Hello and welcome again. In this video we are going to be talking about what is the next step. If you enjoyed doing your very first acrylic pour painting, what is next? So let's talk about what materials you should get. Now that you're past using those cheap materials from the dollar store, let's talk about how to upgrade a little bit so you can get better quality paintings. So first of all, let's talk about some of the basic materials and then I have a few extra options that I think you'll enjoy. So first of all, obviously your canvas. You can use or you can find quality canvas at Michaels, at Amazon. Just try to make sure that it's not the dollar store kind. Second of all, your cups. You already know that you need cups. There's nothing special about the cups. However, you can use or you can buy cups or I wouldn't say cups. They're more like containers that have lids on them or like shaker bottles, like the ones that you use for like mustard and ketchup. You can use those as well because those have a lid. And then that way, if you have some leftover paints, it is much easier to save the paint and your paint not dry up while you're waiting to do the next painting. So get one of those cups or those containers that come with lid or one of those ketchup and mustard containers. But those ketchup and mustard containers are similar to this, you know, just bigger and they look white or they're clear bottles. But they'll have something like this at the top where they have a cap. And then you can just squirt your paint onto your campuses. And I really like that kind of bottle because it's easier to pour onto your painting or you can get more precision as to where you want your paint to go. So obviously you'll still need your sticks to mix your paints. Now this is another item that we did not use for our dollar store items. Now I suggest that you do get a scale, a food scale to measure weight, to measure or weigh your paints. Because this will give you more precision and you won't have to be guessing like did I add really two parts of my pouring medium and one part of paint. Like I was just kind of eyeballing it and that way if something comes comes up wrong, you know exactly how much you put of each of those items. And then you'll kind of be you'll be able to tweak that formula to get the exact result that you're looking for. So make sure that you get a scale. Also get some paints that are a little bit higher quality than the dollar store ones. Like these are not the best. They're not like the highest quality, but they're still very decent quality. And you will get great results with these types of paints. This is from a dollar roundy, simple acrylic and this is from artist loft. And this is academic level one. As you go higher up in the academic levels, then the higher the pigmentation, the more expensive they'll get. And there are a lot more options that I'll make sure to include in that link that I told you before. So you can get some quality paint that will give you some vibrant colors in your paintings. Now for your pouring medium, I recommend that you use flow at trial rather than using glue and water. Glue is great for beginners. And actually a lot of people still use glue like a lot of painters use glue. And as long as you stick to your formula, whatever formula you developed or if you're using one of my previous formulas, the one that I gave you for your first acrylic pour painting, and if that worked great for you, then you can continue using that. But I find that my paintings turn out a lot better when I use flow at trial. And you can get more cells, if you like cells are those little circles that you get on your paintings, more cells, more lacing, if you use flow at trial rather than using glue. So I highly suggest that you get some of this. You can find it on Amazon as well. I'll include it in the link. That link will also be included down below in the description box of this video. You'll find it in your email and you'll find it down below in the description box. Now one more thing that I suggest and I don't have it here because I have them there. Let me see if I can bring one over. A cookie sheet just like this and maybe even something like this. Okay. This will just help you hold your canvas in place and this will catch your paint. And once the paint is dry, you can just peel this whole thing off and you'll have a clean well, not completely clean, but you'll be able to reuse this cookie tray over and over and over for. However many paintings you want to do. So you don't have to be throwing that plastic cover every single time that you do a painting. Get a sturdy one like this and I assure you it will last you forever. Try to get one that is as big as possible because you'll be able to use it for different sizes of canvases. So this is a huge one that I have and this one fits really, really big canvases. Well, not the biggest because actually I have another one back there. Another painting that did not fit inside of this tray. So that one I had to use plastic wrap and cups. Okay, that's it for the basic stuff. Now let's talk about some optional items that I'm sure you will enjoy. Let's get some of these things. So first of all, a hair dryer. Yes, hair dryer. There are some styles or some techniques that you need a hair dryer to blow your paint across your canvas and create some very nice lacing and designs. So make sure you got one of these. If you're adventurous enough to give this technique a try. Make sure that you have one of these smoothing what it's called. Basically, it's something like this. You want this. You want your hair dryer to have something like this so that it can blow your paint across otherwise it's not going to work. Don't worry. Everything will be linked down below. You don't have to write everything down in a piece of paper because everything will be listed down below. Okay, another item that I highly highly recommend is doing or getting some of these mica powders. And these will just help. This is like a copper tone and these will just make your paints sparkle really nicely. You can also get some other types of paints that are like metallic or pearlescent paints. These will also make your paintings super fun and super vibrant, super interesting. So play around with some of these types of paints and mica powders. Oh, and I forgot to mention this basic item. You will need an acrylic sealer for your paintings, especially if you want to keep the paintings. You want to protect the surface and you want those colors to become vibrant because once the colors dry on your canvas, the colors can look a little bit dull. So if you add some acrylic sealer on top, it'll just look nice and shiny and those colors will pop right out. I always recommend for beginners to use a spray. Do not use a liquid varnish because liquid varnishes can sometimes make your paintings crack. If you want to learn more about acrylic pouring, about which techniques are easiest for beginners, how to make your paints in the correct ratios to get the desired effects that you want, how to mix your colors so you don't get muted or muddy colors that will make your paintings look super yucky and you'll just want to throw them out in the garbage. If you want to learn how to make vibrant looking paintings, beautiful paintings that you'll be proud of. If you want someone to guide you step by step, then I have something special for you. It is my acrylic pouring video course for beginners. Make sure and check that out in the description below. You should have also received an email with that link where you can take a look at where to join. If you have any questions about the course, shoot me an email to support at loveacrylicpainting.com. And regardless, if you join my acrylic pouring course or not, I am so glad that you joined this video series and that you did this painting with me. I'm so excited and I hope you really, really liked it and that you had some fun doing your first acrylic pouring painting. I'll see you soon.