Probably the clearest, most straightforward video tutorial I have seen on cell pouring. Great results! Some other people's videos are soooo tedious! Thank you for sharing.
That was a great way to explain a frugal way a beginner can learn, I would imagine white glue can also be used as a thinner with added water then flick the scylicon
So many people make these cells videos but just say percentages of this and that, but when I tried them they failed. Thank you for this detailed recipe. I will try your method. 👍🏻
dude, thank you for being so forth right on your recipe, been watching weeks of videos trying to figure out what colours need the cell activator for a swipe using black on top
Its my pleasure! So, this is actually a common misconception and possibly why you might be having problems, but this technically is not a cell activator. Thats a specific term for the paint and australian floetrol recipe that goes in the bloom technique (and sometimes swipes too) What ive used here is a cell additive, in my case silicone oil. This is used very differently to a cell activator. I know its confusing that both terms seem generic but often if people use one like the other it doesn’t quite work correctly 😊 hope this helps!
Thank you for these instructions. I've been struggling with cells and didn't know why. My paint has been to thin. I look forward to trying once again again. I'm inspired.
My poring medium is a mix of 60% PVA glue 40% water and I use the cheapest Acrylic craft paints I can get with 2 drops of machine oil in each. My base is just white acrylic mixed with my poring medium. Cheap, cheap, cheap !!!
Ah! I am going to try this today. It looks gorgeous! I was wondering if you still suggest using white all-glue and varnish for an inexpensive mixing medium? I want to experiment using the least expensive mediums that work the best. Thanks so much for this and for all of your videos.
Yeah they still work as inexpensive mediums ☺️ you may need to go a little thinner to account for the different surface tension in them compared to floetrol
@@GeePours ...great ...thanks again! I will try both and see just for fun. Have a wonderful week. 😊 I look forward to your videos... they are all very helpful and inspiring ✨️ too.
@@GeePours But in the video you said the opposite, I believe. Didn't you say that you put a drop into all of the colors EXCEPT the black and the white?
Sorry i mustve confused this with another video. It never goes in the base, so thats the white. From there, its really your choice. Just the swipe color or everything but the swipe color are somewhat similar in look to be honest
Hey Michelle - no such thing! A pouring medium can be thought of as colorless paint in fluid form. It enables you to take acrylic paint, which is typically like a paste, and turn it into a fluid without compromising the binders that allow paint to dry as one cohesive film. Pouring medium can be retail manufactured - these are the most expensive but have the most longevity, but it can also be homemade from other water based materials that dry clear such as pva glue and water, paint conditioners like floetrol, and varnish, and while these are cheaper, they are also non-archival
I have a pouring medium wich is very thick. So i mixed it with water but than when i put the oil later to make cells....the cell just openes too big and you can see the canvas down below wich than looks awful. Any advise for me?
Hi, I've never used it, I thought I'd give it a try, I see you have a lot of experience, I'm looking for something for acrylic paints that will protect them from water, I want to paint rubber silicone fish with acrylic paints, those silicone fish are flexible, is there any product that liquid like water which i could use with an airbrush and with them sticking to the silicone fish any advice is welcome thanks
@@GeePours Some paint rubber fish with acrylic paints, and I read on google that the best paints are oil-based, just like you wrote, very good answer, I have to try both, thank you very much for the answer
Gee, how do you clean off or wipe away the silicone oil once the paint has dried? Does the oil affect the surrounding paint negatively eg. the paint takes a very long time to dry out? What happens if you don’t torch?
I clean mine with dish soap and water. Silicone oil can leave some texture and divots sometimes if you use too much. It doesn’t affect drying no. Torching is meant to bring it to the surface (thats what you see as a cell) if you dont bring it to the surface while its wet it’ll still get to the surface while its dry
@@GeePours Thank you for such a quick reply. Much appreciated 😊 So do you wait for the paint to dry then lightly wipe over the whole painting (cell areas) with a cloth dipped/wet with dishwashing liquid & water?
I'm brand new at this. I got my metallic acrylic paint with silicone oil. If silicone oil isn't recommended can I use Elmer glue? O really want to do this, I'm really excited but I don't want to ruin it. If you can tell me what i can use if silicone oil isn't good, i have Elmer glue. Please someone please help me i want to give this to my father for one of his birthday presents and I don't want to mess it up. Any help would be great.
So a genuinely useful piece of advice is to NOT make your very first attempt the one you want to use as a gift. Try the technique you want on a smaller canvas/tile first so you can practice. Dont attempt several techniques for cells in the same painting - it doesnt quite work like that. You only need one method at a time because each method requires either specific materials or recipes.
Some people use a baby wipe. I've noticed some baby wipes can leave copious amounts of fluffy bits... so check first. A lint free glass cleaning cloth wrung out with mild soapy water should be fine. Leaving it shouldn't make much difference unless it attracts dust or your wish to add a varnish on top. I'm no expert... just watched stacks of videos 😃
Windex glass cleaner works great. Just make sure it's completely "dry." Spray the cleaner on a paper towel and test a small corner and make sure no paint comes up. If paint comes up, wait a few more days and try again.
Im sorry i couldve sworn i replied to this - I use dawn dish soap personally. Its crucial you dont overuse silicone in the first place because it gets so deeply ingrained in the paint when you do. You’ll clean a layer and then it’ll get greasy again. If you stick to as little as you can possibly get away with, dawn dish soap or other alcohol or stain remover based cleaners generally do the trick. Do check whatever you use isnt so potent it reactivates the paint though (like 90% alcohol is too strong)
Very well explained. I have one doubt though. If I use Isopropyl alcohol for creating cells, do I still need to clean the painting as we need to clean after using silicone oil?
@@GeePours Thank you for your response. So why do you prefer using silicone instead of Isopropyl alcohol? I have seen you using silicone in most of the videos I watched. Amy specific reason for that?
You did not explain the base white . was it mixed with the same recipe ? or what paint it was show how you applied it ? Brush ? so am lost from the start ..
@@GeePours I didn't assume . I saw it already painted I asked how it was done because I didn't see the base colour being applied . It appeared on screen already done , Was it poured on or brushed on , I would assume that if it was poured on it would be thick , and if brushed on , would ne a thin coating . . . I don't know .
@@yefaircity okay let me back up then - any time you see a base in acrylic pouring, its going to be using the exact same recipe as the colors. Its not any different from them. If the recipe is 3:1, so is the base. If a recipe is 2:1, so is the base. The ONLY time this is different is when that base is called a “pillow” - that is made with house paint and its somewhat exclusive to a technique called the bloom. Everything is always wet and poured. If the base was dry it wouldnt make much of a difference to just painting on the dry surface. The point of a base is to help whatever’s on top glide easily.
Why swipe? Is that a "look" aka:one of many ways to do a pour? Ex. Flip cup vs. Funnel vs. Etc.? If so how do i get great cells say with flip cup or pouring in a cylinder?
Also 😅i watched your video when pouring on a cd disk and flicking alcohol, silicone oil, and swiping. Does " flicking" the first two do well with , lets say a 12x12 canvas? Is there a way to know when you have flicked "enough" oil, alcohol and/or water? Your videos are awesome; most informative, succinct!
Yeah you pretty much got it right the first time - a swipe is just one of several techniques. The explanation is that swiping spreads a shallow layer over the rest of colors - a perfect environment for your cells to pop through. Both techniques you mentioned would use exactly the same recipe here and the same theory (could also go a little thinner) this is a whats known as a medium consistency - the majority of pouring exists in this realm. Theres a few popular techniques that are thin and a couple that are thick, but the majority are a medium
@@suzanneensslen9736 okay so the flick - the thing you wanna keep in mind is that flicks make pretty small cells. You actually wouldnt want large drops of silicone anyway because you would risk it causing pits. What makes cells small is that they get sandwiched between other cells, and its practically impossible to avoid. If you’re happy with that, you’ll pretty much see it on the painting immediately - silicone is extremely efficient. What I would also recommend you try is poking in individual cells with a pin. If you dont smush them together, they can get impressively big this way, with much less risk of pits because a pin picks up a tiny droplet
@@GeePours To be fair, only someone who has lost their sense of taste and smell would like the smokes :) Which is in fact what happened to my friend. I didn't know there was a band. I'll look it up.
Hi Gee😊 Beautiful piece..😊 I have a doubt, what can be the reason of failed swipe technique? I have tried using pouring medium made with glue plus water (50:50). And then pouring medium:paint = 2:1. It doesn't form cells even though i have used silicone oil. It would be great if you could guide me with this. Thank you😊
Glue is generally a material that prohibits cells because its elastic. The best way to deal with it is to torch so you can help the silicone get to the surface. Glues are not all created equal so this one could be thicker than others. Try making it thinner and using a torch and hopefully this will help😄
Have you tried the other methods?😄😄 its really relative to its own field right? There’s not many things you can do in fluid art with just acrylic paint. Everything else in this video are standard fluid art tools like a pouring medium and a torch for bubbles.