I got the idea for this technique of applying paint while watching a documentary about Ken Kesey and the merry pranksters. They were using urethane paints and water to make the first tie die T-Shirts. The were using puddles of water and paint and putting their shirts in them and making some wild designs. I thought to myself I have urethane based spray paints, I could use those and a plastic tote filled with water and do some hydro designs on canvas.
These are a couple that I found in my storage unit while cleaning out my storage unit last month. I'll post some more when I find them. I did a bunch of them one summer. I know I have more that I haven't found yet. And there are a few in other peoples houses that I might be able to get photos of.
Because of the pressure in a aerosol spray paint can the paint hits the water and starts moving and gets all these swirls and marbling all on its own. I've seen it done with water softeners and cans of oil based urethane paints and the marbling and swirling is done using a stick or brush. It's comes out cool both ways. The aerosol method seems to be the easiest to come by.
Here I tried doing it over a canvas I had already start masking shapes onto.
All you need is a tote or basin or tub thats large enough to submerge the entire canvas or whatever your putting the paint onto. Fill it with water, start spraying your selected color palette and then try and place the piece as evenly onto the parts of the paint you want to stick to the piece your working on. Then try and brush away the remaining paint thats floating away with a rag or newspaper so it doesn't also stick to the piece as your removing it from the water. Then remove in form the water and let it dry.
Hope you liked the art and the quick tutorial. I'll try and do some new ones soon and put it in video form so you can see the whole process from start to finish. It's super easy and fun when your just trying to do some art project for color purposes only. There are more detailed ways of doing hydro-graphics as well. Like printing your design onto films of different variety and essentially doing the same process. Tub of water, float your design, dip the object, remove excess material, remove object, and dry. It's used in a lot of industries these days, from phone to automobiles, to computers, etc. Thanks for checking out my post and art. @zacharyscottrose