You might have seen this amazing technique somewhere. It is actually very easy to do it by using coffee grounds. Read on!
If you usually read our blog, you know that coffee grounds can be recycled and reused in so many ways. We already explained how to use coffee grounds to grow your plants and much more, in this article we are going to show you one more way to recycle. Did you ever thought about painting amazing monochromatic pictures by using coffee grounds?
This technique is more and more popular, you might have seen it in some artist’s Instagram account, for example. If you love drawing and painting, you will love coffee grounds painting for sure. Let’s see how to do that!
How to paint with coffee grounds
Did you know that back in the days elements like coffee or teas were already used as colour for paintings? For coffee paintings you can use liquid coffee as watercolours, or you can use your coffee dregs. We think the second techniques is more interesting and we are going to write about that one.
Get your materials ready:
- Watercolour paper
- 1 round-tipped paintbrush
- 1 flat-tipped paintbrush
- 1 pencil
- Coffee grounds (tip: if you mix them with instant coffee powder you’ll get an even better result)
- Water
Prepare the solutions
It’s better for your painting if you have a darker coffee solution and a lighter one. For the darker one mix 2 parts of coffee and 1 of water. For the lighter one mix 2 part of water and 1 of coffee.
You can of course create how many solutions as you like if you want to play with different shades.
Prepare your sketch and then paint!
It’s a good idea to have a sketch of your work of art before starting to paint with coffee. Get creative here: is it a portrait or an abstract work?
When your sketch is done you can start coffee-painting beginning with the lighter solution. You’ll have to let the painting dry before using a new coffee solution, otherwise they’ll blend together. Once the lighter parts are dried out, you can begin with the darker ones.
Let your picture to dry
Once you are done, your work of art should be let to dry for at least an entire day – and we mean 24 hours. If you want to, you can add a thin layer of varnish on it to preserve the picture over time.
International artists
We told you coffee painting is gaining more and more popularity. Here’s some international coffee painters whose works of art might inspire you:
Maria A Aristidou
Maria is a British lady who likes to coffee-paint famous people – real and fantasy ones: she loves to paint Walt Disney’s characters as well! She is a great example of how to use shades in coffee paining
Giulia Berardinelli
Giulia is one of the main artist within this technique. Among her most famous paintings are portraits of Marilyn Monroe and Amy Winehouse.
Karen Eland
This famous American coffee-painter focuses on great masterpieces like the amazing Creation of Adam by Michelangelo
Hong Yi
Hong Yi also goes by the name od “Red”. This Malaysian artist uses coffee paint and also coffee cups stains in order the create his art. His works are popular all around the world.
Are you going to be named among the above-mentioned coffee-painters soon? Let us know how you like this new technique and tag us on your pictures!
