Paint Pouring for Beginners
Hello all!
We just had a visit from my in-laws, and my mother-in-law has really gotten into paint pouring. So for a fun girl’s day, she set up a paint pouring session/tutorial for me and my sis-in-law.
I’m not going to lie - there is so much more to it than I thought there would be. There are many different pouring techniques to try, so I can see why people get into and make so many paintings. There’s so many techniques to try, and you get a completely different piece each time you do it!
For us, we just did a simple paint pouring for beginners tutorial, and that’s what I’m going to share here. I am by no means an expert on this, and in all honesty, this type of craft can be difficult for me because I have little control over the outcome of the painting. I like to be in control ;)
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Supplies you’ll need:
Pre-mixed pouring acrylic paint (similar here)
Plastic cups
Sealant of choice
Step 1: Set up your work area.
Paint pouring isn’t as messy as I thought it was going to be, but you definitely want to take care to protect yourself and your work space before you begin.
I wore my “painting shirt,” but I didn’t worry about my pants because I was sitting down. But use your best judgement here. I don’t want anyone to ruin their favorite outfit in this process!
You also want to take care to cover your work space to prevent ruining a piece of furniture, carpeting, or anything else of value.
We painted on my sister-in-law’s dining table, so we covered the entire table in a plastic drop cloth and then placed down puppy training pads under each work station. These were really nice to use because they absorbed all the drips of paint, making clean-up fairly easy. I also used the super easy clean-up method and let my sis and mother-in-law do the cleaning up, haha. In my defense, I had to pick up my son from school, but I digress.
Anyway, for the actual painting, you’ll want to elevate your canvas so the paint pours off the sides and doesn’t pool around the bottom of the canvas. We used four plastic cups underneath each corner (as seen in the supplies picture above).
Step 2: Prepare your paint.
For the paint, we used a pre-mixed acrylic that is made for paint pouring. If you use a regular acrylic, you’ll also need a pouring medium to mix with the paint.
For paint pouring for beginners, I definitely recommend purchasing the pre-mixed paint so you don’t have to worry about that step.
To determine how much paint you’ll need for your project, multiply your canvas width and length and divide by 28.
For example, our canvases were 8x10: 8x10=80; 80/28=2.857 ounces. So for this project, we needed just under 3 ounces of paint. My mother-in-law marked a line on our plastic cup around 3 ounces so we knew how much paint we needed to add to our cups.
For my project, I stuck with white and different shades of blue, but next time I think I’ll add in some greens or purples for variety.
As you’re choosing which colors to use, keep in mind the color wheel; some color mixing is bound to occur, so when you add complementary colors together, you might end up with some brown in your painting. Which is another reason I stuck with blues; I was worried I’d end up with a muddled mess instead of swirling, distinct colors.
Whichever color you pour into the cup first is going to end up being the very middle of your painting because it will be the last color to pour out. So keep that in mind as well as you’re adding in your colors.
Once you’ve chosen your colors, start layering them in your cup. My mother-in-law suggested at least layering them twice; so if you start a pattern of white, teal, sky blue, and indigo, pour those in and then add those in at least once more. To get up to my line, I had to add each color in about three times each.
Step 3: Pour your paint.
Now you’re ready to start pouring!
Like I mentioned earlier, there are countless techniques to try, so I’m not going to go into all of them here. Maybe in a later post ;)
For mine, I poured my paint directly onto the center of the canvas, and I moved the cup around in small circles as I went. If you look at the center of this picture, you can see squiggles, which is when I was trying to get the last of the paint out.
Looking at my finished project, I think I should have been a little more patient with pouring in a circular motion, or I should have just left the last of the paint in the cup to avoid ending up with the squiggles. But some things you just have to experience for yourself I guess, so I’ll try a different technique next time!
Step 4: Tilt your canvas.
I don’t have a picture of this step because I was in the middle of making a huge mess, but you’re going to pick up your canvas and swirl the paint around until you cover the whole thing.
Wear gloves during this step!!
Since I poured in a circular motion, I also tilted my canvas in a circular motion, but again I’m impatient and ended up tilting it side to side at one point. Honestly, I think I should have stuck with the circles.
You want to try to keep all of the paint on the top of the canvas until the whole top is covered, just to make sure you have enough paint to cover the whole thing.
Once the paint starts pouring over the sides, you start losing paint, and you want to make sure you have enough to cover everything.
After the top of your canvas is pretty much covered, you’re going to let the paint pour over the sides to cover all four sides of your canvas. The corners were the hardest part in this step, so I actually dabbed my corners into some of the paint that had dripped off onto the puppy pad. This technique seemed to work well, and it allowed me to get the marbling effect into the corners as well.
After the whole canvas is covered in paint, set your canvas back down onto your four cups. Some dripping is going to occur, so you’ll want to keep your gloves on and gently wipe off any paint that starts to pool along the bottom of the canvas. Keep an eye on it for about 15 minutes before walking away to avoid dried drips.
Step 5: Dry, cure, and seal.
After you’ve finished covering the entire surface of your canvas, it’s time to let it dry.
Put it in a safe place, away from pets, kids, etc., and give it 48 to 72 hours to dry.
After it’s dry, you can safely move it, but you don’t want to seal it just yet.
There’s a difference between being dry to the touch and being cured, and you want to wait for your painting to fully cure before sealing it. Otherwise, your painting won’t seal properly.
Curing means that all levels of your painting (not just the top layer) are completely dried and set. This process depends on several different factors, including paint brand, painting surface, paint thickness, and environmental factors such as temperature and humidity, among other factors.
From my research, it looks like these paintings will cure in 2 to 4 weeks, but like I said, there are a number of factors to take into account, so it’s best to wait a full 30 days before sealing. Otherwise, you might see some cracking on your painting.
Once you’re sure your painting is completely cured, you can seal it with either a brush-on or spray sealer. Some good options include mod-podge, spray acrylic, or resin.
Decide for yourself if you’d rather brush on or spray on your sealant and choose the product that works best for you!
And that’s it! Now you have a completed paint pouring for beginners painting. Our three paintings are shown here. It’s fun to see how they all turned out so differently!
Happy crafting! I hope you enjoyed learning about paint pouring for beginners!
