Today I am going to share two DIY pouring medium recipes with you! Even though using artistic-grade pouring mediums or even using ready-to-pour paints makes acrylic pouring much easier, making your own can cut down on the cost of your supplies.
So whether you want to start acrylic pour painting on furniture or creating incredible fluid art on smaller items like canvases, plates, cups, glass, or other crazy things like phone cases, and shoes, these homemade pouring mediums will make your artistic journey more affordable.
Before we dive into the 2 easy DIY Pouring Medium recipes, let's talk a little bit about acrylic pouring and what a pouring medium is. If you just want to get to the recipes, click here.
What is a Pouring Medium?
A pouring medium is a liquid substance that artists mix with acrylic paint to make them fluid. It helps to increase the paint's flow without compromising its color. When added to paint, pouring medium creates a smooth, even consistency that makes it easier to pour, drip, or swipe across a canvas.
Do I really need a Pouring Medium?
To achieve the fluidity needed for acrylic pouring, you'll want a substance that can transform your thick acrylic paints into fluid paints. While water can work to thin down paints, using a pouring medium is highly recommended to preserve the vibrancy and integrity of your colors.
Without it, your paint will NOT flow properly and you will just end up with a blob of paint!!!
But be careful! You also don't want to make your paint mixture so thin that all your colors end up mixing and creating a muddy color.
Using a good pouring medium could be the difference between quality and permanence of the paint for years.
As previously mentioned, many people choose to use water to “thin” acrylic paint, and sometimes it works; however, you risk losing the brightness of your colors or breaking up the binders that hold the pigments together. Then you will end up with a dull painting or a painting with cracks.
If you’re looking to create a beautiful paint with quality... stick to the pouring medium.
There are many options on the market... even some that have a matte or glossy finish.
However, if you are a beginner and don’t want to spend money on buying a quality pouring medium until you get more experience, then you can make a diy pouring medium at home, with much cheaper ingredients and still get a wonderful result.
Here are two different recipes so you can choose the one that suits you or the ingredients that are easier for you to get.
Let's learn how to make pouring medium!
Elmer's Glue Pouring Medium Recipe
First you must know that you can create your own pouring medium with Elmer's Glue or PVA Glue. You're probably thinking, "Why mix glue with acrylic paint?"
Glue will act as a binder which will hold the paint's pigments together so that their bonds don't break when water is added to thin down the paints.
Here are my recipes:
DIY Pouring Elmer’s Glue Medium Recipe
- 1.5 parts "Elmer's Glue All" (150 grams)
- 1 part water (100 grams)
The above mix is 60% glue and 40% water.
How to mix acrylic paint for pouring with glue: Mix enough pouring medium into your acrylic paint until you get a heavy cream like consistency.
This pouring medium is ready to use with your acrylic paints.
Alternate DIY Pouring Medium Recipe
- 10 grams Floetrol
- 20 grams PVA glue, Elmer’s Glue All or Modpodge
- 2 grams Liquitex Pouring Medium
- 5 grams Distilled Water
Measure your ingredients on ascale, pour them into a bottle, and then shake, shake, shake until thoroughly mixed.
To use: Mix enough pouring medium into your acrylic paint until you get a heavy cream like consistency similar to what you see in the video below.
So there you have 2 awesome DIY acrylic pouring medium options! If you don't want to buy an expensive pouring medium for acrylic paint because you are barely dipping your toes into fluid art, then go ahead and mix a batch of your own.
If you'd like to learn what is thebest pouring medium recipe to achieve different effects and for different techniques, then check out this post.
Now that you have your pouring medium all mixed up, it's time to start creating some fluid art. Here's some quick instructions on how you can get started.
How to do acrylic pouring?
Now that you know how to mix acrylic paint for pouring with glue, it's time to start acrylic pouring.
Trust me, once I saw pictures of fluid painting, I thought it was very complicated to achieve these kinds of visual effects.
We all probably have some sort experience with trying to do a beautiful painting and in the end not getting the painting we envisioned. Maybe you ended up with a blob of colors that are not so appealing to the eye or your watercolors got mixed and muddied.
The idea of acrylic pouring is precisely to create a painting that with colors that flow and mingle with each other harmoniously.
Maybe it might not seem simple at first sight...
But once you learn the basics of acrylic pouring and master it, you won't believe how easy it is.
It may surprise you that once you have the basics down, it can be quite easy to actually achieve a museum-worthy effect.
Acrylic fluid painting/ acrylic pouring is simple. You just need to have the following materials:
1
Pouring medium (you can buy it or you can make it yourself)2
Acrylic paint in any colors you want to use3
A painting surface that is ready to use. I recommend you use a canvas, tile, or primed wood.
All of the previously mentioned ingredients are necessary, but the star ingredient in this method is the pouring medium.
Here are some pre-made pouring mediums I personally recommend if you don't want to make your own.
Now that you have all materials on hand, start mixing your paints with your pouring medium. You simply need to add enough pouring medium to your paints until they have a heavy cream consistency.
Then pour your fluid paints onto your canvas. How you pour them will depend on what effects you want to achieve. Here aredifferent paint pouring techniques that you can try.
If you are a beginner, try the beginner technique shown in the video below.
You will see how the paint moves freely and creates different patterns. It's super easy: you just let the Acrylic Paint move and create a work of art.
For a more in depth look at thebest pouring mediums on the market, click on the button below!
Best Acrylic Pouring Mediums
For a most comprehensive list of paint pouring supplies for beginners, click on the button below.
Paint Pouring Supplies for Beginners: Ultimate Guide
Let me know in the comments below which pouring medium recipe you liked best!
