Rain Makes Me Wanna Make!

Do you find that the weather greatly influences your creative drive? I do! Whenever the weather turns wet and gloomy here, I am overcome by the urge to create- whether it's photography, painting, drawing, sewing, whathaveyou. Today I busted out the acrylic paints- something I haven't done since early in the year! I have had this big (about 24x36") ugly painting hanging in our "dining area" just because I want to paint over it but haven't had the chance yet. I've been thinking lately that I would like to do a minimal swipe pour on it, and then maybe resin it. I haven't painted in a while so I wasn't feeling super confident. But, I just mixed up the paints and turned off my brain. I let my creative side take over, and made my critical, logical side just sit down and shut up. It was all over in about 2 minutes once the paint was mixed up, and I'm pretty happy with the result:

Sorry for the crappy phone pic- I'll photograph it properly when it's dry and I can move it.

Would you like to know more about the process? It's called acrylic pour painting, and there are a billion videos about it on YouTube, so go check it out. Here's how I do it:

Materials- everyday acrylic paint, FLOOD Floetrol, and silicone.

Floetrol is a paint additive for house paint that is added to smooth out brush and roller marks. It really stretches out the paint without compromising the integrity of the paint itself, AND it's waaayyyy cheaper than "pouring medium" made by artist paint manufacturers such as Golden, although you could use that too. Floetrol is a bit hard to find... I'm lucky enough to be able to get it at my local hardware shop, but you CAN get it on Amazon at an inflated price. Anyway, I mix the acrylic paint and the Floetrol at a 1:3 ratio, and add a dribble of water to make it flow real nice.

Silicone- this is important!

Some artists use straight silicone grease that you would buy from a bike repair shop, or treadmill grease. I use this hair product called Coconut Milk Anti-Breakage Serum, which is basically the same thing, just designed for the beauty industry. For this painting, I mixed 2 drops into the blue, 1 into the copper, and none into the white. What this does is causes the paint to create these delicious little shapes and bubbles ("cells") that make the composition so dang interesting and beautiful. You DON'T NEED VERY MUCH.

A detail shot of some of the cells

There are many different ways to do pour painting. Lots of people really enjoy putting paint in cups and dumping it on the canvas, creating phsychadellic effects that are a lot of fun to watch. I suggest you give it a try, even just for giggles. I choose to employ a technique that allows me a bit more control. I pour my colours roughly where I want them to be on the canvas, and then I carefully "swipe" with a pallette knife to cause the paints to meld and interact with each other.

By layering my paints when I first pour them, and strategically swiping, I can have a surprising amount of control over what these fluid paints are doing. Unfortunately, I didn't take any progress photos as my hands were full/covered in paint. So, when this dries, I will have to give it a bit of a wash to get any rogue silicone off of it, then I will coat it with clear resin and perhaps frame it. I will be sure to show you the final product!

What are all my fellow SteemArtists getting up do during this season change? Did anyone do Inktober?

If you made it this far into this post, thanks for reading!

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Peace & Love!