What Would You Like To See?

This week I made time for some creative work (at least that's what it would meant to be), something I've been procrastinating for months now. Maybe you still remember my first attempt at paint pouring. I made a post about about my experience, Art Or Damage Control? When I wrapped up that project, I said I'm done with this as it was far from what I wanted. But in time, I said, might give myself a second chance.

Since then, I had time to think about what I did wrong and what I could improve to get what I wanted. This week finally I took the time and courage to give it another try.

For those of you who did not read my first post, this is what I would wanted to achieve, or something similar

Supplies

The paint I opted was the same as the first time, except for the yellow. Last time I bought a golden yellow, which was glittering. This time I went for the simple version, without glitter as I'm not crazy about the glittering effect, not to mention the price is only half for the simple one. I had some paint left from last time, but to be on the safe side, I said I'd buy new ones as you never know how much there's left in the bottles and how much you need. Having no experience makes me be more cautious.

One thing I did differently this time was use silicon oil. Some of the tutorial videos say this is one of the ingredients you need to get beautiful cells. I was able to buy it and was thrilled, thinking what gorgeous cells I'm going to get.

As far as the canvas is concerned, I opted for the same brand, but a different size this time. After some thinking, I decided I want something different, not the so called portrait size like last time, so I bought a 30cm x 45cm canvas, primed with 3 coats of Gesso. It's 100% cotton, 312g/m2 texture.

The Process

This time my working station did not look so clean, as the plastic wrap I used to protect the table was not so clean, neither were my gloves, but I'm not going to use new ones just to be able to make a nice photo. Recycling, reusing is a real thing in my life.

On the left I put the new paints, on the right there were the old paint. The fun began when I could not open any of the old paint bottles. I tried a few times but could not open any of them. Good thing I had the new ones.

These were the colors I thought I would use, but the red was not what I wanted. The one available in the shop was a bit too pinkish and I don't like that, so I thought I would mix it with some brown, orange and a very little black.

Not exactly what I wanted, but this is what I got. It was still better than that light pinkish red anyway. So I added some water to my paint to reach the desired consistency and silicon oil, for the cells.

One of the problems I had last time, or the mistake I made was not pouring enough paint. Lack of experience made me add less than it needed as I did not know how much is enough. Now I made sure to add plenty, to cover the top as well.

After adjusting the paint to cover the whole canvas, this is what I got. Awful, I know, but was hoping the next phase will bring me something better. One of the mistakes I made here was not mixing the yellow paint well and there were a few lumps in the paint. Should have removed those, but obviously I'm more clever now, was less inspired then. Apart from the awful look, what bothered me was the lack of cells, but once the black plaint will be applied, maybe combined with the wet paper treatment, I can get those cells to show, I thought.

I took two sheets of kitchen towel and wet the top of it.

Poured the black paint on the top.

Most likely I added too much water, as the paper got too wavy and as the canvas was wide, I did not see the kitchen towel didn't stick properly and made those wide stripes. When I noticed the kitchen towel did not stick, I stopped and tried to push it into the paint, but there was no black paint on those parts and pressing the paper into the paint made it pick up colored paint instead of black, as it was too late. Due to me stopping pulling down the paper in one go, you can observe a certain deviation on the lines as well.

Imagine my face, when I had to admit I'm not going to get what I was hoping for. I mean it's interesting what I got but far from what I wanted and still awful in my eyes.

Now, after two failed attempt, I can confess that when everything is lost, I tend to come up with some amazing ideas. I still had paint left and remembered that I had some thick cardboard pieces I bought years ago, sitting in my drawer, waiting for me to do something with them. I had no idea how acrylic paint would act on cardboard, but I had nothing to lose.

Watching a bunch of paint pouring tutorials made me realize I can do one on that cardboard, so I poured all the paint in one cup. Not all at once, but one by one, making sure to get some nice spots.

After pouring the paint and adjusting it on the cardboard, this is what I got. After the failed main attempt on canvas, this looked absolutely fantastic. I loved the little cells and the marble like pattern, even though the color was not exactly my stile.

My second attempt meant to be a little different. I poured the paint in a way to not make so many drops in the cup, hoping to get a different pattern. As you can see, there are not many drops dispersed in it.

Now look at the result. Look at those cells. Lovely I'd say.

Even thought the pattern changed after spreading the paint on the cardboard, I still liked the outcome.

After letting my canvas dry for two days, this is what I got. Cracked paint all over 😂😂😂

These are the cardboards. I did not want to use a photo editor on them, to adjust the colors as they look exactly like what you see.

Fixing the colors with a photo editor, this is what you get. A nice one, with bright colors, but far from what I have in reality and in reality there's no way to fix colors anymore.

As I had some paint left in the cup, I took a thicker paper, left from some product I bought once, and poured the paint on it to see what I get.

I loved those colors mixing nicely.

This is what it looks like now, after drying.

Conclusion

After I was done with my masterpiece and accepted my failure, again, the art lover and exhibition fan came out of me. I was standing in front of it, looking at it thinking what would I say if I would see the piece at an exhibition.

When visiting an exhibition, I'm always trying to understand what the artist wanted to express or transmit to the visitor. Looking at my masterpiece, the canvas one, I could say it looks like my road in art. Curvy, bumpy and cracked, with good parts and bad parts. But who am I kidding, right? 😂😂😂

I'm not the only one failing a couple attempts. I watched a video, in which the artist said, "you may not see this video, because if the experiment fails, I'm not going to upload it". She said she had so many failed attempt. If you know a little about art, you know that no artist made if right away, all of them had a bunch of failures. This is good to know but it does not make me feel better.

It was a nice experience, but the painful part can't be forgotten. These supplies are not cheap. If I think of the fact that I could have bought a pair of decent boots with the money I invested in this ... 🤦‍♀ But you can't have the cake and eat it too. You either try and accept that you can fail, or live with regretting not trying.

I tried, failed, I move on. Better stick to what I know and practice drawing or watercolor as it's cheaper.

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