Developments of acrylic pours

I decided to experiment with a different range of colours as inspired by Danny Clark. I chose to use more earthy tones to hopefully achieve a more natural decaying feel as opposed to metallic or rust decaying. For this, I decided to mix some more paints up and make some pours using more earthy tones.


Across was the outcome of my first attempt which I filmed and the video is below:

Whilst creating this piece I noticed, to begin with, the burnt sienna tones were the most dominant, but as I began to move and tilt the plate the grey tones became the most prominent. In an attempt to try and get an even amount of all colours, I added a small second pour on top, but I found the grey tones still overpowered. Upon reflection I noticed I poured more grey into the cup than the other colours, so when I poured it on there was more grey in the mix, which is why it was more dominant in the piece. After using a heat gun to bring out the cells, I noticed I must have added slightly too much oil as the cells went all the way down to the metal plate. I personally have mixed feelings towards the metal showing through the paint. But with this limited colour palette, I find the silver shining through complements the cool tones of the acrylic paint.

For this mix of the acrylic pour I used :
-Acrylic paint (burnt sienna, white, mars black, emerald green and ultramarine)
-PVA glue
-Water
-Flow Enhancer
-Hair serum (used as the oil to create the cells)

To continue, I decided to create another pour as I didn't feel my first attempt was the strongest it could have been. Across is the photo of the finished pour. I found I forgot to mix the oil in thoroughly before pouring, which explains the large variation in the size of the cells created. However, I felt this piece had a nice even distribution of colours, although there is a lot of blue tones, I feel the composition of the colours seems to complement each other more than my previous attempt.

To try and get the colours to mix more, I did a 'dirty pour' which means I poured all the paints into a smaller container and placed it on top before pulling it off. So it's letting gravity do most the work. I've included a video showing the process, all the videos are using the same colours of acrylic shown in the first video in the post.

After doing the pour I noticed the paint was quite thick on the plate, so I decided to print the plate onto a sheet of acetate in order to get two pieces out of the one pour.

This is the print of the plate on acrylic once dry. The final finish is matte dispite having PVA glue mixed in. This print is almost a mirror image of the paint which was left on the plate. There's marks made on these two pieces which give them more fluidity and movement, due to the lines created when I lifted the acetate off of the metal plate.

Here is the metal plate. You can see they both have the long thin line marks on one side of each piece, this would have been the direction I lifted up the acetate off the plate. Overall there is more bubbles or larger cells on the acetate print, I find this is due to the acetate wanting to naturally repel water which is mixed into the medium, causing the oil to leave cells and also the water, causing more cells overall. I find the piece on the plate appears more vibrant in colours, as the light reflects on it more, especially where the metal is exposed and is shining the light back off it.

Here is a close up of some of the details captured in the piece which was on the metal plate. I find adding the lighter toned grey helped highlight the marks made by the cells. In the center where the prominent colour is blue, it's difficult to make out the cells. Whereas where there's more colour variation, for example, the left-hand side of the piece, the light grey tones are on the surface, and a variation of greens and browns are carried to the surface by the oil. This is then brought up more using a heat gun to heat the oil causing it to rise to the surface and bring the paint up with it too.