Here is where science meets art meets non toxic - three things that don't always go in unison these days. Because I have serious chemical sensitivities I am always looking for new ways to paint & dye without using a single toxic thing, in fact the more edible the better! 7 years of art training in college never once taught me how to make my own supplies, paints and materials and I think it's a tragedy of our modern school system to be taught only to rely solely on consumerism for expression & education. OK, so before I go into an
Alice Cooper style "school's out forever" bit... here is a fun experiment with making litmus paper from a purple cabbage and then painting on it with acids and alkalines!!!
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STEP ONE: Chop up a purple cabbage into small pieces and place into a pot for boiling.
STEP TWO: Boil the cabbage in about 2 cups of water or less.
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Note: I boiled mine in too much water because I was experimenting with how much liquid my paper was going to absorb later. In the case of making paintings, the more cabbage and the less water , the more concentrated the solution will be and the
more opaque colors you'll be able to create.
STEP THREE: Strain the cabbage, letting the liquid go into a container where you'll be dipping your paper. Save the cabbage for your stir fry later, cause you can eat that stuff ;)
STEP FOUR: Stick your
chlorine free paper into the cabbage liquid. We used whatever paper we had around and so each kind took on a different color depending on the chems that may have been applied in the original paper making process - some turned green, some blue, some purple. They all still reacted to the acids and alkalines however - like magic ink! I would recommend using an absorbent chlorine free water color paper for the best results and for longer soaking time. I found that they don't need to be soak for more then 5-10 minutes to really make any difference. Possibly they only need be dipped 30 seconds with a good paper.
This is my friend Nikki experimenting with the lemon juice on her painting (her paper was green and the lemon juice turned bright pink!). We made our own paint brushes by using horse hair, a rubber band, and a stick. We also did alot of test sheets and here's what we learned...
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TIP #1 : Let the paper dry before you paint. We were so excited we kept painting on wet paper just to watch it change colors. If you wait for it to dry then your painting won't become a blob by morning.
TIP#2 : Don' let it get wet after. The morning dew distorted some of the lines drawn in - just like a regular watercolor painting, water will reactivate the colors and move them around, usually destroying the image you painted.
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These are some test pieces below to show how it changes colors! Pretty freaking rad! These examples are with all the mistakes made (too much water in the cabbage, painting wet on wet, leaving in the dew, etc...) and still colors were achieved by simply taking a brush and dipping it in different liquids like lemon juice, lime juice, vinegar, & baking soda. The acids created more pink/red colors, while the alkaline creates more yellow/green/blue shades. (As I said above, if the cabbage is boiled in less water creating a stronger liquid, the paint colors will be brighter and more opaque then these examples).
PS- Thanks to reader Liberty for her tip on making litmus paper from cabbages!XOXooooo
This portrait is just a teaser, cause tonight I am working on a much larger charcoal drawing using the charred wood from inside my wood stove (which I am burning wood in for winter heat.) The drawing here though was a quickie self portrait I did while thinking deeply into how I can make fine arts truly part of my life again with the same joy I had when using the easy to access toxic art supplies I used to buy. Art by virtue of it's rebellious political stance really should naturally lend to a more earth friendly, recycled, upcycled and natural formation - AKA maybe a lil' less purchasing of mass manufactured supplies and more learning how to create our very own art supplies. Free is always good for the 'starving' artist anyhow. :)
Woo! I have another color to add to my non toxic art-senal. Black, one of my long missed dark colors I used to liberally apply on my toxic acrylic paintings back in the day. I have not only missed the color itself but I have also missed the thick goopy opague quality that acrylics gave my art work. Last night I learned how to powder charcoal from the wood stove here, and turn it into paint!
2. After powdering the charcoal I took the powder and added it to an egg yolk (just the yellow part of the raw egg).
3. Stirring it together with bamboo stick (you can use a spoon, knife or anything laying around) it immediately turned black and was a thick dark paint ready for use!
I tested a blop on some scrap paper and it was good to go!
I made a paint brush by cutting a small bit of my hair out and tying it to a stick with a rubber band, then applied the paint to this scrap piece of wood (end piece from a lumber mill). The wood was rather rough and my brush was too soft for the rough wood, so the paint could not go on smooth - the surface in which you paint has ALOT to do with how much paint you will have to use and how it will look when applied (same reason why canvas is ghesso'd before use). The thing that was really cool about the black egg paint was you can easily scrape back into it and draw using the 'negative' technique (like scratch board). I drew this simple owl into the paint, while testing out how the egg & charcoal would apply, work, and especially how and if it would dry correctly after!
While waiting for it to dry i smashed some poke berries on the surface and stained the wood with it- using a little water to spread it around. One of the amazing things about the charcoal/egg paint is that not only did it dry rock hard, but it keeps a bit o' shine to it... in other words it does not really dry to a matte finish, it has gleams of light reflecting off the surface. Very cool!
XoXo
Hey Ya'll! Guess what---> I have a mom! And she likes color, painting and art too. She is in North Carolina visiting from my home town of New Orleans, and brought over some art paper and graphite pencils so we could have craft time together. :)
We added in smooshed poke berries, marigold & nasturtium flower petals, and coffee grounds for paint - we used this with graphite pencils & magazine clippings, then finished them off with a chunky coating of food safe wax (used for some canning processes). My mom was wishing for more colors, especially blue - but I have fallen in love with the bright yet monochromatic selection I have found in nature so far. This was the first time I used old coffee grounds and I love the weak subtle brown I got just from adding a little water to it.
Here are my finished pictures below! I am really excited about how they came out, and now have even bigger ideas for even bigger mixed media paintings, made from completely wild, organic, non toxic, and natural materials.... (I am even working on making my own paper from dumb junk mail- I can't wait to share it with ya'll when it's done.)
(below are some close up pics so you can see how the wax works over the drawing, collage and painting details...)
I bet Bob Ross would totally love my happy tree! Yay!
STEP TWO: Boil the cabbage in about 2 cups of water or less.
STEP FOUR: Stick your chlorine free paper into the cabbage liquid. We used whatever paper we had around and so each kind took on a different color depending on the chems that may have been applied in the original paper making process - some turned green, some blue, some purple. They all still reacted to the acids and alkalines however - like magic ink! I would recommend using an absorbent chlorine free water color paper for the best results and for longer soaking time. I found that they don't need to be soak for more then 5-10 minutes to really make any difference. Possibly they only need be dipped 30 seconds with a good paper.
