Paint Consistency for Fluid Art

 

It's not only about picking the proper colors for your subject matter, but, when it comes to selecting paints; viscosity, shine, and opacity are also important factors to consider. Acrylics come in a variety of viscosities to suit a wide range of purposes, from bottles of flowing acrylic ink to tubes of buttery thick full bodied paint. 

But, when doing a fluid art composition, it is very important to have all your paints the same consistency. Otherwise, the end product will be far from perfect. Different consistencies will have affects on your outcome. Usually, not what you want.  

So, to it is very important to make sure they are pretty close to the same consistency.

What is Consistency?

We're talking about the flow and texture of your paint, medium, and additive mixture when we say consistency.

When it comes to acrylic pouring, which is fluid art, obviously the mixture has to be easy to pour! You can compare your consistency to a few common household things, which will help you understand what your paint should look like.

Here are a couple items that you can use as a reference for a pouring consistency:

Honey that has been warmed up or chocolate syrup.

In general, your mixture should be free-flowing but not runny. It shouldn't stick to your stirring utensil in clumps or run off as soon as if you'd dipped your utensil in water. The paint should simply and evenly flow off your stirring tool when you remove it from the paint mixture.

You'll need to add a little additional paint if your paint is too thin and runny. Add a bit at a time, stirring constantly in between additions.

If the paint is too thick, you'll need to add extra medium. Add a little more at a time until the desired consistency is reached.  You can also use a small amount of water to thin your paints.

To make it easier to see if your paints are the right consistency, I created a template to check your paints before pouring. 

All you do is put a drop of paint in each circle and then tilt the paper to see the consistency. Then, it is easy to adjust the paints that are heavier or too thin. 

As you can see in the above image, the blue and green are very similar in consistency. The red is thicker and the orange too thin. 

What I would do in this situation, is add a bit more medium or water to the red until it is similar to the blue and green. The orange, I would add a bit more paint to thicken it up a bit.

If you want a copy of my template just click on the image below and save it to your computer and print as needed.  Make sure you use the landscape option before you print.  

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