Hot take: People keep forgetting to blend the edges on their paint pours

I see so many posts here where the cells are cool but there's this harsh line where the colors meet. Last night I spent 20 minutes just tilting my canvas and blending the seam with a toothpick and it made the whole thing look way smoother. Has anyone else figured out a better tool for this?

2 comments

2 Comments

young.emma17d ago

That toothpick method is actually smart but I found something way easier. I use a silicone spatula from the kitchen that my wife doesn't use anymore. It's soft but firm enough to push the paint around the edge where the colors meet. I got tired of spending forever with toothpicks on bigger canvases. The silicone doesn't leave streaks like a plastic knife does and it covers way more surface area in one swipe. Another thing that helps is mixing your paint a little thinner with the pouring medium so it flows better into the cracks on its own. I do one pour and then wait maybe 5 minutes before I even touch it with the spatula so the cells have time to settle in first.

patricia_king2317d agoTop Commenter

Yeah I actually saw a video from some guy who runs a small paint shop and he said the same thing about waiting a few minutes before messing with it. He called it letting the paint "relax" or something like that. I tried it on my last pour and it did make a difference in how the colors blended together at the edges. The thinner mix trick works too but you gotta be careful not to water it down too much or it'll just run right off the canvas. I heard somewhere that you can test the consistency by lifting some on a popsicle stick and if it drips off like warm honey you're good to go.