Up until now I have made pour paintings with acrylic paint, but I thought... why not try tempera! What's the worst that can happen, right?
So what are the differences between those two?
Acrylic paints are permanent, thick paints that blend beautifully and dry to plastic.
Tempera is not permanent, it's much thinner and more liquid than acrylic. It also doesn't blend that well. They are called kids paints because they are easy to wash off.
I wanted to see if it would be possible to do a pour with tempera and for that I have tested Arteza Tempera Paint Set of 16 colours. Straight away I was amazed by rich, bright colours. There was a sparkly gold and glow in the dark paint in the box too! I mean, what's not to love. They come in big sturdy bottles, easy to squeeze and close so nothing gets spilled :)
I have tried Tempera Paints on Arteza Stretched Black Canvas (pre-primed with black acrylic gesso). I was afraid tempera might be too transparent so wanted to try it on black canvas but actually there was nothing to be scared of, transparency was just right. I have already made few pieces on white canvases too and you can't see canvas through paint :)
Tempera doesn't need much water to get that perfect pour painting consistency (pancake dough) so I was pleasantly surprised at how fast I had all the colours prepared. Added a bit of silicone spray (of course) and voila! I was ready to pour. I have used flip cup technique for the painting in the photo. Paints don't blend as easily as acrylic paints and thanks to that you get really amazing, candy marble effects (at least it looks like candy marble to me). Because I have used both the glow in the dark and gold glitter one in the mix, everything sparkles gorgeously. Colours turned out so amazing! Cells don't pop up as they do with acrylic paint but air bubbles continue to burst while paint is drying so in the end you get a lot of tiny pretty dots. Paint fluidity is also different to acrylic paint so you will need more paint for a pour than you would with acrylics. When poured on canvas, paint is kinda chewy, I'm not sure if that's the right way to describe it but that's how it feels.
Tempera is definitely not just a paint for kids. Tempera pours are truly magical and I'm absolutely hooked! Colours and shapes you can achieve with it are so gorgeous and unusual!
You can see tempera in action in the below video:
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