What's in this video:

• How to prepare your paint for pouring
• How to mix it
• Consistency to aim for
• How to fix lumps

Important Tips:

For many techniques you need to layer paint in a cup, do not mix this!

Just let it layer one colour on top of another. Try to use some plain white/cream/light grey or black to break up these layers. It looks better when you pour - trust me!

Best Paint To Use

Low quality paint can cause issues in paint pouring. Low quality includes the cheapest bulk options at your hardware store. Some cheap paints are largely made up of water and can crack when they dry or have low pigmentation (colour strength) and separate when pouring.

We recommend student acrylic paint. Student acrylic's are good enough quality, not too expensive and look great. High quality acrylic paint or normal quality Bunnings house paint is also good.

Notes On White Paint

Adding small amounts of white to your colours will:

• Tint the paint colour by lightening the 'tone' (lightness or darkness) of the colour
• Increase the 'opacity' (solidify the colour so it is no longer translucent)

So if you have a colour that is too dark, add some white, if it is too light add a hint of black.

If you are not getting cells:

No cells can mean not enough floetrol (or pouring medium) in the mix!

- add some more and make sure your paint consistency is similar to our example in the video above.

If you want LOTS of cells. Purchase some silicone oil from the craft store and add a couple drops to your paint when mixing. It will give you thousands of large cells!

If you are getting lumps in your paint mix:

Mix very thoroughly - if you have paint lumps it means you didn't mix enough.

Please note, occasionally floetrol will have some lumps. People often filter floetrol through a colander to stop these lumps. I don't do this myself because its extra work and I like to have little extra work when painting (haha). Sometimes I pick out any lumps in my painting with a tweezer, or let the paint dry over it. Usually you hardly notice little lumps once it dries.

If you have big lumps it may mean you let your paint sit out overnight and it oxygenated slightly, little patches dried causing lumps.

But if you want to avoid any chance of lumps, filter your floetrol. And make sure you don't leave your paints out overnight without their lids on.

How to clean up

If you have paint left over at the end of a paint pouring session, cover it with something like aluminium foil or cling wrap and use it again!

You need to cover it though or it can start to dry and get lumps when you next go to pour.

Freshen it up with a touch of floetrol when you go to use it later but try to use it within a few days.

When you are finished paint pouring, clean out your paint cups outside with a hose. Let it go into the sand if you can. If it goes down the drain the acrylic paint doesn't completely break down and can end up in our oceans.

Thank you for completing Lesson 3 - See you soon for Lesson 4!

Bec