My First Pour: The Final Results

After tweaking and tweaking some more, my first poured painting went from this:

Too much green!

To this:

I'm happier with it now that some of that green has been covered over.

These closeups show how many more colors were added to reduce the excessive amount of green:

 Golden Polymer Medium vs. Liquitex Pouring Medium

After the first pour, made with Golden's Polymer Medium (Gloss), I decided to switch to Liquitex's Pouring Medium just to see if there was any noticeable difference. And there was. While the polymer medium produced an incredibly deep layer with a "surfboard shine," crevices appeared on the surface as it dried. While some folks might find these to be acceptable, they bothered me.

So for subsequent layers I switched to mixing my fluid acrylics with Liquitex Pouring Medium. This product produced a smoother surface but it didn't have quite the ultra shiny finish I was hoping for. It was glossy but not quite as glossy as the polymer medium.

Now, it's entirely possible the age of my bottle of pouring medium may have had something to do with it. It was already several years old when I opened it the other day for the first time. I plan to buy another bottle to see whether fresh Liquitex Pouring Medium, used for pouring all of the layers, will produce different results. So the experimentation continues. And that's what's so much fun, in my opinion.

If you've poured acrylics, I'd love to hear what your preferred mediums are and what techniques work best for you. Do you pour on canvas, or do rigid substrates work better for you? Do you use fluid acrylics, or heavier bodied paints? To share your views, just click the Comments link below.