Craft Time: How to Acrylic Pour

Acrylic Pour

We've all have been mesmerized by acrylic pour videos on Youtube at some point. The swirling colors, bright glossy surface, and resulting unique design. I'm here to tell you: it is just as easy as it looks! Create your own acrylic pour with a few simple steps.

The secret to a good acrylic pour is complementary colors. Without colors that go well together, you could end up with a weird splotchy brownish color across the canvas. But that being said you can still use a lot of bright, fun, colors!

ex) Dark Purple, Light Purple, Dark Blue, Light Blue, Gray, Silver, White

ex) Red, Orange, Yellow, Gold, White, Pink

ex) Maroon, Black, Gold, White, Gray, Tan

You will get a little messy! The projects pictured here are right after I finished tilting my canvas to spread the paint.

Materials

• Acrylic Paint
• Floetrol
• Disposable Cups (plastic, SOLO, styrofoam, etc.)
• Disposable Paint Mixer (plastic spoon, coffee stirrer, etc.)
• Disposable Table covering

Hint: Many craft stores will sell a paint additive but it is very expensive. I recommend Floetrol from your local hardware store or Amazon. You will get much more product for a lower cost!

A lot of the products I recommend here are disposable which doesn't make this the "green"est craft out there. My reasoning behind this is because you will get paint on EVERYTHING. You may use a reusable plastic table cloth or regular spoons and cups as long as you are prepared to clean paint off of it you can use whatever materials you are comfortable with!

Steps

• Set up your space
• Protect the table (and part of the floor) by covering it with your plastic table cloth
• Make sure you have plenty of room surrounding your canvas for the paint to pour on to.
• Pick your colors!
•  I typically chose anywhere from 3-8 colors
• Pour each paint color into its own separate cup, enough to cover the bottom
• Pour your Floetrol into each cup and stir!
• For those of you who like measurements, follow a 1 to 1 ratio for paint and Floetrol.
• The amount of this mixture will ultimately depend on your canvas. I recommend filling each cup about 1/4 of the way full. Again, depending on how many cups you have.
• Now that you have several cups of color filled about 1/4 full, you are going to start pouring them into one cup.
• I recommend taking an empty cup, and pouring in a little bit of color A, color B, color C, color D, and then repeating color A, color B...etc.
• This will ensure that all your colors are present in the pour and that a whole layer of color doesn't slide off your canvas!
• For an 11 x 13 canvas, I filled one entire SOLO cup with paint
• Place your canvas face down on top of your cup, hold the edge of the canvas and the base of the cup, and quickly flip so that the cup is face down on your canvas.
• Some will spill out, that's okay!
• Now lift your cup!
• Grab your canvas by the edges and start tilting side to side and watch your artwork come to life!

After Care

After you are satisfied with your piece you are going to want to allow it to dry undisturbed for about 3 days. If you did your work outside ensure your table cloth isn't going to blow up with the wind and land on your piece, nothing is going to fall on it from surrounding trees, and that it is not going to rain! 

Once your painting is completely dry you can begin carefully pulling it off the table cloth (sone paint drippings will most likely have caused it to stick).  You can gently remove these excess pieces will an Exacto knife if needed.

Finally - Enjoy the beautiful artwork that you just created! Show it off! You're a star!

Conclusion

Acrylic pours are a really fun and simple way to create stunning art pieces! This craft is perfect for adults and children alike. Once you have gathered all the supplies they will most likely last you through multiple pieces. Please let me know if you have tried acrylic pours and if you have any other tips and tricks!