dabbling with natural colorants from my kitchen

I'm loving how these natural colorants are working as watercolor washes on my "art is my compass" drawings/paintings.

Last Friday I found myself raiding my cupboards and refrigerator in search of potential washes.

I started with coffee (a columbia supremo blend) and moved quickly to a red wine (cabernet sauvignon), green tea, earl grey tea, vanilla flavoring, and ended with balsamic vinegar. I know, the vinegar most likely won't make the final cut, but I couldn't not try it. I think they're all pretty, but my preferences are the coffee, wine, and earl grey tea colorants.

I'm loving the end result of multiple washes on each sheet. Take for example the photos below of a few wine washes. I LOVE the imperfection of the edges. Don't you?



My pieces will be 8"x10" sheets with a smaller washed image with pencil and ink sketches/drawing. They will have a white border approximately 1/2" wide on all sides for framing. Of course, each piece will be hand drawn by me, so no two will be alike. Stay tuned!