’s quite thick and getting heavy–but I can still lift it, so wil keep going on it. Here’s what it looks like now.
And, below are two close-ups of areas of particular interest, especially from the viewpoint of a pour. You’ll also notice there’s lots of color and contrast, and a marked disjointedness of the whole thing. Here’s those two areas of interest. The first is the right upper corner where I just poured some paint and then moved it around by blowing at it with a straw. I was surprised at the effect this had.
Then, the second one is from the area of the bright yellow patches in the left upper quadrant. Those two pieces of yellow are from the bottom of a cup that had paint from a previous pour. I was able to pull it out, and just pressed it down on the painting. Now I’m going to try and pull it all together using Embroidery Stabilizer.
I did a swipe pour on a 20×16″ canvas. I didn’t keep it very level and a lot of the cells just ran off the side. Didn’t like the look of the canvas texture either. I thought it might make a good background for a painting. Started adding things, first some straight lines, and then followed some of the lines in the original background with the same pen. Made a variety of lines, but it still didn’t seem to say anything. Went back to look at some of the freezer paper that had all the drippings/skins from previous pours, and found just the right colors. Since they were a couple weeks old, they peeled off the paper easily and I applied them directly to the background. They stick well when pressed down. Don’t leave them too long as they become permanently adherent. So, now I’m not going to throw any papers away that have drips on them.
Here’s the result so far. I’m going to add some more details to it with skins before it’s finished. I think it’ll be called High Wire Act.
Paint skins from drips off dirty/swipe pours.
Thanks for reading. I hope this was helpful and gave you some ideas. If you have any comments or suggestions please say in the comments.
A couple of people have asked me what does the silicone do, is it necessary?
The short answer is yes, for sure it’s needed, although sometimes you can get fair cells without it, by using alcohol instead of silicone.
How does it work? I’m not sure, but I think it’s action is in rising to the surface through the layers of paint, causing them to layer on the outside of the silicone oil as it’s rising through the paint layers. It’s all based on the Specific gravity of the paints which goes where.
Here are two tiles, made from the same paint mixture–the first one didn’t have any silicone or alcohol added. The second had about 7-10 drops of silicone in each color. I tried to add about the same amount of each paint.
No silicone added to any of the paint mixtures. Tan area are the tile showing through–possibly dirty (greasy) tile.Same mixture of paint, with added 10 drops of silicone to each color before putting them together.
I hope this information has been useful to you. If you have anything to add or coment on please do so in the comments.
At our regular October meeting of the Southwest Michigan Watercolor Society in Battle Creek this past Monday, the 1st of October, I talked and gave a demo of acrylic pouring with media to dilute the acrylic paint and create cells using silicone. I used my usual Blick Acrylic fluid paints and PaintEasy. Also tried some old Lucas Acrylic paint that I had. Some of it seemed to coagulate when I added RainX to it. Did a couple of dirty pours and swipe pour. on a new material that Joanna Learner had brought–seems like a thick Yupo. Unfortunately it was not flat, so though the pour had great cells, a lot of them ran off afterwards.
Here’s the pics of the pours:
Swipe Pour-About 12×12. Notice how the cells are all run off all the sides. The few in the center have stayed the same.This is the second pour I did–it’s on an 8″ tile and I was able to lay it perfectly flat. Will be interesting next month when we meet again what has happened to them.
Just got back from a great experience painting with Helga Flower. (http://www.helgaflower.com/HFBiopage.html and https://www.facebook.com/helga.flower.9)
We played with pouring techniques. She had a piece of thick foamcore board 30×20″ and I decided to try a swipe pour. Mixed up a about three hundred ml of red, yellow, black and white paint with PaintEasy, water and silicone. Everything worked well, and I stabbed into the painting with the edge of a piece of Yupo I was using for the swipe. Only problem that happened was the bending of the Foamcore from the wet media. All the beautiful cells in the lower part didn’t stick around. But, it’s still nice. I’m thinking Yupo may be better for doing large pours because it doesn’t curl when wet.
This is a piece about 9×12 of Yupo that we did a preliminary pour with. It did not curl at all, and didn’t loose any cells over the edge.
This picture was taken just after completing the pour. I had to take it a quite an angle to prevent glaring from the overhead light.
The main star of the show was this piece–30×20″
Again, tremendous glare from the above light, so it’s a little distorted and I got a dark spot (shadow) on the lower right. Helga’s picture later is much better. (She has it posted on her Facebook page.) Since this was on 1/2″ Foamcore board we didn’t think it would bow out, but it sure did, and it lost a lot of the cells on the bottom and in the red area.
We used a formula of 2 parts paint and water mix (the paint I was using was old and quite thick, so I diluted with water to normal fluid acrylic thickness), and then mixed this two parts to one part of PaintEasy. [Or approx 30% PaintEasy and 66% fluid acrylic paint.] PaintEasy is another product that is much thinner than Floetrol, so less water is needed for the final mixture.
Some other pictures from our Soo adventure are here (click on the picture below to see all the others.)
Helga & I With the Large Pour
Evaluating the painting, and wondering how it will dry.
Nice Skins For Collage Developing
Big puddles of paint are most often left behind. They make great skins to use in collage work. This is from another pour I did before the big one.
20170916S1243-SwipePourOnFoamcore-w
9/17 Mackinac Bridge Work
Painting on the bridge goes on every year--all summer.
9/16 The Antlers Restaurant in Sault Ste. Marie, MI
It's been more than 20 years since we were there, but some things have changed. There's new owners, but the bar and restaurant are about the same.
Many aren’t bothered by the relatively large amount of acrylic paint and thinner/polymer emulsion mixture that is essentially wasted as it runs off a painting. To me, it’s not wasted. Initially I just put some newsprint under my tiles or canvases and threw it away after it was dry. Then I decided to try putting Freezer paper under the canvas and thus able to make use of the pour excess, since other skins I’ve made for collaging were made on freezer paper.
It works pretty well, but there are two things that are quite different from using straight acrylic pain for the skin. 1.) The skins are quite thin when dry and are thus quite fragile. 2.) They take a long time to dry. These two skins I’ve had out in the sun most of the day for almost a week, and they finally have matured/cured enough to remove from the freezer paper. Also I noticed that those skins from FW Acrylic Ink are very brittle and don’t survive removal as well as those from Fluid Acrylics.
So, when trying to salvage some skins for your pours, don’t spread them out. The quite thick puddles will flatten to normal thickness when dry. And, don’t try to remove them until they are finally dry and cured.
Here’s a couple of skins I just today was able to remove from the paper. The first is from fluid acrylics and PaintEasy. It’s quite thin, but will make a good piece in the right spot.
Acrylic skin from a Dirty Pour about a week ago. It is about 6 inches in size.
The second is from a pour using FW Acrylic Ink and Floetrol. It is a little thicker, but somewhat brittle and needs to be handled with care. It too will make a good piece in the right spot. It is a little smaller (about 5×3″) than the first and quite a bit more shinny than the first.
From acrylic pour using FW Acrylic Ink
Have you tried saving these for late use in paintings? Let me know.
After seeing how the acrylic ink pours that I did a couple days ago dried and looked when dry, I decided to try some more. This time I was a little more careful of how much Floetrol I added. I used about 30-35% Floetrol, since the FW Inks are so heavily pigmented. I added about 10 drops of silicone. (Since I had so much silicone spray, I collected the spray in a bottle with a dropper, outdoors, for more accurate application, and less air pollution indoors when using it. ) Even with that much diluent the colors are dark and bright appearing.
The first pour was a swipe pour on a piece of gessoed mat board, about 11×14″ (27×35 cm) I had stapled to a paint board. I think pouring on a paper base, instead of a non-absorbent surface like a tile, hastens the drying process immensely. The same applies to using canvases, but when it’s dry there’s no canvas pattern showing.
First Pour – A swipe pour using Acrylic Inks, Floetrol and silicone.
I still had quite a bit of paint left, so did a dirty pour on an 8″ tile. The excess paint that ran off from that pour is very interesting, and I’ll leave it on the Freezer Paper to dry and peel off in a couple days.
Second pour –same paints as first one.Runoff from 2nd tile pour.
Still had some paint left–gee, does it reproduce and multiply in the cup? So did a 4″ tile. Didn’t have but a few drops of the red left, so it doesn’t show.
Leftover paint from two previous pours–this is a 4×4″ tile. Acrylic ink and Floetrol and silicone.
Will be interesting what these look like in a couple days when they’re dry. I’ll post some more pictures then.
Now I’m going to try and pull it all together using Embroidery Stabilizer.
