Monochrome Art: Paint Flowers Using Coffee

1. Introduction: You ever wondered how you can transform an everyday ingredient like coffee into a beautiful work of art? Imagine creating stunning floral paintings using the rich warm tones of coffee, turning your morning brew into a creative adventure. Hi, I'm Jenny Flores, a creative coach, an artist, and a skill share top teacher from the Philippines. I have worked with renowned brands like the coffee bean and tea leaf, pottery Born, Cebu Pacific, and many more sharing my knowledge and passion for painting with them. With over seven years of experience teaching thousands of students worldwide, I'm eager to guide you through this creative journey and bring with you unique insights that I have gathered over the years. Aside from teaching, I also share my passion to my followers of almost 80,000 on Instagram, sharing insights, sneak peeks of my work, and free resources. In this class we'll explore the art of painting with coffee, covering everything from tonal values, coffee to water ratios to techniques for painting flowers. You learn how to create beautiful compositions and discover the wonderful characteristics of this unique medium. Whether you're a beginner or just looking for something new and exciting to try, this class is designed to inspire you and guide you. Ready to bring a touch of elegance and creativity to your art. Then pick up your brush and let's get started. 2. Supplies: In this section, I'll walk you through the supplies you'll need for the class. I'll also offer some alternatives if any of these are unavailable to you. First, let's talk about the paint brushes. We'll be using a round brush in size two or smaller for detailed work, a round brush in size eight for larger areas and more general painting, and a fiiler brush for creating soft rounded edges and blending. These brushes will help you achieve different textures and details in your floral painting. Next, we need instant coffee as the primary medium. The coffee is rich. Warm tones will be the key to our monochrome artwork. To manage orthonal values, you'll need three glass jars to hold the vargous coffee mixtures that we will create. For accurate mixtures, having measuring spoons is essential. These will help you achieve precise oasis of water and coffee, ensuring consistent results in your paintings. The paper, I recommend using watercolor paper that is cold press with farely 300 GSM and 100% cotton. This type of paper is ideal for holding the coffee and allowing for beautiful textures in your artwork. You'll also need a glass with water to keep your brushes clean and mixing palette to blend your coffee mixtures. Having some tissue on hand is essential for dabbing excess moisture and cleaning up some spills. If you don't have these exact supplies, don't worry. There are always alternatives. The key is to use what you have to achieve the best results possible. Now that you are familiar with the supplies, let's dive into the exciting world of painting with coffee. 3. Why Paint with Coffee: Hi, everyone. In this section, we are going to talk about why coffee is a unique and amazing medium from painting. But before we dive in into the technical side, let me share with you my story on how I discovered coffee as my medium. And, trust me, it wasn't planned at all. One day, I was all set to paint a new composition. Everything was ready. I was getting into the flow of painting and I made a silly mistake. I accidentally dipped my brush into the coffee instead of water. I paused for a second staring at the brush thinking, What have I done? But instead of cleaning it off, I decided to go with it. I used that coffee dip brush on my painting, and to my surprise, the result was beautiful. The richness of the tones, the way it was spread on the paper, it was so much like watercolor, but with a natural earthy hue that gave the painting a unique warmth. From that happy accident, my love for coffee as my medium was born. So why choose coffee as your painting medium? First of all, it is accessible. We almost always have coffee in the house, and it doesn't require any special equipment or setup. But beyond its convenience, coffee behaves a lot like watercolor. You can create different tonal values simply by just adding the strength of the coffee mixture, just like you would with water and pigments. Another reason why coffee is an amazing medium to work with is its ability to produce natural soft sepia tones. These tones give your painting a vintage, timeless field that is hard to achieve with regular watercolors. Coffee also layers beautifully, just like watercolor. You can build up darker areas by adding layers once the previous one dries up. One of the most exciting thing about coffee is its unpredictability. Each batch of coffee has its unique tone depending on the brand, rose, or even how long it has been brewed. This unpredictability adds a lovely organic quality to your artwork. No two coffee paintings will ever look exactly the same, and that's the part of fun. So are you ready to discover more about coffee painting? Let's go to our next lesson. 4. Tonal Values & Coffee Mixtures: When we paint with coffee, the process is similar to watercolor painting. Just like watercolor, coffee painting relies heavily on the amount of water used to control the lightness or darkness of the color. Water plays a crucial role in creating varying tonal values, allowing us to achieve depth and contrast in our artwork. The more water we add, the lighter the tone becomes and conversely, less water results in darker tone. Make things easier when we start painting, it's helpful to prepare different coffee mixtures that represent three distinct tonal values, light, mid and dark tones. These variations will guide us as we apply different shades and layers throughout the painting. Having these ready from the start helps you quickly identify which tone to use as you go along, ensuring that the painting flows smoothly, and you achieve the right balance of light and dark areas. To get started, you need the following supplies, a cup of water, instant coffee powder, glastras for your light, mid and dark tones, and measuring spoons. Begin by labeling each of your glass jars to avoid any confusion later on. This will keep your mixtures organized as we create our light, mid and dark tones for painting. Next, we'll mix our light coffee mixture. For this, you'll need one teaspoon of instant coffee powder and three tablespoons of water. One, two, and three. Okay, let's stir the mixture well. I'm going to use the back of my brush, but you can use any stir that you have with you. You will notice a few bubbles, but that's perfectly normal. So let's test the mixture to see the shade that we have created. Keep in mind that each coffee brand produces slightly different colors, so the goal isn't to match my shade exactly, but to achieve a very light tone in your mixture. Next, we'll create our mid tone coffee mixture. For this, you'll need one half teaspoon of instant coffee powder and one tablespoon of water. Again, we are going to stir the mixture until it's fully dissolved. This ratio creates a medium shade, perfect for adding mid level tones to your painting. If you find that you need more of this mid tone mixture for your project, feel free to double or even triple the ratio that we have created. Just be sure to maintain the same proportions. This ensures the consistency of the shade while giving you more paint to work with. Adjusting the quantity without changing the balance of coffee and water will keep the tone just right. Okay, let us test the mid tone mixture that I have created. This is what I was able to produce. Again, you don't need to copy the exact shade that I have created. You just have to ensure that the light tone is different from the mid tone. Finally, let's mix our dark tone coffee mixture. You'll need one half teaspoon of instant coffee powder and 14 teaspoon of water. Yes, very, very few water for the dark tone. This mixture is highly concentrated and might be a bit thick. So stirring can take a little more effort than usual. The result will be a rich dark mixture that is perfect for adding shadows and deepening the contrast in your painting. Okay, let's test our dark tone mixture. And that's it. Our goal was to create three distinct coffee mixtures, light, mid and dark tones that we can easily use throughout our painting. These variation will help us adapt shadow and highlights to bring our artwork to life. For added convenience, you can label the covers of your jorts as well to avoid any confusions as you work. Having these tones ready and organized will make the painting process much smoother and more enjoyable. Okay, so now you're all set to start creating beautiful coffee paintings with well defined tonal values. Let's go to our next topic. 5. Painting Techniques & Brush Markings: In this lesson, we'll explore two essential painting techniques, wet and wet and wet and dry, as well as some fundamental brush markings. These techniques are widely used in watercolor painting, and the grating is that they work the same way when painting with coffee. Let's begin with wet and wet technique. Wet and wet is when you apply wet paint in our case coffee into a surface that is still wet. This creates soft blended edges, perfect for delicate transitions and gradients. For monochrome cosmos flour, you can use this technique in the flower center, allowing the coffee to flow and blend naturally, creating a smooth and airy effect. Wet and dry on the other hand is when you apply wet coffee into a dry surface. This technique produces sharper, more defined edges, making it ideal for adding details and structure. You can use wet on dry technique to paint the finer details of the cosmos flour, like the veins on the petals or the intricate details of the flower center. That we have covered these essential watercolor techniques, let's move on to the basic brush strokes you'll need to master. Let's begin with the filbert brush. This rounded flat tip brush is ideal for creating smooth organic shapes. We'll focus on two types of strokes that this brush can create, which are flat strokes and side strokes. Flat strokes allows you to cover a larger area with a single broad movement. Applying even pressure gives you a long rounded tip stroke that is perfect for painting petals or leaves. The side stroke, on the other hand, produces a more delicate thinner line while maintaining that rounded edge. Both of these strokes will be used to paint soft curve petals for cosmos flowers. For the next set of strokes, we'll switch to our round brush. This brush is incredibly versatile and can create both thin and thick strokes. To achieve thin strokes, use only the tip of the brush and apply minimal pressure. For text stroke, press down the whole body of the brush, applying more pressure. This gives you a broader and bolder line, perfect for filling in larger areas. When creating the leaves of our cosmos flower, start by pressing down for a text stroke. Slowly release the pressure as you drag the brush to create a pointy tip that mimics the natural shape of a leaf. All the strokes that you can create with your round brush, both thin and thick, can also be done using your detail brush. The main difference is that the strokes will be finer and smaller because of the fineer hairs of the detail brush. Because of the fine details of the detail brush, it is ideal to use this kind of brush to add delicate touches such as tiny veins, intricate lines or subtle highlights on your cosmos flower. I like to add these strokes as veins folds to the petals, which really brings the flower to life. It's a good idea for you to practice this stroke as well, because it really gives a nice effect on your painting. So now that you learn about the essential brushes and techniques, you're equipped to create beautiful strokes that will enhance your cosmos flower painting. Practice these techniques to build your confidence and skill. In our next topic, we will dive into the exciting process of actually painting a cosmos flower. Get ready to apply everything that you have learned so far as we bring our floral master feast to life. 6. Painting Cosmos Flower: Now that we are familiar with the usual painting techniques, and we also know how to use our coffee as our painting medium. Already, it's now time to paint our main flower, which is cosmos. I'll be using light tone for the base of our flower. This is the lightest coffee mixture that we have. And for the brush, I am using this Filbert brush. So the first thing that we need to do is just create flat and side stroke. Remember what we had practiced earlier. Just combine these two strokes when creating the petals of your flower. I'm going to intentionally leave this space empty so that I can create a very light petal later on. Now, while my petals are still wet, I'm going to get my midtone and add some dots in the center of my flower. So this is the shade of midtone that I use. As you can see, it's a little bit darker than the first tone that I used earlier for the petals. We are going to let this layer dry up completely, and if you're not sure if your layer is dry, you can gently touch it just to check. Now that it's dry, I'm going to proceed to the next layer. As you notice, I am using the same color for the base. So this is light tone again, and I'm going to add another set of petals. You can put it on the areas that still have space. So I'm still going to leave some of the areas empty just to create lighter petals later on. Since we use transparent or translucent strokes earlier, we have created glazing effect between each of our petals. For our next step, we are going to use the dark tone coffee mixture. So what we're going to do is we're going to add another set of dots in the middle of our cosmos flour. This is the same as the one we initially created earlier. This is just in dark tone. Now, wait for this layer to completely dry up before proceeding to the next step. Now that the base layer is completely dry, it's time to bring more texture and life to our cosmos flower by adding brush markings. Using our mid tone mixture, carefully add some brush markings on a few of the petals. These markings will help you create subtle variation in tone and add dimension to our flour. Brush markings are essentially small, intentional strokes that mimic the natural texture of petals. As you apply the strokes, be mindful not to make them uniform. Nature is imperfect. So try to space your markings and evenly to give your painting more organic look. A common mistake that students are doing is they overdo this step. So take your time. If you feel unsure, pause for a moment and step back from your painting to evaluate. Sometimes less is more when it comes to texture. So when in doubt, trust your instincts and stop where you think your markings are enough. The key is to enhance the natural beauty of the cosmos flower without overwhelming it. It's easier to add more brush markings than to remove the markings that you have already created. For the next step, we'll add brush markings on the empty spaces between the petals. This technique helps bring those areas to life and creates the illusion of very light colored petals. By leaving parts of the space slightly undefined, we invite the viewer to use their imagination to complete the picture. This subtle effect is especially effective when painting in a loose expressive style as it adds a sense of movement and lightness to your artwork. It's a great way to engage your audience, allowing them to fill in the gaps with their mind's eye while still maintaining the flow and softness of the flower. Once you're satisfied with your markings, let this layer dry completely before moving to the next step. In this step, we'll use our dark tone mixture to add brush markings that create shadows and enhance the depth of the cosmos flower. Apply these darker strokes along the edge of some petals to suggest areas where the petals overlap or fold, giving a more three dimensional look. Be mindful not to make the markings uniform by their placement and size to keep things organic. A few well placed strokes are enough to define the petals without overwhelming the flower's delicate appearance. These brush markings provide a nice contrast, bringing out the lightness of the petals and adding visual depth. Once you're satisfied with the shadows, let this layer dry before continuing. And using the same dark tone mixture will now add another set of dots to the center of or cosmos flower. These small concentrated dots will enhance the detail in the flower center, giving it more structure and focus. To create more realistic look, I recommend placing these dots in just one side of the center. This technique helps suggest a subtle shift in light where one side is more shadowed, adding depth and concentrating a natural highlight on the other side. To finish our cosmos flower, we'll now paint the stem and leaves. Start by using a meton mixture to lay down the base layer for both the stem and leaves, apply smooth even strokes to define their shape. This base layer will serve as the foundation for the shading and details that follow. Once the base layer is completely dry, take your dark tone mixture and add it to just one side of the stem and leaves. This will create the illusion of depth by mimicking the side effect of light and shadow. The darker tone on one side helps give the stem a rounded appearance and adds dimension to the leaves, enhancing the overall realism of your painting. Now that we know how to paint a cosmos flower, let's now proceed to our final class project. 7. Monochrome Cosmos Composition: In this lesson we'll be painting a beautiful composition of two cosmos flowers using coffee as our medium. The goal of this project is to create a soft monochrome painting that captures the delicate, airy nature of cosmos flowers. Using the different coffee tones we have prepared, we create light and shadow to give depth and dimension to our flowers. This project will have a warm vintage feel, much like a sepidon photograph with varying shades of brown that bring the flowers to light. Let's get started. We'll start by creating a light sketch to map out where we will place our two cosmos flowers. Don't worry too much about the details right now. This sketch is just a guide to help us position our flowers and plan our composition. If you need a visual reference, you can check out the project and resource section for the reference painting. Once you're happy with your sketch, we'll move on to painting the base petals of our first cosmos flower. For this, we will be using a combination of flat and side stroke with a filvet brush, working with a light tone coffee mixture. Apply gentle pressure to create those long rounded petals. And While the petals are still wet, take your mid tone coffee mixture and add some small dots in the center of the flour. This will allow the coffee to blend slightly, creating a soft transition that adds depth to the center. Let this layer dry before moving on to the next step. And while waiting for it to dry, let's begin working on our second cosmos flour. For the second flour, follow the same process. Use light tone mixture to paint the base petals, applying soft rounded strokes, while the paint is still wet, add a few mid tone dots in the center to create depth. Okay. Let both flowers dry completely before moving to the next step. Now that the base petals are completely dry, it's time to add more depth by painting a second set of petals. Using the same light tone mixture, carefully placed new petals in between the ones we painted earlier. Focus on creating soft strokes that gently overlap the first step. This layering technique gives a flower a fuller, more natural look. While this second set of petals are still wet, take the dark tone mixture and add a few dots in the center of the flour. This will enhance the contrast and create a more defined focal point. The darker tone adds depth and makes the center pop against the lighter petals. Once this layer is done, let it dry completely before moving on to the next step. Now it's time to bring out the texture and detail in our cosmos flower by adding veins and folds to the petals. Using our detailed brush and the mid tone coffee mixture, add subtle brush markings on some of the petals, combine both thin and thick strokes to mimic the natural look of floral veins and folds. These markings will help add structure and make the petals appear more realistic. Be careful not to overdo this step. Less is more here. If you're unsure about where to place the markings, take a moment to pause and view your work from a distance. This will help you see which areas still need more detail without overwhelming the delicate petals. These areas need some more brush markings. Just like what we did on our previous lesson, I'm going to add a few light brush markings here to create an illusion of very light petal. Thise markings will suggest a presence of a petal without fully defining it, which actually adds a soft subtle touch to the composition. I'm going to add more on this area. Now I'm going to do the second cosmos flower. Same procedure, add a few markings on the petals to separate them from each other and to create an illusion of veins and folds. This area needs more. I'm so happy to see that our cosmo flower is slowly getting into shape already. Next, we will add depth to our cosmos flowers by incorporating some shadows. Using the dark tone mixture, apply another set of brush markings on the petals. Focus on areas where shadows naturally fall, such as the edges and underneath overlapping petals. These darker markings will suggest depth and add more detail to the flower, enhancing its three dimensional appearance. Remember to keep the stroke soft and varied, avoiding uniformity for a more natural look. This will really help you bring your cosmos flowers to life. Of course, we are going to do the same process to our second cosmos flower. Again, remember not to overdo the process and also make sure that your markings are not too uniform, so it will look natural. Now it's time to add some darker details to the center of our cosmos flowers. Using dark tone mixture, carefully add dots in the center of each flower, these dots will enhance the focal point and create sense of depth. Be sure to leave a little space in the upper left side of the center area. This will create an illusion of highlight, making the center appear more dynamic and giving it a sense of light. This subtle contrast will help draw the viewer's eye and add dimension to your composition. To complete the look of composition, we'll now add the stem and leaves for our cosmos flowers. Start by using the mid tone coffee mixture, taking your round brush and gently dragging it down to create a smooth flowing stem that connects your flowers to the base. Make sure to vary your pressure to give the stem natural taper, making it appear more organic. For the leaves, use midtone mixture with your round brush, apply strokes that mimic the natural shape of leaves, brought at the base, and slowly lifting it to create a point. You can add a slight curve to some of the leaves to create a more dynamic appearance, making them look as if they're gently swaying. Once the midtone layer is completely dry, we'll move on to adding depth using dark tone mixture apply markings on one side of the stem and leaves. This darker shading will create more dimension and make the foliage feel more realistic. As you work, remember to keep your strokes soft and varied to avoid harsh look. This will help maintain the delicate, airy style of your cosmos composition while adding the necessary depth to bring your painting to life. Congratulations for finishing our project. I'm so proud of you guys, and I hope you'll take a moment to reflect on your progress as an artist. And yeah, I'm very excited to see what you've created. So please make sure to upload your project on the project and resource section of our class so I can review it and give you some feedback. Thank you so much, and I hope to see you on our next video. A 8. Final Thoughts: Hi, everyone. We've reached the end of our class. Congratulations for making it through. Thank you so much for being a part of this journey and for completing the lessons. I hope you enjoyed learning as much as I did teaching. And I also hope that you now feel more confident using coffee as a painting medium. Just a quick recap of what we have studied. In this class, we have explored the unique world of monochrome art with coffee. We've covered the essentials of tonal values and coffee to water ratios. We also learned the various painting techniques and created beautiful cosmos composition. I can't wait to see the wonderful projects that you have created, so please take photos of your paintings and upload them to the project section of our class. I love to provide some personal feedback on your work. Remember, every artist's journey is unique and it's okay if your work doesn't turn out exactly as you hope on the first try. Don't be discouraged. Practice is key, and every piece you create is a step forward. If you have any questions or need further guidance, please don't hesitate to ask in the discussion section or send me a Dam on Instagram. If you enjoy this class and found it helpful, I would appreciate if you could leave a review in the review section. Share your thoughts on how the class met your expectation, what you enjoyed the most, or any suggestions for improvement. Your feedback is very valuable as I plan my future class. Make sure to follow me here on skill share to get notified about my upcoming classes and special giveaways. You can also stay connected with me on Instagram for the latest updates on my work and events. Feel free to share your project on Instagram and Instagram Stories and tag me at Jenny Flores Art and Skillshare at Skill Share. I will be thrilled to share your work with my community. I hope you love this class and gain some new skills. And again, thank you so much for joining, and I look forward to seeing you in the next class. Bye for now.