DecoArt Pouring Medium

Hello Friends! 

I'm sure most of you have heard the chatter or seeing examples of one of the latest artsy trends...Paint Pouring. I have been resisting the urge to joining the fray but I could resist no longer. DecoArt has come out with Pouring Medium and Top Coat to make the process so easy.

These are my very first examples of my first attempts at this art form and I have to say that I am so pleased with the results and I couldn't have had more fun with the whole process.  But, I'll let you be the judge of my results...  Oh and I didn't add anything to mix...I simply used the DecoArt Pouring Medium and Acrylics.

I started off by gathering all of my supplies....a low profile cardboard "pizza box" to work in; cups to mix paints in and a larger pouring cup; wood stir sticks; DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics, DecoArt Americana Titanium White Acrylic Paint; and of course the new DecoArt Pouring and Top Coat Mediums.

I wanted to try a variety of substrates so I used 2 different size stretched canvases from Canvas Corp., a flat canvas panel from Dick Blick and a 1.5" deep chipboard box that was in my stash. To help hold each piece off of the bottom of the box (so the paint didn't pool on the bottom of the canvas) I used push pins on the dimensional canvases and placed the panel on small cups.

Before I began I put the Pouring Medium into a squeeze bottle so I could better control the amount I used in each color.

I followed the recommended mixing formulas for each type of paint, in these examples - Fluid Acrylic 2:1 paint:medium; Craft Acrylic 1:1 paint:medium.  Since I had these handy little medicine cups I went with 5mL = 1 so the Fluid Acrylics I used 10mL of paint to 5mL of Pouring Medium and 5mL of Americana Acrylic paint to 5mL of Pouring Medium.

After I had everything measured out I stirred and blended the paint/medium thoroughly.  I've heard some people say that this step takes a long time. Personally I didn't think it took long at all - about 2 minutes or so. I did have my colors picked out ahead of time so maybe that's what takes them so long.

The first technique I wanted to try was a Cup, Flip or Dirty Pour (seems everyone has a different term they prefer) basically you layer all of your colors into a single cup then flip it over onto your canvas and let the paints/medium do it's thing.

So I layered in my paints...

then flipped the cup upside down onto the canvas panel.  I let the cup sit in this position for a couple minutes to let the paint migrate to the bottom.

And then...the magical moment - I lifted the cup and let it flow.  I tilted the canvas this way and that to help move the paint towards the edges.  I must point out that I used far less paint than most folks do. Why? Well, if you've visited here before you know I'm pretty frugal and don't let anything go to waste (more on this further along in the post).  

Up until last night I was under the assumption you HAD to use huge quantities of paint to make this type of art form. WRONG....I watched a few videos on it on YouTube and it wasn't until I happened upon a video from Myriam's Nature.  She actually did the math and measured out the paint she needed for the size of canvas she was working on.  Cool!!  I didn't do the math but I did a rough estimate and came pretty close so I had very little waste.

And here's how it turned out...at this point it's still drying but the pattern has pretty much set. The photo at the beginning of this post shows each of the finished canvases with the DecoArt Topcoat applied.

This example was made by pouring the paint from each mixing cup directly onto the canvas in side by side lines. I then tilted the canvas here and there until I liked what I saw.  

The third try was a bit of both of the first 2 techniques, initially I poured a bit of paint onto the canvas; moved it about then poured the light blue and yellow over the top of the already poured paint. The initial pour was starting to dry a bit so I picked up the canvas from one corner and banged it onto the work surface to create these cool breaks.  I LOVE the look...don't know if I'll be able to reproduce it or not but it will be fun to try!

Now you might wonder why you didn't see this in the first photo of this post...well, you have to have a bit of patients for this art - I got a bit anxious and touched this canvas right in the center before it was all the way dry....needless to say I messed it up good.  Soooo, you will need to leave your painted canvases to dry for a good while before you check them ;) 

My final example was made using the swipe technique. I scraped the paint out of each mixing cup and the pour cup onto the left hand side of this canvas. I then used a baby wipe to drag the paint across the canvas from left to right. After I had dragged the paint I let it dry at a 45 degree angle.  As you can see it created a really cool pattern as the paint slid downhill.  It is still wet here which is why the photo is sideways...I didn't want to attempt to move it after the fiasco with the other canvas.

Finally, remember I said I hated to waste paint...well I moved each canvas from the box I poured in and picked up the "run off" paint with the baby wipe from the swipe technique and swiped it across a piece of cardstock!!  It turned out amazing, I can't wait to use it on some cards.

All in all this was SOOOO much fun! I loved it.  I will be doing many more "pours" and can't wait to share them with you.

So, what do you think???

Supplies:
DecoArt-
Pouring Medium
Pouring Top Coat
Media Fluid Acrylics - Primary Yellow, Primary Cyan, Yellow Green Light, Cobalt Teal Hue
Americana Acrylic Paint - Titanium White
Canvas Corp - 4x4x2"; 5x5x1 canvas
Dick Blick - 8x10 canvas covered panel
Unknown - 5x7x1.5 Chipboard Box
Push Pins, Measuring Cups, Pour Cup, Wood Stir Sticks, Pizza Box (to work in)