You don’t have to be an artist to paint. Painting can be very therapeutic—especially during finals season—and to me, nothing feels better than channeling my stress through a paintbrush at the end of a long day or during a study break. Not every college student has paint readily available, so I’m going to share some of my favorite mediums to use instead of paint.
Coffee
Yep. You read that right. You can paint with coffee! All you have to do is dissolve some coffee like Nescafe into some water and you’ve got your paint! Coffee can be used like watercolor paints, and the best thing is you don’t have to clean your brush because you’re only using one color! You can play with values by adding more coffee to your mixture to make it darker or more water to make it lighter. This medium doesn’t dry down sticky and it smells incredible!
Shaving Cream
This next medium can get a little messy. Shaving cream is something that most college students have readily available, and just by mixing a few drops of food coloring with this foamy substance you can create a beautiful marbled effect. To make use of this technique, grab an empty tray and spray an even layer of shaving cream on it. Next, add some drops of food coloring and swirl them together to create the marble pattern your heart so truly desires. Grab a paper, lay it face down into the tray, and then peel it off. You can scrape off the excess shaving cream and wait for it to dry. Voila! You’ve arted.
Nail Polish
This one is a little silly, I must admit— but hear me out! It’s a bottle of paint, with a brush. That’s all I can say. It’s just begging you to pick it up and paint with it, and you can! You can use it to paint things other than your nails, so take advantage of it!
Bleeding Tissue Paper
This next medium is something that you can buy in bulk for very cheap! Unlike regular tissue paper, bleeding tissue paper is meant to be painted with. All you need to do is tear up some of the paper and grab a cup of water. This medium works like watercolor and you can pull the pigment from the paper by wetting your brush or fingers and stroking it over the page. You can also lay down some pieces of tissue paper to create a stained glass effect. To do this, you position the pieces of colored paper on your page as you’d like and then use a wet brush to put some water on top. You then peel off the tissue paper after a couple of minutes to find something that should have been incorporated in the Sagrada de Familia.
I hope you incorporate some of these mediums in your next piece of art. (:
