Painting with Tea and/or Coffee

[die kleine Fee]

I've gotten into an art swing lately and I thought up three things that I want to get out of my head... and two of them require painting with tea!

Problem is... I've never painted with tea before, so I don't know where to even start.

What types of tea should I use? Does it even matter?
Are certain types of canvases going to be better for this type of painting?

I can't seem to find any really useful information any where... most search engines just bring up artists who have used tea or coffee, directions on how to paint a tea set, and some weirdo song about a tea party. sweatdrop

Any advice? Suggestions?

[Lady Dark Rose]

I've painted with tea before...and it was very fun! ummm I don't know what type of tea it was though, but it was reddish pink (i was at a school program and they had it available) my teacher told me to buy the teas with fruit in it for the color? but i haven't been able to,I've just been using plain brown tea. I used watercolor paper and it turned out pretty good, just experiment with papers and you may find something better wink
edit ^^;
heres something i used tea to paint with
Tea painting

[-Exploded Jellibean-]

i never knew there was such thing as painting with tea!
where did you learn that? o;

[die kleine Fee]

I actually learned about it from painting one of the walls in my friend's room with tea. 3nodding It's a natural stainer and it makes really pretty colors. dramallama

[die kleine Fee]

Lady Dark Rose

I've painted with tea before...and it was very fun! ummm I don't know what type of tea it was though, but it was reddish pink (i was at a school program and they had it available) my teacher told me to buy the teas with fruit in it for the color? but i haven't been able to,I've just been using plain brown tea. I used watercolor paper and it turned out pretty good, just experiment with papers and you may find something better wink
edit ^^;
heres something i used tea to paint with
Tea painting

I guess that would make sense, depenging on what type of color you wanted. 3nodding I think I'll go with english breakfast for the background and then rose tea for the overlay on one of them, I still haven't decided for the other, but I think I'll incorporate some coffee.

And I like your painting! heart The black splotches look neat with it, and the over-all color is really nice. 3nodding

[spacekitten]

I've tea-stained fabrics, but never tried to control the flow with paintbrushes. Sounds like a nifty idea! My guess is you'd want to treat it like a watercolor, brew your tea fairly strong for the most vibrant pigments, and pick teas that have colors you want to paint with (I tea-stained a Ren Faire blouse with Tazo's Passion Tea brewed in my sink, and it gave the shirt a nice rose-brown tint ^_^)

[die kleine Fee]

spacekitten

I've tea-stained fabrics, but never tried to control the flow with paintbrushes. Sounds like a nifty idea! My guess is you'd want to treat it like a watercolor, brew your tea fairly strong for the most vibrant pigments, and pick teas that have colors you want to paint with (I tea-stained a Ren Faire blouse with Tazo's Passion Tea brewed in my sink, and it gave the shirt a nice rose-brown tint ^_^)

My one painting is mostly going to be brown hues, but I also want a bit of pinkish red, so I'll have to look up what teas would be good for that, probably a raspberry or strawberry tea. 3nodding

I want to tea stain some shirts, but it would probably come out horrible looking because I = no good when it comes to staining clothes. x_x;;

[Gangles]

watercolor paper. I've done a of of tea painting and natural food stains including wine and soy sauce. Watercolor papers work well for that sort of thing.

[die kleine Fee]

Gangles

watercolor paper. I've done a of of tea painting and natural food stains including wine and soy sauce. Watercolor papers work well for that sort of thing.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Do you know if a regular canvas panel would do alright? I already have a few so I'm trying to use them up. ><;;

[IconLizard]

A friend of mine in college used tea and coffee to stain paper for a project he was working on that needed an aged look. Being poor college students, I'm pretty sure he used the typical black tea you find in the grocery store. It was a pretty nice effect when he was done.

[-Exploded Jellibean-]

hiding amaranth

I actually learned about it from painting one of the walls in my friend's room with tea. 3nodding It's a natural stainer and it makes really pretty colors. dramallama

wow, that sounds interesting. c:
ay first before i read the first post and only looked at the topic header i thought it was just drinking tea while painting. >< !

[Selfdor]

I've never painted with tea but my cosend did I think she mixed the teas. Maybe that would help to get the color your looking for.

[Cuddly green]

It dosen't matter what type of tea it is, but the older the tea is the better.

[Lady Dark Rose]

hiding amaranth

Lady Dark Rose

I've painted with tea before...and it was very fun! ummm I don't know what type of tea it was though, but it was reddish pink (i was at a school program and they had it available) my teacher told me to buy the teas with fruit in it for the color? but i haven't been able to,I've just been using plain brown tea. I used watercolor paper and it turned out pretty good, just experiment with papers and you may find something better wink
edit ^^;
heres something i used tea to paint with
Tea painting

I guess that would make sense, depenging on what type of color you wanted. 3nodding I think I'll go with english breakfast for the background and then rose tea for the overlay on one of them, I still haven't decided for the other, but I think I'll incorporate some coffee.

And I like your painting! heart The black splotches look neat with it, and the over-all color is really nice. 3nodding

Thanks, I'm going to try tea painting some more, and see what else i can learn
I hope this doesn't count as wasting food XD

[Vicemage]

In general, black teas will give you the best brown tones... green teas are too pale for any strong color on paper, and herbals will give you colors depending on what their actual color is. (Try rooibos for reddish hues, or various herbals for other hues; the store I work at sells a cranberry one that's pretty deeply colored.)

A canvas panel will not work. You're going to need something paper, that will absorb the water and tint from the tea.

My suggestion to you is going to be to plan ahead. I've found that you get more intense colors by steeping the bag in very hot water for a long time. If you let it sit out and evaporate or boil off more of the water, it may intensify. (You could also use day-old coffee; the longer that stuff sits out the darker it gets.) Get some spare paper and set aside some time to experiment. And you'll probably get the best results with watercolor or sumi-e brushes. Good luck. smile