For many people cells are the holy grail of pour painting. So how do you get those illustrious and coveted cells?
Cells are created by physics. Which as a creative may not be your cup of tea. But as a well-educated artist what you have to know is that denser fluids move down through less dense fluids. You might ask, aren’t paints the same density since they are the same substance? Sounds good, but no! The density of paints is dependent on the compounds used to make the pigments. Metals are different weights than flowers or other botanicals used to make pigments. All paint pigments have a different densities. That essentially means that Mars Yellow and Dioxazine Purple have different specific gravities. Let me be frank. This is important in pour painting because you might notice that a color you really wanted in your painting disappears. What happened to that lovely paint color? Well, it is under a heavier pigmented paint that you layered on top of it because you didn’t know that paints have different densities. Golden paints even has a handout on their site outlining pigments and their specific gravity (ratio of the density of the pigment to water) which may find helpful. You can usually find the the name of the pigment on the back of the acrylic paint you use. You can cross reference the paints pigments you use with the Golden list to some extent if you are up for the challenge. Furthermore, the viscosity of the paint matters, as well, which most pour painters already know. Viscosity is the measure of how resistant the paint is to spreading. Pour medium lowers the viscosity of the paint and makes it easy to spread. Higher viscosity paints will cover lower ones.
Related Reading: The Science Behind Acrylic Pouring
Has all this blown your mind? Then keep it simple. Do what most people do, add silicone and hope for the best. While some pour mediums lend themselves to making cells, for most people the simplest way to make cells is to use silicone oil. Oil and water just don’t mix so they separation causing cells. Silicone oil can be purchased specifically for pour painting applications or can be found in household products you may already have. Below is a list of products that have either silicone or dimethicone which have been used in pour painting to create cells with some success.
- Treadmill oil (silicone)
- WD 40 (with silicone)
- Coconut Milk (hair oil) -getting hard to find
- KY Jelly or Astroglide silicone versions (not water-based type)
Products that may also help in cell formation:
- Dish soap
- Pour mediums (Floetrol) (Liquitex)
- Alcohol
- DecoArt Satin White Enamel for “clouds” and “pearls”
What are your favorite cell creators?
TIP-It has been said that stirring silicone a lot when added to your paint mixture will be produce many small cells while stirring the silicone very little in your paint mixture will produce larger cells. What has been your experience?
