What a week of pouring!

I think, finally, after months at it, I've made a breakthrough with my pouring.

Granted I did experiment quite a bit and had to change a lot of things but I think by Friday I had things figured out.

Before I go through my week of pouring I just want to say that I've noticed the composition and vibrancy of the pour seems to change as the canvas/paint dries. What could seem like an awesome pour while the paint is wet could look dull or at it's worst cracked once dry.

These pictures are the dried end result of this week's pour experiments.

Tuesday July 9

Starting the small with 10cm x 10cm canvases

Canvas: 10cm x 10cm stretch canvas
Canvas note: Brand new and already coated with gesso.
Style: Swipe, with silicone

Canvas: 10cm x 10cm canvas panel
Canvas note: Already had paint and recycled
Style: Flipped canvas on to drip paint

Canvas: 10cm x 10cm recycled coaster
Canvas note: Already had paint and recycled
Style: Flipped canvas on to drip paint

Comparing the 3 canvases you can see the first canvas which was fresh and stretched came out the best. The other two that I flipped onto the excess drip paint from the first pour, that already had paint on it has crack marks.

Wednesday July 10

Not really learning my lesson here....

Canvas: Canvas panel
Canvas note: Already had paint and recycled
Style: Swipe, with silicone

Canvas: Recycled placemat
Canvas note: Already had paint and recycled
Style: Swipe, with silicone

A couple of things here..

1. I need to stop reusing canvases that already has paint on it.
2. The swipe method is not my friend.

Thursday July 11

Finally learning lessons...
Both brand new canvases using the dutch pour method.

Canvas: Stretch canvas
Canvas note: Primed with gesso
Style: Dutch, with silicone

Canvas: Stretch canvas
Canvas note: Primed with gesso
Style: Dutch, no silicone

Thursday was defo my breakthrough day.
If you compare the two pours from this day you'll see the bigger canvas has big round "cells" ~ that's from the silicone.

A lot of people use silicone to get cells. But there are people out there who don't use silicone and still manage to get cells.

That's pretty much my goal here.

Silicone is great and all but it has a couple of major downfalls.

1. Too much silicone can split the paint which will result in the big round "cells" you see that looks like there's no paint on the canvas.
2. Clean up is required prior to varnishing the canvas. If you varnish or resin coat the painting while it still has silicone on it you'll find the varnish won't stick where the silicone is.

Friday July 12

Best pour day to date.

No silicone just me and my new canvases, paint ratios, heat gun and hair dryer.

Canvas: Stretch canvas
Canvas note: Came primed with gesso
Style: Dutch, no silicone

Canvas: Recycled round placemat
Canvas note: Primed with gesso
Style: Dutch, no silicone

Canvas: Stretch canvas
Canvas note: Came primed with gesso
Style: Dutch, no silicone

Canvas: Stretch canvas
Canvas note: Came primed with gesso
Style: Dutch, no silicone

What can I say? I had a really lucky day on Friday. By some miracle everything worked out. I got cells without using silicone, they dried perfectly ~ like so damn good they even maintained their vibrancy.

Sure the last canvas brought me grief and I had to scrape the paint off it a few times but it turned out alright in the end.

I did have a nervous night on Friday night. I practically baby sat them and looked in on them every few hours to see if cracks were appearing.

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What now?

Well, some of these will need some more work like maybe a mandala or something. Some are fine the way they are.

They will all need to be varnished or resined. Right now I need to figure out which varnish is best.

After that, some will be sent out as gifts, some, or at least the ones Hubby will let go will eventually end up on my etsy page.

I'd love to be able to keep a lot of them but we don't have enough walls. I love our house but lately I've been wishing it was bigger.