A Boot Pour

Remember my £1 pair of boots I picked up at the car boot? Well I decided to play with one of them today. (BH Monday).

I had/have no idea what I was doing but I decided I wanted to do a paint pour over the boot! I mixed about 8 colours of paint, including black and white and took the lace out of the boot.

Once I'd mixed all the paints I poured them all into one big coke cup. This is what I ended up with.

And this is how much the cup was filled up. I had no idea how much I would need!

Before I got to this stage I needed assistance. Once I'd poured the paint and covered the boot I was stuck. I never thought about what I was going to do with it or how it would dry. So I shouted Martin who put a carrier bag over a cooling rack for me and I stood it on that. I took it outside and paint is still dripping off it three hours later. That tells me I used far too much paint, but hey ho.

The only problem is, with the paint still moving, the pattern is changing all the time and it's difficult to 'save' something that you like. This is still soaking wet and the paint is still sinking down.

From the zip side, but again still very wet and the paint is still moving.

I was asked the other day if there is much wastage, and the answer is yes, lots! I'm not sure if you can see from this photo as the excess paint is caught on a piece of thick cellophane in a tray and it's quite deep. It may be my fault as I may have used too much, but I've been caught out before not having enough. I did contemplate tipping it onto a canvas, but as I wasn't too far away from making mud with all the colours, I decided just to leave it to get a skin on it before I dispose of it, as I reckon it will take weeks to dry! 

Three days later, totally dried, this is what I've ended up with and I love it.

View from the non zip side.

Close up of the front of the boot. Here it's held the colours and shape better because it was a flatter surface and didn't have far to drip.

Close up of the outside of the boot, some great colour combos going on.

Love this section here where the yellow has come through.

Another close up, love how it's come out.

And how the paint has continued and dripped over the sole of the boot.

And this is the zip side of the boot.

I really love it and not bad for a first boot pour.

All paint products are from the DecoArt range.

String Paint Pour

I picked up a pack of cheap canvas's yesterday morning in Lidl, 20 x 30 cm (8" x 12" approx). I mixed my paints, just using three colours and black.

These are the colours I used and mixed them approx 1:1 ratio with the pouring medium.

I was doing really well until I decided to try and be clever and spoilt it. On the left hand side I'd done the pink but I decide to put another white one over the top and totally washed the pink one out and spoilt it. But at least I know where I went wrong. Luckily I can paint over it and try again!

And today now that it's dried properly, I actually like the way it's turned out. The purple is much darker and lays over the pink and white, it's quite effective really in the end! So I'll be leaving it as it is.

More Paint Pouring

Yesterday I had another play with paint pouring, but decided to try on a smaller scale.

This time I tried the swipe technique with a damp kitchen towel.

And this is what I ended up with. I would have liked more cells and probably less white, but it was only my first try!

Then I tried one on watercolour paper. This one is still drying this morning! Still not many cells to speak of and the green has somewhat taken over too, but I have less white showing.

This morning, this one is dry and I'm quite pleased with how it came out.

Close up of the cells which came out pretty good, but they are quite small.

And this one wasn't quite dry, as you can see, top left, I stuck my thumb in it!! I cut out a face profile, drew round it and painted it black.

Close up of the cells, again not many of them for some reason.

I think I've left too much white paint over the colours, ie I didn't swipe enough off. 

And just an update on this one, I added an image.

All paints and pouring mediums are from the DecoArt range.

Paint Pouring Play

Today I decided to have a play with paint pouring. I mixed the paint with the pouring medium to a watery consistency.

I started to pour each of the colours over the bottle bottoms which created the flower shapes.

I stopped when the paint started to flow over the edges. Used a wooden tool to pull the paint to give the petals more shape.

As I had loads of paint mixture left I did the puddle pour and then blew them out with a straw, which sort of created a flower. I forgot to go back in whilst they were wet and drag some paint to define some petals and add a bit of black to outline them. But not to worry, it was only my first go. 

Here they are just leveling out a bit, but as you can see, I still had loads of paint mix left. I did move them outside to dry, but then it rained and I forgot about them, so they got a bit wet again!

So with the excess, I used the white, black, orange, red and purple and also mixed up some pewter and old gold metallics. I added some silicone oil into the mix in the hope of creating cells, but that didn't work out.

Close up of the middle part of the canvas which is quite large at 20" x 16".

And this is a close up of where a lot of the white came through.

This one is still on the dining room table drying!

All the products are from the DecoArt range.  I used the Americana acrylic paints and pouring medium.

DecoArt Pouring Medium

I was very kindly sent these products from DecoArt to play with - Americana paint set, pouring medium and top coat.

As it was a beautiful day, I decided to set up in the garden, especially as it's messy!

I chose four of the colours from the pack and mixed them 50/50 with the pouring medium.

Then I poured them one by one into another cup, black first, then the pink, grey and lastly the white.

And this is how much paint I had in total.

I took a 12 x 12 canvas, placed it on top of the cup and flipped it over.

And this was the result. Firstly I didn't make up enough paint as I couldn't get it to spread across the whole of the canvas, and secondly, I think I'd have been best to cover the surface in either a black or white mix first. Good news is, I've learnt stuff from it.

So I decided to have another go using the same colours.

This time I made up much more and had 3/4 of a cup as opposed to 1/4.

And this is what I poured out after lifting the cup off. I then tipped it and dribbled it to the edges.

I decided to try some different colours but didn't have much pouring medium left, so went for a smaller canvas.

Not much mixture to play with again.

Blue, green and white, and then I tipped.

I also tried the remainder of this pot on a small piece of glass and mopped some of the excess paint up that dripped on the paper.

It was windy, so I had to hold the paper down with pieces of decking wood.

So this is my first attempt which I quite like. It wasn't fluid enough and I didn't mix up enough paint to start with. Also I dropped it face down onto the paper so that didn't help either!!!

This was the result of my second attempt using more paint.

I didn't have any large deep edge canvas's but love how this edge came out.

This is the result from the small, deep canvas.

And the edges.

They came out great.

The deep sides definitely work best.

And the last edge.

This is the one on the piece of glass.

It sort of split when it dried and you can see the light through it.

And this is the back looking through the glass.

This piece I just squished into the paint that had dripped off into the paper.

Tomorrow when they are fully dry I am going to give them a layer of top coat and we'll see if it changes anything.

I've also found out that I apparently should have created 'cells' using this technique, but as you can see, that didn't happen!!

I've had great fun and learnt a few things along the way that I'd do different next time, but unfortunately I've used all the pouring medium and we still can't get it here in the UK yet!!