Pourable acrylics in bottles generally have significantly more water to achieve a fluid consistency, while traditional tube acrylics are thicker and contain more pigment, with less water. The base of acrylic paint is water, and tube paints, especially artist-grade “heavy body” paints, will have a high water content of around 45-55%, but this is still much less than what is needed for pouring. Pouring paints or those thinned for pouring will have a much higher water ratio to achieve the desired flow.
Tube Paint (Heavy Body/Soft Body Acrylics)
- Consistency: Thicker, with a heavy or soft body that requires thinning for pouring.
- Water Content: Typically contains 45-55% water as a base, but this is not enough to make it pourable without modification.
- Pigment: Often contains more pigment, making it a higher quality paint.
- How to make it pourable: Water is used to thin tube paints for pouring, but it’s best to use a pouring medium or Floetrol to help maintain the paint’s integrity.
Pourable Paint (In Bottles)
- Consistency: Specifically formulated to be fluid and flowable, often from the start.
- Water Content: Will have a significantly higher water content than tube paints to reduce viscosity and achieve a pourable consistency.
- Purpose: Designed for techniques like acrylic pouring and fluid art.
- Types: Can be either pre-mixed pouring paints that are naturally thinner or specially formulated fluid acrylics that have a very low viscosity.
Key Difference:
The main difference is not the presence of water, but the amount. Pourable paints have a much higher water-to-paint and water-to-medium ratio compared to tube paints, which are designed to be thinned down by the artist or are thicker to begin with.
Now let’s talk about fumes.
Don’t believe me so just go read the great article at CraftersMag.com titled Are Acrylic Fumes Dangerous?
This article will walk everyone through the following topics:
- Understanding the dangers
- Composition and volatility of acrylic fumes
- Potential health effects
- Precautions to minimize exposure
- Safety precautions
- Water based versus solvent based acrylic paints
- Ventilation tips
This is why I said earlier, when I open a new 100ml jar of paint and I detect an odor that I feel should not be coming from a water based type paint I decide to throw it away and notify the seller that I will not purchase from them again, or will use in an extremely well vented environment. The fumes come from the drying process mostly, although they can emanate from the application process based on the increased area of exposed paint to ambient air ratios.
I fully enjoy painting with high quality water based acrylic paints on these 3D puzzle kit builds.
Thank you to share this information 