Fluid Art: What If I Try This?

I’ve seen this idea around a lot on Pinterest and Instagram and, from what I’ve seen, it is supposed to be a relatively easy technique that makes really beautiful work. So, naturally, I wanted to try it out. The techniques I saw used either fluid acrylics or regular acrylics mixed with pouring medium. Since I didn’t have either fluid acrylics or pouring medium, I decided I’d try mixing my acrylic paint with PVA glue instead. I figured it had a runnier quality than my acrylics did and would also allow me to use less paint, so might work as a good substitute.

I tried out a couple of different methods, which created slightly different results that I thought I would share with you.

I mixed different colour acrylic paints and PVA glue together and poured them in places on an acetate sheet. I then moved the sheet around, allowing the colours to move and mix together. I used a toothpick to create swirls in the paint. I took another acetate sheet and ‘took a print’ (for want of a better phrase) of the paint. Then I swirled the paint on my original sheet a little bit more as a lot of the definition in colour had disappeared.

Unfortunately, I didn’t take photos of these two in their original forms, but because of their similarity in shape and because of the unusualness of that shape, I thought they looked good linked together.

The first attempt went well, but I was disappointed by how viscous the paint still was, so I added a little water to each of my colours and then tried the same technique. I didn’t take a print this time as the paint was a bit too liquid for me to do it easily.

In complete honesty, I’m not sure it was as successful as it could be (although that could be more down to the skill of the painter rather than the materials used!) The glue didn’t make the paint quite as fluid as I had hoped, so it didn’t run as far as I wanted it too, but despite that, I do like what I created, even if it wasn’t quite how I imagined it would be.