The Best Pouring Paints and Sets for Experimenting with a Freewheeling Technique
Create kaleidoscopic compositions with acrylic pouring paint. In recent years pouring paint has become quite popular, but the technique has actually been around since the 1930s, when Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros happened to discover the elaborate effects of pouring different shades of paint onto a wooden panel to produce what he termed “accidental painting.” Fluid dynamics are at work in the pouring of paint: When a pigment of greater density is poured atop a less-dense one, the two interact to mix and swirl—the more dense pigment tends to sink and the less dense one tends to rise. (The opposite pour, a less-dense paint over one of greater density, will not work.) Channel your inner Pollock and play around with pouring pigment over canvas. Investigate the possibilities by browsing our roundup of the best acrylic pouring paint sets below.
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Golden Acrylic Gloss Color Pouring Set
Although you can pour acrylic paint straight out of the bottle, you run some risks. Golden’s pouring medium helps colors stay separate from one another (thus avoiding a big pile of brown) and prevents crazing, the lines and cracks that can appear when the top layer of paint dries more quickly than the paint underneath. This gloss pouring set includes 8 ounces of pouring medium that you can mix to your preference with five acrylic colors in 1-ounce bottles, usually enough for several pieces.
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Arteza Acrylic Pouring Paint Set
Arteza’s set of acrylic pouring paints works well on canvas, glass, paper, wood, tile, and stone. The kit includes 28 vibrant nontoxic colors in neon, metallic, pastel, and classic shades, including four bottles of Titanium White and two of Mars Black to customize all the others. There’s no need to prep the paint; each high-flow 2-ounce bottle has the medium already mixed in. All you have to do is shake well.
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Mont Marte Premium Pouring Acrylic Paint Set
Create a shimmery marbled composition with Mont Marte’s set of 4 metallic pouring paints. Suitable for use on canvas, wood, clay, glass, tile, and rocks, this pouring paint comes premixed and ready to use. The consistency is thin, which creates smooth and flat surfaces when dry. Each bottle contains 4 ounces of free-flowing, easy-to-pour paint.
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Pebeo Pouring Experiences Kit
Pebeo’s Pouring Experiences kit has everything a beginner needs to get started but includes premium-quality paints rather than the usual student grade. The 8 colors of premixed pouring paint, which include white and black, are glossy, transparent, and non-yellowing for bright, sharply defined layers. Each bottle contains 118 milliliters (4 ounces). Along with protective gear like gloves and a tarp, four canvas boards, and glitter, the kit includes a handy dropper bottle of silicone to create the striking cells of color that many artists love.
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Faber-Castell Do Art Paint Pour Studio Kit
Faber-Castell’s set is a great introduction to the art of paint pouring for younger artists ages 7 and up. Containing six painting boards in two sizes, five colors of paint in 40-milliliter (1.4-ounce) bottles, and even an apron and gloves to keep clothes and hands clean, this kit includes every last thing your child needs to get going. The included accoutrements of glitter, confetti, and stickers keep things interesting time after time.
The Best Pour Paint
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If you’ve got an artistic side and love playing with different types of painting methods, pour paint is a method you’ll want to explore. You can put away your paintbrushes because you won’t need them for this interesting art form.
This style of painting is great for beginners and experts alike, and appeals to kids of all ages, too. The results of pour painting are always unique, unpredictable and visually stimulating.
In this unconventional style of painting, you create fantastical canvasses by simply pouring the paint onto the surface. This method creates a flowing design that simply can’t be replicated when you use a paint brush. While pouring paint onto a canvas seems easy enough, there are several techniques you can use to create different types of flowing shapes and patterns.
The best types of paints for this activity are liquid or soft body acrylic paints. They have the best fluid consistency for creating the flowing patterns you’re going for. Craft liquid acrylic paint is an affordable option that is readily available in many different colors. Artist-quality liquid acrylic paint offers intense colors with less color-shift while drying. This kind of paint also doesn’t crack when dried, so it’s more durable for pour painting. However, it is more costly than craft paint.
If you’re new to pour painting, it’s best to start out with two or three different colors. If you’re a pro, you can work with six to 10 colors. Try starting out with colors that are in the same family, such as different shades of yellow or orange. Another option is to use complementary colors, such as purple and green together. You can also go with iridescent or metallic colors to add a little sparkle and texture to your pour paintings.
