Dirty Paint Pouring!

Hello everyone, 

I haven't been blogging for a month or so but I have been crafting making samples up for the IndigoBlu shows on Hochanda and in the last couple of weeks for Louise Withers who has been on Hochanda with Ecoline Inks. That is another blog post to come soon..............

I think I have now found a craft that is fast becoming a favorite for me.  This is the way I have been doing my pieces, and at this stage i'm happy with the outcome. There are lots of ways to do this technique but today I'm showing you how and what I have done.

Paint Pouring and Dirty Paint Pouring

So what is Paint Pouring and Dirty Paint Pouring?

Quick version-It's mixing Acrylic Paint with a medium that helps the paint flow and leave a glossy finish to your piece. You also add Silicone to the mixture and that's what gives you the cell like structures you see in the photo above as it separates from the paint, pushing its way through the paint.
If you like the big cells don't mix the silicone in to much. If you want lots of tiny cells, mix the silicone in better.
Paint Pouring is when you pour single colours out onto your surface. Dirty Paint Pouring is when you add all the colours into one cup and turn it all up on the surface!

Materials needed

Acrylic Paint

PVA Glue

Silicone

Wooden lolly Sticks

Plastic Shot Glasses & Party Cup

Yupo sheets

Foil Tray (or use a craft sheet or Baking Parchment)

I have been asked by several people how I have done mine so thought I would put this quick photo tutorial together. I hope it helps you if you want to have a go yourself and there are tons of videos on Youtube to learn more.

For this tutorial I'm using those small plastic shot glasses as I'm only doing a small piece on Yupo paper. (In fact I was able to cover Three pieces of Yupo with the amount of paint solution I mixed)!

The Yupo paper is 100% Polypropylene so it can take the wet glue and paint without bending and curling. If you are doing this technique on a canvas you will need more of the paint solution to cover the canvas so mix up your paints etc in plastic party cups or those polystyrene cups like ones as I used to do the dirty pour at the end.

To start with choose your colour paints. I went with shades of blue's and a white, all from IndigoBlu. I used PVA glue as I had some here but I know there are other liquids you can use such as Floetrol, but for this tutorial I'm keeping it simple!
So the first step was to fill the shot glasses up to 3/4 level with PVA Glue.

With a wooden lolly stick take some paint, you don't need much (See photo) and stir the colours into each pot

When mixing try not to make too many bubbles. Once the paint and glue is well mixed, add some water to give make the mixture the Constancy, slightly thinner than single cream.

Lay your Yupo into the foil tray 

Using Silicone in your paint mixture is what gives you the "Cells" when you pour the mixture out.
(The Silicone I have comes in a spray can, so instead of spraying straight into the cups, which can cause bubbles and you can't see how much you add,  I sprayed some into a small bottle. Be careful when doing this as you can see the vapours coming off the spray and also it could bubble out over the top of the bottle. Also just so you know the bottle becomes very cold to hold).

I added 10 drops to two of the coloured cups, and five drops into the other two colours. Stir in.  I didn't put any in the white paint as white always sinks to the bottom of the cup. You just want the colours to push their way through the white.

Add the paint mixture in layers to larger cups.
(I poured the mixture into two different cups as I was doing two pieces. As it turned out I got three pieces out of the mixture I made).

I used double sided tape to hold the Yupo down as you will need to tip the tray to cover the Yupo. You might need a spatula to pick up some paint from the sides to cover white areas once you have done the pour. Be careful not to mix the colours when scooping up paint.

So what you are seeing now is a Dirty Pour!

Once you pull the cup up, this is what happens. How cool is this.

Tip the tray in different directions to cover the surface of the Yupo.

So I did two Pours with the blue paints

As I had paint left over I added some Red and Yellow to two of the pots to have a different colourway.

This time I poured all the mixture into a cup but poured it out as I wanted to control where it went.

Each time you do one of these they are so different. 

You will need to leave your creations to dry on a flat surface. These took about 24 hours to dry. Just check underneath your piece as well as the mixture does run under.
Once dry the colours did get darker. Not sure if it because of the glue I used.
Once fully dry you can cover your creation with varnish or resin to protect and give it a high gloss finish.
I hope you have found this tutorial helpful and you have a go for yourself. Its quite addictive.

I have also used inks instead of paint which gives a lovely translucent look.

OK, so I'm off now to do some more experimenting.
Happy Crafting.