Hello, everyone! Here is a coffee painting tutorial.
I am super excited to share this post today. I’m sure you have once, by accident, put your brush into your coffee. Well, that was my reminder to go ahead and do a coffee painting.
Some days ago, I finally painted with coffee. I tried the technique and made two videos. In the first, I present the technique and in the second video, I painted my coffee mug. I will post the second video in my next post. For just one day I set aside everything that potentially would interrupt the process. I went with the flow and I was re-thinking and refreshing my style.
Coffee paint is not that difficult.
But first you should try it out on paper, it goes really well on watercolor paper. Coffee painting is kind of like watercolor, but the texture of the coffee is more challenging. It will be easy if you are used to watercolor. After I painted some layers It was getting a little sticky compared with watercolor and, therefore harder to control.
I have been using synthetic brushes for the work. I didn’t pick my favorite brush because I suspected that the coffee bean contains oil, and these delicious oily bad boys, are not good for nice and expensive watercolor brushes. (even if it is just a few percent)
If you like to learn more go to part two, paint a coffee mug
If you would like to try out coffee painting, you can do it NOW! (or soon) And then why not grab a big mug of coffee and some delicious chocolate? of course, tea and a biscuit if you prefer! (and you can paint with tea.)
What you “need” for your coffee painting
- Watercolor paper
- Watercolor binding medium from SENNELIER, you don’t need this. It was just something I had.
- Napkin
- Old watercolor brushes (one medium for washes & one/two thin for details)
- Drafting eraser, pencil
- Masking fluid
- Water
- Sea salt
- Instant coffee or a leftover coffee, If you have put milk in it is totally ok. You can try out tea too.
- Three cups, one can be a little egg cup.
TIP
1. You need some lukewarm water for your instant coffee powder. Or, like me, keep any type of coffee left over. For the medium hue you don’t need much water, just try it out. To make a beautiful dark brown, mix coffee in a small cup and mix with as little water as possible.
2. While the coffee cools, assemble the rest of your materials. Maybe you would like to do a pencil sketch before you begin?
3. First lay down a light hue of coffee paint on your paper then go to the medium hue. While the coffee is still damp, you can take a pinch of salt or Instant coffee and sprinkle it on to where you want some texture. I found that the salt doesn’t absorb as much color as a watercolor.
Give totally free reign to your creativity, you don’t need any artistic license.
4. Just like in watercolor you have to wait to let the paint dry. Don’t let it get too soggy. Just wait and, if you see the paper is not soaking up more paint or if the paper gets wrinkly, let it dry. When it is dry you just carry on painting the next layer.
5. When it is all dry you can remove the salt and press the paper if you need.
I did try out the watercolor binding medium from SENNELIER. This binding contains gum arabic and honey. When you mix it with dry pigments, it is smooth, with a honey-like consistency. So If you’re serious about painting with coffee you should try it out. …………Really lovely!
Finally, you can put the art piece in a frame and hang it up.
If you like to learn more go to part two, paint a coffee mug
Et voilà c’est fait!
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If you like this and want to know more about watercolor and art, I am holding some painting retreats in Vence on the Cote dÀzure in France in Mai and October 2021 and you can take my online class on drawing faces.
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