During my last pour I started thinking about what could make the perfect circle swipe. Of course, “perfect” is a relative term and this art form is about nearly everything but, nevertheless I can’t squash my curiosity without first looking into it. With my primary circle swipe I used a damp paper towel as my swipe tool, it’s the only tool I’ve ever actually used for a swipe because I’ve always found that it does the trick. But for this specific experiment I needed a little more control over the circular motion to get more paint swiped the first time around.
Supplies I Used:
- DecoArt Americana in Cool White, Bright Yellow, Bright Green, Bright Blue, and Red Alert
- Canvas
- Plastic Cups
- Plastic straws
- Foam paint brush
I prep my paintings with a foam brush and I got to thinking that this might be my best bet at the illusions of control and perfection with this technique I can’t get out of my head. I picked out my smallest brush size from my pack and prepped my canvas, I decided not to go big or go home with this one since it was just a little experiment. I mixed up a very small amount of paints, also using this as a little experiment in color theory, and created a series of puddles on my canvas. I paired things I knew would work together but that I hadn’t necessarily used in a pour before.
For some of these puddles I did have to swipe twice, once with a slightly damp brush and once with the dry brush, and it definitely worked for some puddles better than others.
For my pink and yellow puddle, using the foam brush almost completely wiped it out, like a sponge cleaning up a mess. But for my blue and pink puddle things were much different. The colors maintained after both the wet and dry swipe, with just a little bit of the canvas showing through. My blues, greens, and yellows followed suit for the most part, but it seems that for this technique anything not directly next to yellow on the color wheel will almost entirely eat it up.
So my foam brush probably isn’t my ideal circle swipe tool, but I do think it could create a neat little effect in future pours. Maybe as a little whirlpool embellishment in a deep sea themed pour! I’m always on the lookout for my next pour as you well know.
PS Koz is new to the acrylic pouring game but she’s diving right in and has no intentions of looking back! A student of the universe, there is nothing this artist loves more than learning and trying new things. Her other hobbies include reading, foreign language, and salsa dancing.
Love reading all the new ‘experiments”. My latest learned trick is that saran when used for some experiments, tends to stick to itself before you get it placed. Those little newspaper wrappers that keep your paper dry when tossed on your lawn are ideal. Snip open the seams and there you go!