To dilute acrylic paint strongly enough, the floetrol pouring medium is one of the best suited for acrylic paint. But what is this pouring medium, what is the best floetrol for acrylic paint, and how much floetrol to use for acrylic pour technique? These are what we’re looking at in this article.
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What is pouring medium in acrylic painting?
In acrylic painting, a medium refers to an additive that influences the color properties. A pouring medium is just one type of medium. It is used to reduce the viscosity of the paint and thus to increase the fluidity of the paint. This is the only way for the paint to run over the surface and obtain the desired fluid look. Simple, isn’t it?
What is floetrol?
Floetrol is an agent that is added to wall paints to be able to spread them more easily and to let them dry more slowly. In the meantime, however, so many artists have become aware of Floetrol and use it as an acrylic pouring medium. This is where the company probably generates the lion’s share of its sales from.
Since floetrol is not specifically marketed to artists and is also available in larger quantities, it is the favorite of many artists. The mixture with a good price/performance ratio is also well suited for cell formation because it is so beautifully liquid.
Although it has a white color in its original form, it dries as transparent as possible when the water has evaporated and therefore only marginally affects the color quality.
Why should you use pouring medium instead of water?
Water is liquid and can be mixed with acrylic paints. So it is obvious to only want to mix the colors with water. It is not a problem to liquefy acrylic paints with a little water and then paint them with a brush.
But, especially with the flow technique, the colors have to be thinned very heavily. If you only wanted to mix this consistency with water, the quality of the color would suffer.
Water reduces the color intensity. The individual pigments that are bound in the synthetic resin of the paint are separated too far from one another with water, which acts as a solvent here.
The result is an uneven, watery, and weak color film that does not have the desired radiance that is necessary for such an image.
Tip: As long as the amount of water in the total amount of paint is limited, it is okay to add a little distilled water to achieve the exact consistency.
The pouring medium is nothing more than a liquid binder based on synthetic resin, the same binder that is also present in acrylic paint. So it mixes perfectly with the color and binds the pigment instead of just pulling it apart.
Since the manufacturers of such mediums make their products particularly liquid, we can use it to bind and liquefy the color at the same time.
Other mediums for the acrylic paints
Floetrol pouring mediums are not the only agents that can be added to acrylic paint to change its properties. For example, there is gloss medium that increases the gloss of the paint after drying.
Drying retardants or structure paste are also mediums for acrylic paint. Structure paste creates the opposite effect to the pouring medium. It gives the paint a structure and increases its viscosity.
Liquitex Pouring Medium is the best-known product and something like the “gold standard” on the market. It is specially geared towards the demands of artists and therefore reliably delivers high quality. Liquitex is by far the most popular acrylic pouring medium.
Some artists argue that Liquitex, like other mediums made specifically for artists, is too expensive. Liquitex is relatively expensive, especially in smaller quantities. The price is put into perspective in larger quantities.
How to use floetrol pouring medium?
As we mentioned before, floetrol is a perfect substitute for medium, due to its price and the results in pouring works when mixed with acrylic paint. In this section, we will see how to use it for pouring your acrylic paint.
What you will need?
Asides from the acrylic paint, you will need the Floetrol medium, mixing sticks, pouring oil, and the mixing cups.
One of the easiest options to get Floetrol is to buy it in online stores such as Amazon. The best choice for painters here is the Floetrol Additive Pouring Medium for Acrylic Paint by GrandProducts. This product includes a bundle of wooden mixing sticks and includes two bottles of floetrol medium.
Then, the same floetrol pouring medium for acrylic paint is sold in another pack which includes 20 disposable cups that are perfect for pouring the paints on your canvas. Of course there is also the bundle of mixing sticks.
Now, if you have pouring cups and sticks already or anything that can improvise for their function, there is another version of the floetrol medium from GrandProducts. This pack however includes a bottle of silicone pouring oil for generating cells.
How to make a floetrol acrylic pouring recipe?
- To prepare an acrylic paint pour recipe with floetrol, the recommended floetrol to paint ratio for acrylic pouring is one part of acrylic paint and one part of floetrol. The composition of the pouring recipe using floetrol is very similar to that of a homemade pouring medium, with some exceptions.
- You must place acrylic paint in a container, add floetrol, and stir.
- This mixture of paint and floetrol will still be very thick. So you must add water (never more water than paint) until you get the paint pouring with the desired consistency.
Combination of different pouring medium recipes
By the way, you can also mix different pour mediums – some give a glossy surface, some flow better, with others, you get a dry matte look. If these are mixed, sometimes very surprising results are obtained.
So you can almost make your pouring medium yourself. You can also add and mix alternative pouring medium and professional products to it.
Mixing more than 2 or 3 products is not recommended. This makes the result even more unpredictable and it is usually unknown why that result was achieved.
Here are some of the recipes that have proven to be successful:
Recipe 1
- Liquitex pouring medium(one part)
- Floetrol(one part)
- Acrylic paint(one part)
Recipe 2
- Liquitex pouring medium(one part)
- Vinyl glue(one part)
- Water(1/2 part)
- Acrylic paint(one part)
Recipe 3
- Floetrol pour medium(one part)
- Vinyl glue(two parts)
- Water(1/2 part)
- Acrylic paint(one part)
What is the best mixing ratio for the acrylic paints?
What is the ratio of floetrol to acrylic paint? And do you have to add water? These are questions that we cannot answer in general. This is because both acrylic pouring mediums and acrylic paints come from different manufacturers and have different consistencies: some are thicker, some are thinner.
However, we can give you a good starting point as a general rule of thumb: Start with one part acrylic paint and one part pour medium. Mix these parts carefully and then test the consistency. This should be like thick honey.
If the consistency is too thick, you can add more pouring medium and mix again. You can also add a little water, but it is recommended not to add more than 20% -30%. Continue until you reach the desired consistency.
The consistency of the pouring mixture should not be too thick, otherwise, cracks may appear with quick drying. You should also avoid using a mixture that is too dilute, as everything will flow from the base and the cells will look undefined and worn. As you can see, the correct consistency is the essence of Acrylic Pouring.
By the way, you can also mix different spill mediums – some get a glossy surface, some flow better, some have a dull look when dry. If you mix these, sometimes you get very surprising results.
Conclusion
Using floetrol as a pouring medium for your acrylic pour painting technique is more preferable as it is cheaper and produces just the same result. The ratio of floetrol to acrylic paint is almost the same as when using other mediums. Just mix equal parts of the medium and paint. Some water can also be used for thinning the mix. Floetrol can also be used in combination with other fluid mediums as we have seen.
