Acrylic Pouring

This workbook turns the course into pours you can reproduce. Each section pairs with a course module: you dial in paint-to-medium ratios and test cell-making forces, drill silicone and heat until cells are a dial not a gamble, run the dirty pour, swipe, and ring pour as deliberate methods, then cure, clean, and seal a finished canvas. Keep your filled sheets and small test tiles together; over time they become a personal recipe book of ratios, colour pairs, and results you can repeat rather than rediscover.

Set up a level station, mix paint to a tested pourable ratio, and learn by hand which forces drive cells.

Pick one pouring medium (Floetrol, Liquitex Pouring Medium, or GAC 800) and one paint. Mix three small cups of a single colour at three ratios, for a heavy-body paint try 1:2, 1:3, and 1:4 paint to medium, stirring slowly to avoid air. Run the ribbon test on each: lift the stick, let paint drizzle back, and watch whether the ribbon sits then melts in. Judge which ratio gives a warm-honey, self-levelling pour for that exact paint.

Fill one row per colour you mix for a pour, so a working mix can be repeated exactly. Record the verified ratio you actually used, not the one you intended.

Choose one dense colour (titanium white, an ochre, or a cadmium) and one light colour (a phthalo blue or green, or a quinacridone). Mix both to the same pourable ratio with no silicone. In a small cup, layer the dense colour on top of the light one, then pour onto a test tile or small canvas and tilt gently. Observe whether the heavy colour sinks and the light one rises into cells, with surface tension alone.

Calibrate silicone dosing and heat against cell size, and prove you can make cells with no oil at all.

Mix four identical cups of a light colour at your keeper ratio. Add silicone in a ladder: 0 drops, 1 drop, 3 drops, and 6 drops of treadmill silicone (or a dimethicone hair serum) per cup, stirring each only once or twice. Pour each over a dark base on four test tiles and torch each once. Compare how cell number and size change as the dose climbs.

Make cells without any oil. Mix colours with Floetrol at your keeper ratio, do a small dirty pour, and use only heat and air: a torch for one or two passes, then a heat gun on low to stretch cells. Optionally pour a combined cup through a kitchen strainer for a field of small cells. Compare the result to your silicone tiles.

Record each cell test so you can reproduce a look on purpose. Note the method, dose, and heat, plus the result.

Run the dirty pour, swipe, and ring pour as distinct repeatable methods and capture what each colour pair does.

Mix three to five colours to your keeper ratio, adding silicone only to the ones you want to rise. Layer them down the side of one cup, keeping layers distinct, with a cell-driver like white placed deliberately. Do one puddle dirty pour and one flip cup on separate canvases. Tilt the minimum needed for coverage, then torch once or twice. Compare the spread of the two.

Lay a dark, colourful base across a canvas, then place a strip of silicone-loaded white along one edge. Drag it across with a soft tool (baby wipe, damp paper towel, palette knife, or acetate) using barely the weight of the tool. Pass once or with very light repeats, then torch lightly along the swiped band. Repeat the same colour pair two or three times to learn how it blooms.

Fill one sheet per finished pour so you can reproduce or improve it. Capture the technique, recipe, and honest result.

Set up several colours. Pour the first as a small puddle, then pour each next colour slowly from low height into the exact centre, returning to the same point every time so the rings stay round. Build at least five rings. Leave one piece flat for a clean bullseye, and on a second piece tilt once at the end to stretch the rings into an organic shape.

Cure fully, remove silicone, apply an isolation coat where needed, and choose and apply a topcoat.

On a cured, silicone-cleaned test piece, apply a thin isolation coat of a clear gloss medium (such as Golden Soft Gel Gloss thinned roughly 2 parts gel to 1 part water), keeping a wet edge and letting it dry clear. Then apply your chosen finish: several light passes of a spray varnish like Krylon Kamar, a thin brush varnish, or a measured pour of art-grade epoxy resin torched to clear bubbles. Judge the result.

Record how each finished piece was sealed so you can repeat a good result and trace any problem.