An easy Hack for beginners to achieve impressive composition Short cut for Success.
Steps for painting outside of the box with coffee
What you need to get started.
Paint the background first
House-coffee works fine but if you use Espresso it will create a very dark background and you may not want this. Coffee Painting Tutorials often suggest using Instant coffee in various strengths. Instant coffee is a time-saver and works fine but for me it’s a last resort.
Drying -Time I consider Fresh Air an essential material. You must wait until the background shape is completely dry before continuing your painting. If you don’t wait until it’s dry your new coffee strokes will blend into the background layer.
Hair dryer or direct sunlight A hair dryer will speed the drying process. This will not affect the quality of your work of art. You can keep your creative flow moving when impatience is in your way.
Paint a small amount of House Coffee or Straight Espresso onto paper to establish a box or any desired shape to be used as a background. It can be a square or any interesting shape. When dry it designates a background area and creates a border for your painting. Painting Outside the box provides an interesting perspective and depth to your painting
Secret tip for keeping your rectangle in proportion. Paint between the dots. The four corner dots act a a point of reference as you fill in your background rectangle.
Instructions for Painting between the dots. Lightly pencil in a small dot a little but equal distance from each outside corner of your paper. You can start painting anywhere within the dots. Try not to paint over the dots because if you do you will not be able to erase them.
Once the background is completely dry it is time to start your painting. Lightly sketch an image directly on your background shape. Your sketch can also be inside the box -it’s up to you.Just get started and enjoy yourself.
There are many things to be discovered while painting with coffee.
Experimenting with Value and Texture
Working with layers
Erasing Coffee ~ Moving Mud
Backgrounds and composition
Working with pencil lead mixed with coffee
How to use a Water Brush
Advantages of a kneaded or putty eraser
Importance of using High quality Watercolor paper
Paper Towels & Clean Water
