Swirl painting is actually a breathtaking painting technique through which you can achieve as many new designs by swirling various colors. To attain different designs in swirl painting you need the following items:-
- Humbrol Enamel paint
- Primer spray paint
- Automotive clear coat
- Painter’s tape
- Borax detergent booster
- Plastic pipette
Reference: Spray Paint Guides
Now after gathering all the items. Let’s begin the swirl painting:-
1. Once you have all your supplies, you need to do mask your object. Mask off any area that you do not want to swirl with your painter’s tape. Now hold your object and slightly dip it into the swirl paint in a controlled fashion.
2. After preparing your object, go ahead and spray your primer coat, but make sure the surface is flat. The objective of the primer is to easily allow the swirl paint to stick to your object.
3. After doing this, now it’s time to prepare your water bucket while you let your primer coat dry. Any size bucket you can take will work well as long as you can fully submerge your object underwater without touching the bottoms and sides of the bucket.
4. Once your bucket is filled, you can now submerge the water tank heater into the water. The perfect water temperature for swirl painting should be around 78 degrees Fahrenheit.
5. The borax detergent booster is bringing into play to help the Humbrol paints float on the surface of the water. You want to make sure that you have proper water in the borax mixture.
6. Furthermore, add 1 1/2 tablespoons of Borax per gallon of water used to fill the bucket. Take your stir stick and gradually mix it in with the water inside the bucket. The water may seem cloudy at first but just let the mixture sit for a few minutes and everything should be cleared up.
7. Use Humbrol enamel paints for swirling as these paints are ideal because most colors do not require any thining before use. These paints are ready to swirl straight out of the container.
8. Then apply these paints to the water with plastic pipettes and start applying the darkest first following the lighter colors. Slowly add paint to the surface of the water and make sure to apply paint as close to the water as possible.
9. Start slowly layering in additional colors one after another. You can see the paint floating above the water and spreading throughout the bucket.
10. When you are satisfied with your paint mixture, you can now take your stir stick and start moving around the paint. Now dip your object into the water bucket. When you are submerging your object, you want to make sure that there are no flat surfaces directly going into the water. Start dipping the object through an angle.
11. When your object is fully submerged, take your stir stick and take the extra paint off to the side. You want to ensure that no paint will touch your object as you lift the object out of the water. Once everything cleared lift your object carefully.
12. It takes at least 24 hours to dry up your project. Once the paint is dry, you can spray it on your protective clear coat. the use of an automotive clear coat gives you a glossy and durable finish.
