First Developments of Acrylic Pouring

A technique I find intriguing is acrylic pouring, specifically where cells are created in the pour. An example of an acrylic pour with cells is below:

Pour on a wooden board, using red, grey, pink and brown acrylics, glue and water.

The cells are the 'bubbles' of paint which bring up paint from underneath. These are achieved by adding a small amount of oil to the paint (I use hair serum as its cheap and only 1 drop is needed). The oil causes the paint surrounded by droplets to go to the surface, this can be emphasized more using a heat source such as a heat gun. To create this technique, I've developed an approximate recipe which I find gives the best technique for me. I like the pours to be matt, but I use PVA glue to bulk the medium so I get more out of the acrylic, so I include a flow enhancer, which I find gives the finish a matt appearance and ensures it flows evenly when being poured. An example of an acrylic pour with more flow enhancer in is below:

Pour on a wooden board, using brown, red, black and metallic blue acrylics, glue, water, and flow enhancer.

I find this creates a more organic finish and looks more neglected and weathered, similar to rust. Both the above experiments are done on wood boards, giving them a strong structure to work on. I created the diagonal angles by pressing a sheet of paper over the paint, and peeling it off in a diagonal direction, to drag the paint. I find this gives the piece a feeling of motion, which contrasts rust and how it appears to be stopped in time.

Cups of pouring acrylic, containing PVA glue, water, flow enhancer, hair oil, acrylic paint. From left to right, white and black mixed to make grey, burnt sienna mixed with red, burnt sienna mixed with yellow and white, red.

Following on from the idea of rust, I used metal sheets, which had been laser cut into circles to do more experiments on. I recorded the first 2 attempts I did.

                                           

For this pour, I didn't prime the metal as I wanted to see how it would react against a raw surface. The colours I used were cadmium red, cadmium yellow, mars black, white and burnt sienna. I mixed the black and white to create grey and mixed some yellow with the burnt sienna to create a brighter tone before I began to pour. I did what's called a 'dirty pour' which means I poured all my acrylics into a smaller cup before placing the cup onto the surface and lifting it up, allowing all the colours to flow together right. I then rotate the surface to ensure the paint covers the metal.

This is a photo of the pour from the above video, but whilst it was still wet. A problem with acrylic pour is even after it's been poured, it continues to warp and change as it dries. I was happy with the above outcome so I let it dry overnight. Below is the same piece, just 2 days later after it had fully dried.

Personally, I'm not very happy with this outcome, as I find a lot of the vibrancy from the wet piece was lost, and even though there is still some finer cells and marks made, I feel its overpowered by the brown tones. Also, the metal began to show through. This could be due to a number of reasons, I've never worked on metal before, so this might just be due to the metal wanting to repel the oil, too much oil being in the paints, or the paint being too thin on the plate. This is a good start in my developments on metal and I continue to experiment.

Below is a video of my second pour. I decided to prime the metal to see if that would prevent the metal from showing though when its fully dry.

I used the same acrylic colours for this pour as the previous, as I found the colours reminded me of rust and complimented each other well. I decided to prime this piece, I first decided to paint it with white acrylic, but then I decided to use a silver spray paint to give back the metallic colour. In the end, I painted over this with a mix of metallic blue and green acrylic. In hopes that is the metal shows through, it will reveal the green metallic background. Symbolizing the bright, positive colour underneath, engulfed in rust.

After I poured this one, I found the acrylic was less likely to run straight off the metal. I assume this is due to the texture of the brush marks in the acrylic. After doing this pour I noticed the cells were almost collapsing over time, I also found this piece took 2 weeks to fully dry, as opposed to the previous pour which only took 2 days. I think this might be due to the colder temperatures in the room which I leave my art, but also as less paint dripped off as it was drying, so the paint is a lot thicker on the metal. 

Above is the final outcome of this experiment. I find the marks made a far less fluid than my previous attempt and that the paint was far thicker. Due to the paint being thicker, its cracked which gives the piece more texture and I find this is even more organic and looks way more destructive. I find the first piece looks more psychedelic, and this piece is more symbolic of rust and decay.

This photo emphasizes the cracks and marks the acrylic lift as it dried. Something I'd like to improve on is the vibrancy of these pieces as I find as they dry, some of the tones become dull as its drying.

Moving forward, I'd like to experiment more with this technique to find a nice balance between trying to convey rust and the psychedelic look and also start incorporating the chemical symbols into my work also, as I think by including the symbols will add an extra layer to my piece. Also giving a contrast between the fluidity of the acrylic pours and the harsh structures of the chemical symbols.