Flow Painting Technique

This technique is both simple and complex.

Pros: Beautiful, unusual technique, fun to do, mesmerizing to watch

Cons: Paintings take a long time to make and a long time to dry. Extensive prep time, mixing up paints, etc. Acrylics are milky-cloudy until dry - what can look glorious when wet can dry to a dark mess.

Preparing the support system:

I use a glass table supported by large 3/4" melamine sheets (very heavy - get a friend to help you carry - buy at Home Depot) on metal sawhorses . Ideally, your floor is super-level, then the saw horses or support table is super-level, then you are using the biggest thickest sheets of glass you can afford. I used 2 sheets of framing glass (1/10" thick) 36x 48 and one 24x48 to create a 4' x 8' table (not ideal but good enough). Eventually, try and set up three tables so you can do three large paintings at once.

Prepping the canvas:

I generally use a polyester-cotton canvas, 50-50 blend, Frederick's or similar, pre-gessoed. Buy it in a roll. You are going to use a lot of it. Get the 48" width to fit your table. Cut it to the size you want. Start with 36" x 48" or smaller to get a feel for what you are doing.

Fill the bathtub with water and soak your canvas for 5-10 minutes. Pull it out and let it drip dry for a minute.

Lay the canvas upside down on the glass and brush on a 50% (dilute with water) acrylic gel medium. This will be the glue.

Flip the canvas back over, center it on the glass, and smooth out all the air bubbles. Let it dry an hour.

With 100% gel medium in a squeeze bottle, go around the perimeter of the canvas and squeeze on a fence/dam of acrylic.

Now walk away and let this dry (or start on prepping your next canvas).

Painting Prep

I use Novacolor Paints out of Culver City, CA (great quality & prices). I buy gallon jugs of their Nova 206 thick gel and their Nova 235 thin gel. I also buy pint jars of the pigments I want.

Important note: Get yourself an accurate digital scale. Measure out all your pigment concentrations by weight, then add them to measured volumes of the liquid parts. You need to achieve reproducibility. This is the only way to do it. Once you have mixed up a pigment-gel blend, pour some out and let it dry - you need to know what it will look like when it has dried.

Bottom Layer: This is what is poured on the canvas first and spread out with a brush. I call it the lake. You want to pour (or maybe you don't?) the middle layer onto a wet first layer. I add some white pigment to a 75% dilution of a 3:1 ratio of Nova 235 to Nova 206. This is usually a very thin layer.

Middle Layer: This is your first layer of color: Mix the pigment concentrations into a 75% dilution of a 1:1 ratio of Nova 235 and Nova 206. Do the weigh pigment and measure volume technique. I use a knife tip to dip out the pigment and drop it in the jar or on the lid of the jar.

Top Layer: This is your top layer of color. Mix the pigment concentrations in a 75% dilution of a 1:3 ratio of Nova 235 to Nova 206. When this dries, it will crack, showing colors beneath.

Painting

Watch it - don't pour on too much. You may find you need to level the table better. Stacks of index cards work well for this. Sometimes you are only off level by the thickness of one card.

Keep several wastebaskets nearby to catch the drips, in case you poured on too much or your dam broke.

Drying

It may need a week to dry. If you didn't pour on too much, it may take only a day to dry. When it no longer feels tacky, peel it off the glass and move it to a drying room. Dry it flat.

Presentation

Stretch the canvas first, or mount it on a rigid substrate, then use a high quality varnish.

This canvas has a tendency to wrinkle when the humidity drops. Be sure and gesso the back after stretching to give it more rigidity.