Coffee Painting: Something Undone Before

That is our Contemporary Arts Teacher's instructions for the activity called "Cofinta" (cooffee + pinta or paint). This is because our topic is hybridity, using something unusual or unconventional as materials o medium for our artwork. An example to this is graving on a crayon to make miniture statues.

Here are the hints and the process I have passed on:

First Moves

On the first day, teacher told us to finish our outline on a paper using pencils. She said that we must challenge ourselves by drawing hard references such as portraits and animals. I was very brave because I know that I've already done portrait using color pencils as medium so I decided to make BOB MARLEY as reference because of his dirty looks.

Conflict

Things start to slip on my mind. First, I've never tried coffee painting. Second, portraiting is hard. Third, materials are strange. Fourth, coffee CANNOT BE ERASED and the last thing, TIME is very limited. I usually spends 8 hours to finish drawing faces but time alloted was only an hour for draft and two hours for painting so I was really nervous about what I have started. ......."Just push it."

Response

There are Few things I'd never loosed on my mind. FOCUS:no time for mistakes and turning sides. SPEED: do as fast as you can. Trust: pray and be confident.
Of course I practiced at home as my preparation.

Strategies

I just enjoy what I'm doing. I'm so focused and relaxed at the same time. I used STICK for thin lines, SCATCH BRIGHT (sponge) for hair, and finally, to end the torture, we're allowed to use BRUSH (I used with dark skin tone). I also used dropping coffee, scattering and letting it flow anywhere to add effects. I also learned to adjust when I commit mistakes.

Tips

• Plan your outline very well
• Use non-3in1 coffee.
• One coffee stick is not enough for water inside a nail polish remover container. I used 4-6 for darker tone.
• Apply the powder directly to the paper and scatter it to create the darkest tone.
• Splash the powder on wet surface to add effects.
• Start with the lightest tone on shading
• Learn to adjust when mistaken (palusot)

Remember that there's always a room for improvement. Right things should always progress. Learn something new but remain truthful. To do this, always ask assistance from above and from others and be deserving with this. Practice and practice while enjoying 'cause a thing done with love is always your best thing.