Acrylic Pouring techniques

Posted by faessi1 on October 28th, 2019

Acrylic pouring techniques are numerous. Many are only modified forms and adaptations from original techniques that lead to new results with new aids. I would like to introduce the basic techniques to you here.

In the first part I concentrate on the methods, which deal with different variants of pouring the color. In the next section I will deal with the further processing of the paint on the painting surface. So you can see different possible combinations. Of course, you can also use several techniques for one picture and simply try out how the color runs.

If you're looking forward, you can find a lot more information on Acrylic Pouring on acrylgiessen.com

Acrylic Pouring - Casting techniques

Already for the application of the paint on your painting ground you have different possibilities. I would like to introduce the basic techniques to you here.
Simple Pour - Casting

With the simplest basic technique, it is only a matter of pouring different colours individually onto the painting base. For example, you can follow a geometric arrangement or pour the colours crosswise on top of each other.

Puddle Pour - Puddle technique

The Puddle Pour is about pouring single colours one after the other on top of each other like a puddle: Pour on colour1, then colour2 on colour1, colour3 on colour2 and so on. The order of the colours is up to you. It is possible to have a large puddle or several puddles spread over the entire painting surface.

Dirty Pour

The Dirty Pour offers a good basis for many other techniques. All colours are poured one after the other into one and the same cup. Note that the colors you pour in first are the last to be poured out and vice versa.

How the colors are finally mixed together in the cup, you can influence something by filling in the cup. If, for example, you pour the colours very slowly along the side, they will rather gently layer on top of each other and mix less strongly. If, on the other hand, you let the colours fall down from high up into the cup, this colour will pass through all of them and will mix accordingly stronger. If you want the colors to mix more, you can end up walking through with a stick to bring some movement into the cup. It should also be remembered that not all colours are equally dense, i.e. some sink down more than others. For example, white will tend to sink downwards.

For the Dirty Pour prepared now there are different types of use. The easiest way is to simply pour the cup onto the painting surface.

Flip Cup - tumble cup

As preparation for the Flip Cup a Dirty Cup is needed.

The painting base is placed on the cup like a lid and then both are turned over so that the cup sits upside down on the canvas. You can also use several cups to cover a bigger canvas or to create different colour groups. After turning the cup over onto the canvas, it makes sense to let the color set a little so that the color can run downwards in the cup. Then lift the cup off the ground and the paint will spread.

Swirl - Vortex technology

The Swirl is based on a Dirty Cup. It makes sense not to mix the colours too much when preparing the cup, as different coloured rings are to be created later during pouring. To create the rings of the vortex you have to pour the cup very slowly in slightly circling movements. This will cause the rings to spread from the centre of the cup to the outside. In order for the paint to spread better, it is helpful to first pour a paint into the painting surface as a base. A contrast colour such as white can create beautiful effects such as cell formation.

If you pour the whole cup in the Swirl technique from the same center, you will get a structure similar to that of tree rings, so this is also called tree ring. Alternatively you can also pour the swirl in any movement over the painting ground and thus create a moving swirl.

Drag - Drawing technique

The basis of the drag technique is a Dirty Cup. Here only a small cup is prepared, which covers only a part of the painting surface. As with the Flip Cup, the cup is toppled over and then covered with a contrasting colour such as white or black. The Dirty Cup is now lifted slightly so that some paint can flow out, but not the whole cup is emptied and further contact with the surface exists. With this contact you carefully guide the cup over the surface and leave a color line behind. Here you can control the way you want the colour to go. The narrower the cup, the finer the colour line.