As a form of self-expression, art can liberate you. It helps you heal and lets you learn. And with fluid art painting, you can create dynamic works of art that you never thought you could and discover a world of endless possibilities.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner or a seasoned artist, anyone can create beautiful fluid art paintings as they’re easy and fun to do. Plus, they’re also a great way to relax and de-stress.
What Is Fluid Art Painting?
Fluid art painting, also known as acrylic fluid pour painting, has become increasingly popular. Starting with this original painting method is as simple as it gets. While you only need a few materials on hand to create masterpieces, ensure to get them before you start, as nothing is more frustrating than starting out and realising you are missing an essential tool.
You can experiment with various approaches and styles when creating fluid art. Additionally, you discover a great deal about paints and canvases. Whether a beginner or an expert at acrylic pouring, you need quality supplies, including a sturdy fluid art canvas. Here’s everything you need in stock to start creating incredible art.
What Supplies Do You Need for Fluid Art?
The tools and materials you’ll need for your first acrylic pour painting are pretty simple and inexpensive. Here’s a list of must-haves:
Acrylic Paints
A good starter pack must include a variety of acrylic paints. You are free to choose the colour, but you must consider the body of the paint, as the consistency will significantly impact the success of your pour.
Acrylic pour painting works best with acrylic inks and soft body, high flow, or fluid acrylic paints. Their consistency is typically between heavy cream (soft-bodied and fluid) and milk (ink and high flow). Due to its low viscosity, you can use the pouring medium in much smaller amounts to achieve the same pouring consistency.
Acrylics with a heavy body have a much thicker consistency. Although pourable, you will find that you need more medium to achieve the viscosity you need for pouring, similar to honey. Although you can get away with thinning your colour with a small amount of water before adding pouring medium, using too much water can make your pour less successful.
Blending your paint and medium to a smooth, uniform finish is much more difficult when using thick paint. If you agitate the mixture too much to remove clumps, you can get lots of bubbles in your pouring blend. These bubbles may result in an uneven, textured finish for your poured painting.
Boards and Canvas for Acrylic Painting
You can paint with acrylic pours on almost any flat surface primed for acrylic painting. While some artists might prefer canvas boards or painting panels that are simpler to store, others like working on traditional stretched canvases.
Since each fluid art canvas has its own advantages, the choice is up to you! You can do acrylic pour on a range of bases, but to get you started, we suggest trying these:
Canvas Panels
The best place to start with acrylic pouring is on canvas panels. Choose a canvas panel set made of inexpensive, acid-free, lightweight, strong, rigid, hardened card-backed canvas that has been primed with acrylic so that you can start painting on it immediately. Although these panels are excellent for trialling techniques, avoid using them for finished artworks because they can warp. Choose a wooden painting board instead.
Wooden Boards
A wooden painting board ideally supports various painting and mixed media art applications. Choose an option constructed from a smooth, solid blonde-coloured plywood panel with pine bracing to ensure durable and warp-resistant painting support. Wooden boards are also a suitable option for resin art.
Square Streched Canvas
Double thick stretched canvases with a 38mm deep frame provide a modern, clean, deeper-edged look without needing additional framing. A top-notch acrylic pour canvas offers a sturdy foundation for various media applications, including acrylic pour.
Commonly used for acrylic and oil paintings, most stretched canvases are triple coated with universal primer and are ready for pouring. Ensure the stretcher frame corners are strong and folded neatly to gallery standards when choosing one.
Acrylic Pouring Medium
Using a medium specially formulated for pouring provides the most seamless results when using pour painting techniques. A specialised acrylic pouring medium reduces the possibility of imperfections as your pour dries compared to less expensive substitutes.
Since pouring medium self-levels, you can always count on a smooth, even paint film. Additionally, it eliminates bubbles more quickly, lowering the likelihood that your finished painting will contain even a small amount of trapped air. Since it adheres better to the surface, this results in a consistency that is much easier to pour and ensures that your paint film spreads evenly rather than dripping quickly off the edge of the canvas.
Some artists use PVA adhesive (with added water for thicker paints) to give a fluid consistency to their paints. The pouring process does, however, become even more unpredictable as a result of this. It does not create a thickness that is as syrupy as a proper pouring medium, frequently resulting in paint that is either too thick or too thin, making it challenging to control your pour.
Additional Acrylic Pouring Accessories
You might find it helpful to have a few accessories on hand when poring. For mixing acrylic paint and pouring, disposable paper cups come in handy. They are simple to hold and ideal for regulating how much paint you spray onto your canvas. To ensure that your colour/medium mixes are perfectly uniform, wooden craft spatulas or palette knives work great for mixing.
This method can quickly become messy, so cover your workspace with a protective surface. Used sheets, newspapers, plastic sheeting, and trash bags work great.
Having a variety of containers of similar sizes on hand to set your canvas or board on while you pour can also be handy. Any excess paint won’t adhere to the underside of your painting if you elevate your boards above your workspace.
As you experiment with more sophisticated acrylic pouring techniques, you might also need additional tools, like balloons, colanders, or funnels, to help you.
