A Blindfolded Pour Project

In my last post I mentioned the concept of doing a blind folded pour—so that’s exactly what I did. Not all the way of course, think of the mess that would make! I started by putting all of my viable paints into a bag, gave it a good shake and pulled out the five colors I was going to be pouring with. I was so eager for the big reveal, let me tell you. 

Supplies I Used:

• DecoArt Americana in Cool White, Bright Yellow, Bright Green, Bright Blue, and Red Alert
• Artist’s Loft in in Black and Violet
• Canvas
• Plastic cups
• Plastic straws

This was not a series I would ever consider combining with my eyes wide open, but still I was determined to move forward. I was happy to have some of my more vibrant colors in with the dark, dark violet and black. Since this is a pretty dicey experiment I decided to pour on the back of an old canvas, a tactic I like to implement so I don’t waste valuable white space when I start to go off the creative rails.

 

I also wanted to do the actual pour and prep blindfolded, within reason. I decided to go with a flip cup because that seemed to be the easiest to manage without creating a mess disguised as a pour. I usually like to use either white or black for my base color in a flip cup when I can, so I started by pouring about half of my black into the flip cup and then putting my blindfold back on. Very carefully, I started to establish my colors in the cup. I had no idea what I was doing, and only had a guess at how much I was adding. When I took off my blind fold for the next step, (actually setting up the flip) I was floored by my little bull’s eye. 

I’d managed to get just about everything dead center, so there is something to be said for slow and steady! As I looked into the cup I realized, because of the weight of some paints, I still had no idea how much of what I had loaded into this little cup. I saw a little green here and there but mostly red and purple, I was truly in for a surprise and I was more than a little nervous that I was only going to have mud. I loaded up my cup onto the canvas, flipped, let it rest while I cleaned up some of my station and lifted it with very careful/nervous/anticipatory hands. 

 

All of my fears were whisked away with the appearance of this little blob! My vibrant colors were not swallowed up by the black, I had some unexpected cells, beautiful swirls of color— but then I realized I had to get to tilting to get the full effect. This was where the mud could definitely run to the surface, I had no idea how close together my red and green were, how dominate the black was going to be. But the tilting only made matters more beautiful.

I am so happy that this experiment was a success! It also opened my eyes to an all new collection of colors that I will definitely be keeping in my back pocket from now on.