Creating fluid art with any medium is a fun technique that can challenge new and experienced artists alike. Experimenting with this technique can help you discover a new method you enjoy. If you need more art supplies for this experimentation, Eye Candy Pigments can help. Our black mica comes in various shades so you can add your desired amount of intensity, depth, or contrast to your fluid art.
The Difference Between Resin Art and Acrylic Pouring
How do you enjoy making art? Some artists have a singular favorite technique, while others love to experiment. One fun art technique is fluid art. Fluid art uses a liquid to create intricate designs on various backgrounds. Two of the most popular fluid art methods are resin art and acrylic pouring. They are similar, but some differences between them exist. Read on to learn these differences.
What Is Resin Art?
As we described above, resin art is a form of fluid art. To craft resin art, you mix epoxy resin according to the instructions. You can buy tinted resin, add a colorant such as mica powder, or pour it clear and add fun details such as seashells later. To create masterpieces, you simply pour the epoxy resin onto the background of your choice. Many artists use wood panels so they can pour multiple layers of resin for interesting visual effects.
Acrylic pouring is another form of fluid art. To craft acrylic pour art, you mix acrylic paint with a pouring medium and water. You can make your own acrylic paint with glue, water, and a colorant, or you can buy premade acrylic paint. You then pour the acrylic paint onto the background of your choice. To create intricate designs, you can mix multiple colors in one cup, pour different colors near each other and swirl them into a design, or layer multiple colors on the background. Many artists use stretched canvas for acrylic pour projects so they can hang their pieces after they’re dry.
How Are These Fluid Arts Different?
The biggest difference between resin art and acrylic pouring is the medium. While epoxy resin and acrylic paint are both fluids, epoxy resin is thicker and heavier than acrylic paint. The thickness makes it easier to layer colors without those colors running together.
Another difference between these art techniques is resin dries more quickly. Depending on the number of resin layers and the environmental conditions, epoxy resin art can fully cure within 24 hours. Conversely, since acrylic pouring includes a pouring medium and water, it takes longer to dry. You may have to wait two to three days for acrylic pouring to fully dry.
Creating Fluid Acrylic Paintings
October 12, 2018
Resin is my favourite finish for fluid acrylic paintings as it really brings out the colours and gives a glass like finish but one of the problems with resin is how to stop those holes from appearing in the resin when it dries.
The reason these holes form is usually because it reacts with the silicone oil or Floetrol (or on some occasions it just seems to dislike areas of paint!) and gets repelled away from those spots leaving a hole where the original painting shows through which can be really disappointing. You may not get the holes if you don’t use silicone or Floetrol.
This is a real bug bear for a lot of people and there have been quite a few solutions put out there that are supposed to cure this problem (of which I think I have tried them all!).
Some of the solutions are (and these do seem to work for some people):
- leaving the painting to dry for a number of weeks before using the resin (this may not always be possible)
- spreading cornstarch (which is known as cornflour in the UK) on top of the painting to soak up the oil (then cleaning this off some hours later)
- Cleaning the painting with dish soap (or washing up liquid in the UK) to get the oil off the surface
- adding a small amount of silicone to the resin and using your fingers to mix it on to the painting (be careful if trying this as it can cloud the resin)
But I have recently found a solution that really works for me. My theory behind it is to seal the painting so that the oil does not come into contact with the resin and hence does not repel it.
So I now put on 2 coats of a varnish/medium on the painting after it is dry and before I put the resin on. It is also wise to try and clean the majority of the oil off the painting first using some kind of dish soap. Let the painting dry completely before adding the varnish.
The varnish/medium that I use is just one that I happened to have in my studio, it is the Atelier acrylic medium (that is the link to the US product and you can also find it in the UK here) but I am sure if it was a matt or satin medium it would work equally as well, or indeed a different make, as long as it is able to cope with something on top of it.
When putting the resin on you still need to keep an eye on it for the first 20 minutes or so to make sure everything is covered but if you keep spreading resin over any slightly thinner areas you should get a full covering over the whole painting.
Some people say that you need to let the painting dry for a few weeks before putting the resin on. I have found that as long as the paint is fully dry and I sue this method, it works fine.
However, it is not totally foolproof, you need to really make sure you cover all the painting with the varnish, but it has given me much better results than I have had before from any other method of stopping the resin holes.
Here is a painting that has just had this treatment – the paint had both Floetrol and silicone in it so I gave the painting a clean with washing up liquid and then put 2 coats of the varnish on. One this was all dry I put the resin on and you can see that it has gone on really evenly:
Hope this may help someone – if you have a different method please let me know and I will try it out!
