Friday 28 June 2013

Acrylic Dripping Technique

I first saw this technique in a youtube video by artist James Kruse, you apply acrylic paint to a wet canvas,  then spritze with water and let the paint run and move.
It takes a little practice as to how much water you use and do but an old cloth under your easel to soak up any paint that runs off the canvas.

Here is a little test piece to show you the idea, I found translucent colours work very well and its important to have strong pigmented paint..

Spritz the canvas with water first and apply your Traditions acrylic paint with a wet brush.


Then gently start spritzing until the paint starts to move



 Too much water and you can end up with a blank canvas but you can keep adding layers of colour.


My first attempt was a bit of a disaster I thought, although I did like the colours. 
It was the small 10 x 15 cm canvas pictured below.


I put it to one side with the idea of covering it with gesso and using it again at some point.
Later that evening after a couple of glasses of Chablis it has to be said, I looked at the canvas again this time vertically and a picture started to appear.... can you see it?



No? Maybe this picture will help you.


Thats the beauty of this technique, it's so random but you can look into the canvas and start to see something, often as the paint is moving, this was the case in this Waterfall painting.


Here is  Jame's Kruse's Video.



Thanks for reading,

Andy


16 comments:

  1. thats cool, thanks for sharing. Wonder if you could do the same with neo colour 2's

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  2. I use a similar technique quite often on journal pages,often over a layer of gesso so the paint moves even more. I like the unpredictable effect rather than solid areas of colour! I like your canvas even before you turned it into a Chablis induced scene!!!!!

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  3. That's a cool technique! Thanks for sharing, I know what I'll be trying this weekend

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  4. How wonderful. May try that although I know mine will turn into a muddy field!!

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  5. That's wonderful! I'm gonna try it NOW!

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  6. Love the unpredictability of this technique Andy! BTW your photos of your recent day off took me on a wonderful memory trip. I stayed at Boughton on the Water on my first trip to Britain and I had and have never seen anything like the incredible enjoyment that people had at the River??? one Sunday. Dogs, kids, deckchairs and red bodies - amazing!

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  7. Oh I see a figure there, spooky or what! A great way of painting! Off to see if I can find the part two of James picture! x

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  8. I love the cascading water and the spray at the bottom; I'd end up with the spray looking like a snow storm no doubt.
    Love the colours on your before and after Chablis canvas too. I'm like 'whyducks' above, I thought there was a spooky character developing in the right hand corner. . . . Hope all went ok this week.
    Juliax

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  9. une technique très sympa ... que je vais essayer... merci pour le partage...

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  10. Almost magical! Thanks Andy

    Kim

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  11. Wow that's cool. Have to try that sometime

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  12. Just wondering if you had a very strong urge to turn the non-objective image into something more realistic? I did that too starting out meaning to paint a completely abstract painting. In your example I actually prefer the image before it was made into a landscape.

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    Replies
    1. It was a kind of a play piece on a small canvas so was not afraid to experiment a little... but yes agree with you

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  13. Thank you for sharing this interesting and informative article, painting with airless spray gun will be faster and more interesting!


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