Fascinated by all the breathtaking pour works of art, have you now decided to take the brush into your own hands? Would you also like to create impressive fluid pourings that are colorful and with many cells? We welcome you to this colorful world of acrylic pouring! Now it’s time to get down to business – but of course, there are a few things that need to be taken care of first.
As with many other hobbies, a few dollars have to be invested in some pour painting supplies. But what materials are needed for acrylic pouring? Which products do you need? What starting equipment should you start with? We will answer these and other questions in this blog post here.
What supplies do you need for paint pouring?
- Pouring paints
- Pouring medium
- Silicone oil
- Canvas
- Gesso
- Varnish
- Paintbrushes
- Knives
- Plastic
- Gas burner
- Disposable gloves
- Painter’s film
Below you will find the best colors, canvases, media, and a lot more. Many artists have tested all of these products and we can warmly recommend them.
Let’s go!
What kind of supply do you need for pouring paint?
If there’s one thing that many have underestimated is how addicting acrylic pouring can be! Unlike many other art forms (or hobbies in general) there is a rapidly increasing learning curve. In addition, you can hold the result in your hand almost immediately or decorate your walls with it.
So before you click your way through the links and online shops, think about your wallet! Before you buy something new, you should ask yourself this one question: “Which of these do I (absolutely) need?”
Necessary items
One of those things, of course, is the colors. Especially at the beginning, you should tend to prefer cheaper variants – because you will need an unbelievable amount of color! If your acrylic paints are not particularly liquid, you will also need a medium (similar to a thinner).
A medium prevents your colors from drying out too quickly and can drastically improve their flow behavior. And of course, you also need a canvas!
Optional items
Then there are a few things that are not necessary but can make your work process much easier and more pleasant. This includes the right mixing cups, mixing tools, drying racks, and other materials.
Last but not least, there is of course the cherry on the iceberg. Above all, these are the products that can give your works of art their own special, elegant touch, such as metallic or glitter colors. This also includes some so-called gloss media that give your surface the finishing touch.
You should get an adequate supply of these products. To get started, make sure you have enough paints and backgrounds to practice on. At least the essential things should not be spared in terms of quantity.
We have put together some complete starter kits for you that you can add to your Amazon shopping cart with one click – it couldn’t be easier! With most of the essential items, we will give you 2 to 4 options from the best products to choose from.
4 Basic Pour Painting Supplies:
For everyone who still wants to try acrylic pouring out, here is the list of supplies for acrylic pouring to get.
1. The pouring paints
Without any ifs or buts, the colors are the top priority when it comes to the materials for acrylic pours. As already mentioned, we recommend learning with cheaper colors initially. For this reason, you should limit yourself to a few basic colors in larger bottles.
These colors can then be replaced piece by piece with smaller, higher-quality colored bottles/tubes. The color spectrum can also be expanded with unusual colors or even special colors such as glitter or metallic colors.
Especially with a small budget or if you just want to try Acrylic Pouring, a few standard colors are completely sufficient. A larger variety of colors can always be bought later. Above all, you should have enough of the black and white colors ready, as you will probably use them very often.
Recommended products:
These are categorized into several options according to your budget and needs.
Cheap acrylic paint sets
One of the following sets will get you very far:
- First, we recommend the Sargent Art 22–2399 12-piece set. Sargen Art makes great colors. Mainly because of their price, they are the perfect entry-level model. In addition, with one purchase, you get all the basic colors you will need, and also in an appropriate or suitable filling quantity of 8 ounces.
- Another good color selection is also offered by Crafts 4 All, which is the 24 Tube Acrylic Paint Set. The price-performance ratio is great and the luminosity/opacity is also excellent. It’s one of the most sold acrylic paint sets online.
- Especially at the beginning and for the swipe technique, white is used incredibly often (e.g. also for ‘priming’). Therefore, you should always have enough white paint there. The Liquitex BASICS Titanium White Acrylic Paint is one of the most recommended white acrylic paint products.
Premium paints
If you want something special, you are in good hands with the colors below.
Recommended products:
- The 6-pack Sargent Art Metallic Acrylic Paint Set is ideal for a metallic finish. Especially with the special colors such as these metallic acrylic paints, the price-performance ratio is usually rather poor – you often pay more per tube on top for the ‘special’. For this reason, you can always try to get the largest possible bottle to pay as little premium as possible. The colors from Sargent Art are a convenient stash that you can use for a long time.
- One of the colors of a special kind is also the so-called Multicolored Color-Shift Paint from Folkart. It has a Chamaeleon effect, which means that it can change color when you change your viewing position.
2. A pouring medium for thinning the paint
Undiluted acrylic paint is too thick to pour. So you need a pouring medium that you mix in to create a more fluid consistency.
Your pouring medium is just as important as the right colors. Why? With Acrylic Pouring, you have to work with liquid colors – but unfortunately, many of them dry relatively quickly!
The Pouring Medium changes the flowing character of your colors without changing/diluting the color or changing the opacity and luminosity. You will also gain valuable time to work with the paint on your canvas surface. So it’s exactly what you want!
Similar to the Beatles & Rolling Stones, there are two big players in Acrylic Pouring: Liquitex and Floetrol. It’s best to choose one of the two to start with. As an advanced user, you can also combine both mediums for an even better result or use alternative brands. However, there are other unconventional options, especially for starters. In full, here are the full options:
Water
Water is not enough for a good result. But we would recommend giving it a try to see what happens. Why does water not work? The amount of water it would take to make the acrylic paint fluid enough would destroy the solvent/binder ratio; the paint then cracks and looks dull.
The following three pouring media in different price ranges are more suitable, as they liquefy the color without attacking the color structure. Water can then be added at the end to “fine-tune” the consistency.
Professional Pouring Medium
These pouring media have been specially developed for working with acrylic paints. They guarantee good flow properties, but are also a bit more expensive. Professional pouring medium is offered by various providers.
Liquitex is probably the best-known and best-selling pouring medium – the first choice for most. Since most of them do not want to switch to another pouring medium, delivery bottlenecks can sometimes occur even on Amazon. But the product itself fulfills all the wishes we have for a good pouring medium: It dilutes (liquefies) the paint, thus improving the flow behavior and ensuring a good volume of paint on the canvas.
We like the Liquitex pouring medium the best. It’s available in a 32 oz bottle. If you want to start with a smaller (and cheaper) bottle, then buy the Liquitex Professional Pouring Effects Medium, which is in an 8 oz bottle.
In the beginning, bothering yourself on comparison between the two is irrelevant – choose one and get started!
Floretrol
Floretrol is an alternative pouring medium. This means that it was not specially developed for the art sector, but is a cheaper “stopgap solution” from the hardware store or craft sector.
Floetrol is something like the industrial brother of Liquitex. Traditionally, Floetrol is also sold in hardware stores as a paint thinner for DIY projects. In the world of acrylic pouring, it has meanwhile also gained popularity and is a really good alternative to the pouring medium from Liquitex. But Floetrol can also produce particularly good results in combination with the traditional ones.
In short: Floetrol creates more cells, Liquitex creates larger ones. The choice of your medium therefore also depends on which look you want to create.
Floretril is much cheaper than the professional pouring media and we have had very good experiences with Floretrol – especially when you add it to the Liquitex medium. You may try out the Floetrol Pouring Medium for Acrylic Paint from GrandProducts.
PVA
PVA-based glue is the cheapest of the three casting media you could try. We wouldn’t recommend using 100% PVA glue though because it makes the colors dull. However, it is well suited as an inexpensive “filler” for anyone who wants to save money. Although originally designed for bookbinding, the Books by Hand pH Neutral PVA Adhesive is one of the best PVAs that can be used as a pouring medium.
3. Silicone oil for cell formation
If you are particularly keen on large/many cells, we can recommend a few additional agents that you can add to your mixture. Especially at the beginning, you are guaranteed to get the results you imagined – later you can vary the use and control the cell formation or your result through your mixing ratios.
If you want a lot of cells (and who doesn’t?), you can add silicone oil. Silicone oil is needed for cell formation so that the lower layers of paint can “break through” the upper ones.
Recommended products:
- You can choose either a spray like the 100% Silicone Acrylic Pouring Oil or like one in the pure, liquid version.
- Another option is the 100% Silicone Treadmill Belt Lubricant and Acrylic Pouring Oil. Don’t be put off by the name – the lubricant for treadmills consists of 100% pure silicone oil and is therefore exactly what you want in your Acrylic Pouring! Another advantage is the higher degree of purity compared to the spray and the avoidance of harmful or bad-smelling vapors – the professional version, so to speak!
- Another option that is not intended for acrylic painting that is also effective is the OGX coconut milk serum. Dimethicone is a skin-friendly version of silicone oil found in many beauty products. One of these products is, for example, this coconut milk serum that, in addition to its good smell, also provides an extremely large number of cells.
4. The canvas
There are no limits to the choice of your painting surface – whether classic stretcher frames, canvas cardboard, ceramic tiles, wooden panels, and even photo paper. Despite all this, the classic stretcher is probably the most solid and popular variant – the majority, therefore, limit themselves exclusively to it.
To get started, we recommend looking for the cheapest possible canvases. Acrylic Pouring, as has already been said, takes a lot of practice. You can save the most with so-called value or economy packs, as we have linked them for you below.
Recommended products:
- The Phoenix White Cotton Stretcher Frame Set of 5 – 16 x 20 inch is the bestseller in prestretched canvas online. It’s a good stretcher frame made of 100% cotton and treated with acid-free gesso for painting. The first pouring will most likely not turn out quite as desired – for that reason alone, we recommend starting with smaller formats. However, the canvas is available in different sizes, such as 8 x 10 inches. We particularly like the surface tension on the canvases (it’s “drum-hard”), as it prevents the formation of a ‘hollow’ caused by the weight of the pouring.
- We can also recommend the canvases from Art Alternatives. The Super Value Pack contains 12 5 by 7 canvases in a great entry-level size. So you can test certain color choices and slowly approach larger canvases.
- The next bigger variant, if you have already gotten warm with the Acrylic Pouring is the Art Alternative Super-Value Pack of 10 8 x 10 inches canvases.
- Stretcher frames with a wider bar also look particularly elegant. Of course, you have to use more paint for this – in our opinion, the particularly valuable look is worth it! Unfortunately, thicker stretcher frames are hard to find online – it’s best to go to an art supply store or a hardware store (or for offers like this one on Amazon).
2 Surface Preparation and Paint Finishing Materials
In addition to choosing the right colors, medium and canvas, here, too, the preparation and post-processing is the be-all and end-all!
5. Gesso
A large number of canvas manufacturers claim to have treated the surface ready for painting. However, if you want to be on the safe side or if you want to further improve the flow behavior of the paint, the prior application of a so-called gesso can be an advantage.
Recommended products:
- There is a multitude of options, especially with the so-called gessos. We can vouch for the original white Liquitex Professional Gesso. Since the gesso comes from the same manufacturer as the Pouring Medium, you can be sure that the products are compatible with each other. The opacity is also fantastic.
- Another option is the Liquitex Basic Gesso surface Prep Bucket. Here is an option with a larger amount, which makes sense especially in the advanced stage as an Acrylic Pourer. So you don’t have to constantly buy new things and you also save a little on the better price/performance ratio.
6. Varnish
If you use the Floetrol pouring medium, for example, your dried result may have a rather dull look. Regardless of this, it can usually take a while to create a pour that is required to be refined with an additional finish.
If the time comes, a so-called gloss medium or finish is required. This not only makes your colors shine, even more, you also protect the surface from scratches, light-sensitive fading, and dirt.
Recommended products:
- One of the most reliable varnishes online is the Minwax Polycrylic Gloss Finish. When it comes to the so-called varnishes, finishes, or sealers with which you can refine the surface of your dried Pours, the pouring community seems to agree: Polycrylic is the brand that brings all the desired properties with it.
- In any case, the Aleene’s 26412 Spray Gloss Finish is the most sold acrylic sealer for this purpose.
- However, for fans of Liquitex, nothing comes close to the Liquitex Professional Varnish. It’s available in gloss, matte, and satin finish versions.
4 Tools and Equipment
Fortunately, in contrast to other art movements, Acrylic Pouring does not require so many new tools and equipment. You should get a few basic tools, however.
7. Paintbrushes
A selection of paintbrushes can always come in handy. You will need to often use them to fill in the empty edges and areas of Acrylic Pouring with the overflowing paint.
Recommended product:
- The best choice of acrylic paint brush set is the 6-pack Acrylic Paint Brush Set from Aroic. However, it’s a professional kit but each pack contains 10 brushes.
8. Knives to stir the colors
The overflowing paint can also be picked up with a spatula and reapplied to the frame. The larger knives out of the spatula sets can also be used great for the swipe technique.
Recommended product:
- The bestselling spatula for painting is the Conda 4336973231 Pallets Knife Set. It’s a 5-piece set of stainless steel painting spatulas/knives with wooden handles.
9. Plastic or paper cups
The cups are perhaps the most important non-paint item for acrylic pouring. It’s where you’ll mix all the paints, as in the flip cup technique, or mix the paints individually according to color type before pouring them on the canvas. For ecological reasons, you can choose to buy paper cups for disposable use or choose plastic cups that can be used continuously and washed each time after use. However, many plastic cups for painting are also designed for disposable use and are not good for the planet. Otherwise, you can order paper cups in packs of 50 to 100 from Amazon.
Recommend product:
- The Special Green Grass Hot Paper Cup is a good option to choose from. Each cup has a lid and the product is eco-friendly, 100% biodegradable, and compostable. It comes in a pack of 50 and each cup measures 16 ounces.
10. Gas burner
An optional tool in your collection is a butane gas burner. With the directed flame, you get air bubbles out of your surface particularly well and you also enormously increase the formation of cells.
Don’t forget that you also have to buy the butane gas to fill the torch.
Recommended products:
- The best, in this case, is the TBTEEK Kitchen Torch. It’s Amazon’s choice for butane gas burner painting.
- The Zippo Butane Fuel is the most used lighter gas butane gas online and it’s dirt-cheap!
2 Items for Organization and Cleanliness
Acrylic pouring is, without a doubt, a dirty business. Therefore, you should make some preparations so as not to litter your surroundings with paint residues. You also need to clean your tools after use.
11. Disposable gloves
Disposable gloves are particularly useful for sensitive skin, but also otherwise if you don’t want to spend hours in front of the sink.
Recommended product:
- The Nitrile Disposable Gloves from Wostar is ideal for acrylic pouring. It’s powder-free and comes in 100 pieces.
12. Painter’s film
To make your work surface dirt-resistant, it is best to use masking or painter’s film from the hardware store. The film is available in different thicknesses – the thicker versions (> 4mm) are the best options if the film is to be reused.
Recommended product:
- The most used painter’s film is the Scotch Painter’s Tape AMF72 3M. This hand-masker is an advanced masking film with 72″ width and is clear in design.
Paint pouring supplies conclusion
Acrylic Pouring, also known as Acrylic Fluid Painting, involves pouring liquid acrylic paints onto a painting surface, usually a canvas, using various techniques. By moving the canvas back and forth or tilting it, you influence the direction of flow and the distribution of the colors. However, while the process of pouring the paint seems easy, the pour painting supplies needed are usually the most important and can sometimes seem endless. However, in this article, we listed the most essential materials needed for the pour painting art and gave you our recommendations on the models to choose.
We hope we were able to give you a little help with this compilation. We tried to keep the list and links as up-to-date as possible so that you and many others can easily buy the right tools for their acrylic pourings.
