Fluid Art with Acrylic Paint and Water

If you have followed this blog for a while, you may remember back in August of last year and again in February of this year, I tried to make fluid art. Needless to say, on both occasions I didn’t have much success (or at least not as much as I wanted) which is why I am back here again with another post. On my first try, I mixed acrylic paint with PVA glue and water, which you can see the results of here and the second time, I mixed fluid acrylic paint with matt medium, which you can see here. Neither attempts produced the results I was looking for, based on other people’s examples and knowing what is possible.

My main issue is that I wanted to find an alternative to buying mediums, just because I wanted to try out the technique with things I already had, to see if I liked it or not before spending money on more specialist stuff. I realise that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but I was convinced there was a way and after much searching on Youtube, I found the answer I was looking for!

I had briefly tried to make fluid art with a mix of acrylic paint and water, but I must have got the wrong consistency so assumed that it didn’t work, instead of assuming I had done something wrong. I found out, during these trials, that it is quite easy to get it wrong and how important it is to get it right.

My first attempt, unfortunately, didn’t go to plan. I got the consistency of the paints wrong: most of them were still too thick and one was much too watery and not mixed well enough. I tried it anyway, thinking it would somehow magically work itself out, but it didn’t. (Surprise, surprise.) I also made the mistake of trying it on paper which was much too thin and fragile for paint pouring and was impossible to manage.

My second attempt wasn’t much better. I didn’t add enough water to any of the paints this time, so they didn’t spread enough. For some reason I though adding water after the fact would somehow help things along, but of course, it just made more of a mess. In a way, the effect it created was kind of interesting – it looks like a picture that has been left out in the rain – but it wasn’t what I wanted.

My third try was much better. I had figured out by this point that the paint needed to be watered down a lot more. This time was much more successful and I managed to create a really nice pattern with the colours I chose. However, I accidentally dropped the canvas board paint-side down onto the sheet of plastic I was using to catch excess paint, which create the effect you can see on the top and bottom edges. It does look quite good, fortunately, but it wasn’t created as a result of moving the paint around.

My fourth attempt, unfortunately, when wrong again. I didn’t add enough water to the paints before pouring them out onto the paper and as a result they didn’t move well. I used a toothed tool to create the patterns in the paint, just to try and salvage this mistake into something that could be something, but I’m not convinced.

My last two tries were my most successful. I watered the paint I was using from my last attempt down and it ended up working really well. I tried the technique on thick, watercolour paper instead of canvas board to see if that would work, just because I prefer working on paper. It was a little tricky to manage when the paint had been on the paper for a while, but it was just about workable, although I was working at a small size (A5) and I can imagine any bigger would become more difficult.

I’m really glad I tried this again and managed to find a technique that created the affect I wanted. It is definitely something I’d do again, but maybe on a bigger scale or using different pouring techniques. I know I am just at the tip of the iceberg in terms of what is possible when it comes to fluid art, so it is something I’d like to explore further. You never know, there might be a part four coming soon!