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In a recent blog post, Watercolor Fun: Paint Pouring with Lee Walter, I mentioned that I enjoyed Lee Walter's demonstration on paint pouring so much, that I planned to give it a try. I decided to play with this technique to create my artist trading cards which will be exchanged at the upcoming St. Louis Watercolor Society's Christmas party. (Trading cards are very small, just three and one-half by two and one-half inches.)

To refresh your memory, in the paint pouring technique, paint is poured rather than being applied with a brush. Control is obtained by applying masking fluid to the paper which acts as a barrier, preserving the surface underneath. I won't go into quite as much detail here, so feel free to reread the aforementioned post.

Trying a New Technique

Trying a new technique is never as easy as it looks! Lee was very helpful with suggestions such as purchasing a plastic yard sign to cut into pieces to use as backing boards for these small paintings. I bought a medium-sized blank sign at Lowe's which I was able to divide into sixteen four and one-half by three and one-half inch pieces. Perfect! Another suggestion Lee offered was to keep the image simple and to limit it to three or four pours (layers/values). (By the way, the image above has five layers if you count the white of the paper, which equals four pours.)

I was ready to get started! I first tried a few "easy" things like holly leaves and berries, and snowflakes, with little success. I decided that birds might be better, since that's my thing anyway. It turns out (surprise, surprise) that the more you love a subject, the more care you put into creating it, which leads to a better outcome!

Basic Pouring Process

The first thing I did was tape each trading card to a yard-sign-backing-board, using blue painter's tape so I'd be less likely to tear the paper when the tape was removed at the end of the process. I then transferred my image in simplified form onto the trading card (by the way, my trading cards are painted on Arches 140 lb Cold Press watercolor paper). I preserved any areas I wanted to remain white with masking fluid (the kind that dries clear), and once it was dry, I was ready for my first pour!

I dug through my cabinets and found several glass jars (baby food size) and squeezed into each a small amount of tube paint (a yellow, red, blue and green), adding some water and stirring well. I now had four colors to choose from for my first pour. (Remember, the paint will dry significantly lighter, so don't dilute the paint too much.)

Over an old wash tub I held my little board and first spritzed it with water. Since the piece was so small, I didn't actually pour the paint from the jar, but I used an inexpensive plastic pipette to drop in each color. After tilting and turning and letting the paint mingle, being satisfied with the color variation, I wiped the excess paint from the edges and set it aside. I repeated the process for all sixteen pieces, assembly line style!

In case you are wondering, in the above video the brush is used as a "thirsty" brush to remove excess paint from the edges and from the masked areas.

After the pour, the painting must be bone dry before applying the next layer of masking fluid (which will preserve the next-lightest areas). The paint pouring technique is a very time-consuming process because the piece must be left to dry naturally (all day or overnight) after each paint layer and after each masked layer.

Above: Examples of a few stages in the pouring process. Since the masking fluid dries clear, you can see the lighter values that have been preserved.

Personal Observations

My least favorite part about this technique is the masking fluid. I've worked very hard the last few years to learn to paint around the light areas in my paintings (as in my negative painting technique), but in the pouring technique, practically everything gets masked! It forces you to think a little bit differently, and I find painting with masking fluid is not something I enjoy. It's sticky and messy and you have to constantly clean out your brush. But for me the worst part about the masking fluid is having to remove it. It took me almost three full minutes to remove the masking off one of these little paintings! I don't know why it was so difficult for me when Lee made it look so easy!

Even though I've decided that paint pouring is not my preferred method of painting in watercolor, there are things I like about it. I love the actual pouring part, even though it is messy. I love watching the colors mingle; I love directing the paint and playing until I'm satisfied. I think the pouring part is much like the layering technique that I enjoy so much in my portraits and negative painting pieces. The resulting colors are fresh, unique, and vibrant; even the created neutrals glow! 

I wasn't sure if I'd be okay with those inevitable hard edges left by the masking fluid. But even though the results are not in the style that I prefer, I found that you can actually create soft edges (by lessening the value change in subsequent layers), and even create lost edges (by leaving gaps when masking out areas).

Can you find any lost or soft edges in the Cardinal paintings above?

I love the glowing colors created by this technique!

Finally, I love the full range of values possible in this technique. By the time I got to the last layer, I created the darkest areas by mixing bolder colors using less water which gives the appearance of black.

Have you experimented with your watercolors today?

Paint. Love. Repeat.