There are quite a few fluid acrylic methods that you can use to create paintings so I thought I would split off the techniques I have been using into separate sections as follows:

Acrylic Paint and Water

When I first started doing fluid acrylic paintings in around 2006 I started off using acrylic paint and water which was the simplest way to do things. If you are starting out and just want to use a simple technique then I would recommend trying this. It doesn’t produce cells but does give some nice effects and it is the cheapest way of doing it! You can see an overview of that technique on this page.

Pouring Medium

There are a number of companies that have brought out pouring mediums – they all have their own merits but they do obviously cost extra so check out some of the reviews that artists have done on YouTube to see which ones you might want to try. I tried the Liquitex pouring medium which was a lot different than using just water but I didn’t feel like I really needed it to produce great paintings.

Silicone

Many people use silicone in their paintings to get cells and it does work well – you can see some of the results of using silicone here. Take note though that silicone is nor archival so should be used with caution.

Floetrol

This is my favourite thing to add to paint in my fluid acrylic paintings as it can produce some cells and gives interesting effects with hairdryer paintings. Check out further details here.

Discover your Own!

Obviously there are many ways that you can achieve fluid acrylic paintings and you may well have, or discover, your own fluid acrylic methods. People are always using new techniques and additives that can produce different and unusual effects so I think the message is that we should all go out and experiment!