How to make watercolour paint from petals (2024)

In this blog post I'll show you how to quickly and simply extract dye from coreopsis flowers using hot water. This makes a beautiful dye that can be used like watercolour paint. Then we'll play with lemon juice and bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) to make a wider range of colours. The paint only takes a few minutes to make and is lots of fun!

How to make watercolour paint from petals (1)

I've been growing this coreopsis plant on my balcony for a couple of years. It's a perrenial plant and is just as vibrant in its second summer. It flowers all summer so has plenty of flowers for experiments. This coreopsis is called 'Early Sunrise' but there are countless different varieties and as far as I know, all their petals give colour.

How to make watercolour paint from petals (2)

You can try this method with other richly pigmented petals. Some will work better than others, of course, but it's a quick method so you can see what happens. Dahlia flowers give their colour easily, so that's another one to try.

Safety

  • Make sure the bowls or glass jars you use won't be used in the kitchen afterwards.
  • These flowers are not edible so if you make this paint with children, make sure that they don't put their fingers in their mouths. My older son has painted with petal paint lots of times, but I haven't done this with my two year old as he still tests things in his mouth. For younger children, it would be best to make an edible paint such as the juice from defrosting berries.

What you need

  • 3 glass jars or small bowls
  • coreopsis petals (or other petals you'd like to try)
  • a slice of lemon
  • bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
  • a paint brush
  • a couple of lollipop sticks for stirring
  • kettle to boil water
  • paper

Let's get started!

This is the simplest tutorial that I've shared on my blog, but the colours are so striking. All you need to do is pour boiling water over petals, stir them to release the colour, then choose if you'd like to alter the pH with an acid or alkali. Then paint! It's that easy.

How to make watercolour paint from petals (3)

Orange is made from boiling tap water poured over petals (approx. neutral pH), yellow is made from the addition of lemon juice (acid), and red from bicarbonate of soda (alkaline/basic pH).

Here are some more detailed step-by-steps:

  1. Take the petals off a few flower heads and drop them into a little bowl.
  2. Pour boiling water over the petals - just enough water so the petals are covered.
  3. Using your wooden lollipop stick or paintbrush, mix the petals in the water. The dye will change colour right away, but will continue to darken for a while longer.
  4. Repeat steps 1-3 again to make two more small bowls of dye.
  5. Add a sprinkle of bicarbonate of soda to one of the bowls. The alkaline (basic) pH will shift the colour to a darker orange/red. I've found that this colour will continue to deepen over the next few hours.
  6. Squeeze some lemon juice into the other pot of dye. The acid will instantly turn the dye yellow, and it may look almost neon. It's incredible!

How to make watercolour paint from petals (4)

The red paint is made from coreopsis flowers + bicarbonate of soda (baking soda). The yellow is made by adding lemon juice to the dye.

Extra notes:

  • Make sure you reserve a stirring stick for each colour, so you don't contaminate each pot and accidently alter the pH.
  • If you use the same paintbrush, then rinse it after dipping in each colour.
  • You can sieve out the petals to leave a clear paint, or just dip your paintbrush into the liquid. Any petals that get onto the paper will just brush off once the painting is dry.
  • Sprinkle lemon juice and bicarbonate of soda over wet paint and watch the colour change on the paper.

How to make watercolour paint from petals (5)

Above: bicarbonate of soda was sprinkled over yellow (acidic) paint to make a subtle mottled orange pattern. Try the same with drips of lemon juice over the red dye to make a spotted pattern.

How long do the colours last?

These colours will eventually fade, so don't make any special artwork with these paints. My son made a painting last year and it stayed on the wall all summer and it was still colourful, but I can't guarantee how long the vibrancy will last. You could use these paints inside sketch books or journals that won't receive sunlight. To test the lightfastness, paint a piece of paper then cover it partially with a piece of thick card. Leave it in the light for a few weeks and then peek under the cardboard to see if has faded.

Painting fabric

You can paint fabric in just the same way as paper. I suggest premordanting your fabric in your usual way, or use soya milk as a pretreatment (as outlined in my book Botanical Colour at your Fingertips). Then paint with the flower dye. When it's dry, iron the fabric with a hot iron and ideally wait a few days before rinsing out the excess colour. Since the dye is pH sensitive, it will shift colour with your tap water, so you could make a bucket of slightly acidic or alkaline water to rinse the fabric.

Have fun!

How to make watercolour paint from petals (2024)

FAQs

Can you make homemade watercolor paint? ›

Mix baking soda and vinegar together in a spouted container i.e. 2 cup measuring cup. Add corn syrup and cornstarch, and mix until well dissolved. Your mixture will thicken if you stop stirring so keep it moving as you pour. Add a dab of icing gel or 6 drops of liquid food colour to each compartment of paint.

How do you extract pigments from rose petals? ›

Extraction of colour dye was carried out by aqueous methods. 10 g of fresh petals of red rose were boiled in 100 mL distilled water at 100°C for 30 minutes. The decolorized petals were taken out from extraction solvent.

What is the golden rule of watercolor? ›

Don't do something to please someone else; let the paint please you.

Can you use coffee as watercolor? ›

To create the coffee watercolor paint you will need to dip your watercolor brush into your cup of water and then mix it with some of the coffee grounds. You will only need a small amount of coffee grounds to create some watercolor paint.

Why is watercolor painting so difficult? ›

Watercolour is hard due to its unpredictable nature. Watery pigment flows wherever it wants, which makes it difficult to control. And since watercolour is translucent and appears lighter once the pigment has dried, it's hard to fix mistakes because they show through the layers.

What does lemon juice do to watercolor paint? ›

Dropping lemon juice into semi wet watercolor paints doesn't produce such an immediate reaction. But if left to sit until it's dry the citric acid in the juice will bleach the colors of the watercolor paint producing super interesting shapes.

What does rubbing alcohol do to watercolor? ›

Rubbing alcohol (unique organic, bubbly effect)

Use a Q-Tip, pipette, or even just a clean brush to touch rubbing alcohol drops to the paint surface. The rubbing alcohol will cause the paint to repel, pushing it away while leaving a lighter color exposed.

How do you turn flower petals into pigments? ›

All you need to do is pour boiling water over petals, stir them to release the colour, then choose if you'd like to alter the pH with an acid or alkali. Then paint! It's that easy.

What is the easiest way to extract pigments? ›

The methods commonly used for pigment extraction are solvent, microwave, ultrasound, pressurized liquid, pulsed electric field, supercritical fluid, enzymes, and extraction methods using green chemistry.

How do you extract color from flowers? ›

To Make the Dye-Bath
  1. Remove the desired portion of the plant.
  2. Chop or tear the blossoms, leaves, etc. ...
  3. Combine in a large kettle.
  4. Add enough water to cover the plant material.
  5. Simmer on range until the plant material looks faded and dye has transferred to the water (about 1 hour)

How long do petals last in water? ›

How Long Do Petals Last. If you are planning a romantic date, you might wonder how long you can keep the rose petals before they get wilted. Usually, if you pluck them from the rose, you can store them for up to three days.

What can I do with dried out flower petals? ›

Ten Uses for Dried Flowers
  1. Cooking. Edible dried flowers are delicious in cakes and other desserts, and many of them make wonderful teas. ...
  2. Cleaning. Dried flowers are great additions to DIY cleaning products. ...
  3. Sachets. ...
  4. Gifting. ...
  5. Celebrations. ...
  6. Potpourri. ...
  7. Candle making. ...
  8. Papers.

What can I do with dead rose petals? ›

5 Creative Things You Can Do With Dried Roses
  • 1 - Make Potpourri.
  • 2 - Make Scented Candles.
  • 3 - Produce a Decorate Soap.
  • 4- Make Rose Floral Water at Home.
  • 5 - Keep the Dead Rose Bouquet.
16 Jun 2021

Do dried petals last forever? ›

While it does depend on the flower, generally dried flowers last between 1-3 years! As long as they are cared for properly, handled with care and kept out of direct sunlight, wind and humid conditions, you'll be able to enjoy your beautiful blooms for years.

What happens if you freeze petals? ›

No, you can't refreeze rose petals. Petals are incredibly difficult, and there is likely to be a lot of degrading and changes in the petals even with one bout in the freezer. They would be unlikely to survive very much at all if you attempted to freeze them for a second time.

Can you keep flower petals for years? ›

Store dried petals in an air-tight container in a cool, dry place. Your dried petals should last for several months to a year. To prevent them from molding or decaying, place them in an air-tight container. Then, store them in a cabinet or pantry away from heat sources.

What are the 7 watercolor techniques? ›

  • Step 1: Preparing To Practice Watercolor Techniques. ...
  • Step 2: Wet-On-Dry Watercolor Technique. ...
  • Step 3: Dry-On-Dry Watercolor Technique. ...
  • Step 4: Dry-On-Wet Watercolor Technique. ...
  • Step 5: Flat Wash Watercolor Technique. ...
  • Step 6: Gradated Wash Watercolor Technique. ...
  • Step 7: Variegated Wash Watercolor Technique.
24 Apr 2016

What are the 3 watercolor techniques? ›

While there are actually many techniques, three are considered the building blocks and are what most watercolour artists use consistently and frequently. These include 'wet on dry', 'wet on wet', and watercolour washes.

What liquid do you use to make watercolor paint? ›

Just drop several drops of food coloring into some water and that's it! You can even play around with the colors and mix some different combinations (ex: blue+green= turquoise).

What does salt water do to watercolor? ›

What does the salt do? The salt acts a resist of sorts. The area where the salt touches the paper will be lighter in color. The salt will push the watercolor pigment away and thus the lighter spot will be surrounded by a darker shade.

Why is honey used in watercolor? ›

This traditional base creates willing watercolors ready for your brush and yields even, fluid washes. Honey also allows for stronger, truer colors. With a complete range of pleasing pigments — from delicate tints to dark, concentrated colors — you'll discover more color possibilities with M.

How do you make watercolor with flour? ›

Recipe for Homemade Salt and Flour Paint

Blend 1/2 cup of flour with 1/2 cup of salt. Add 1/2 cup of water… and mix until smooth. Divide it up into three sandwich bags and add a few drops of liquid watercolor or food coloring to each bag.

What is the weakness of watercolor? ›

Watercolor has the following disadvantages:

The paint material or support must absorb water. This technique is based on water, it works with the fluidity of the paint that, when it dries, remains fixed. This implies a limitation of materials.

What is the hardest form of art? ›

Hyper-Realism

These styles garner huge attention and praise from the public, but not necessarily other artists. For those who do not practice painting, hyper-realism and photo-realism are often considered the most difficult due to the wow factor.

What are the 4 watercolor techniques? ›

The 4 Watercolor Techniques
  • Wet-on-Wet.
  • Wet-on-Dry.
  • Dry-on-Wet.
  • Dry-on-Dry.
6 Dec 2022

What does honey do to paint? ›

Why honey? Honey allows for high pigment loads, and an incredibly smooth application. The combination of gum arabic and honey result in a binder that is free from additives and filler, allowing for the purest painting experience possible.

How do you make watercolor with baking soda? ›

Add a tablespoon of baking soda to a cup (do this for each color you'd like to make). Add just enough liquid watercolor or dilute food coloring to cover the baking soda. Stir well. The paint should have the consistency of tempera paint.

Can you use alcohol instead of water for watercolor? ›

Alcohol is an effective antifreeze for watercolor. And, if you use it judiciously, your work should remain archival.

What kind of salt is used for watercolor? ›

To vary the effect, you can use different size salt crystals as well as try it with more or less watercolor paint (ie more or less wet). We mostly used table salt this time, with a little bit of sea salt, but have used the coarser kosher salt as well in the past.

How do you dry petals to keep their color? ›

Hang them upside down in a dark, dry, well-ventilated area. Keeping the flowers out of direct sunlight will help them retain their color. The drying process will take about two to three weeks. Once dried, take down the flowers and spray with unscented hairspray for protection.

How do you make homemade pigment paint? ›

How to make natural pigments
  1. Breaking rocks into smaller pieces. First, break the rocks into pieces that can be finely ground using a mortar and pestle. ...
  2. Grinding. Grind the pieces using a pestle and mortar until you have achieved a very fine powder. ...
  3. Sifting. ...
  4. Make paints. ...
  5. Make sustainable art.
14 Apr 2020

Which process is used to extract the pigment from petals? ›

Therefore, the chromatography method is used for the separation of different pigments from an extract of flower petals.

What are the 4 natural sources of pigments? ›

2 Natural colorants from plant sources. Plant pigments are classified into four main categories: chlorophylls, anthocyanins, carotenoids, and betalains. They account for most of the naturally derived colors from plants.

Can you extract pigment from leaves? ›

Pigments are separated according to differences in their relative solubilities. In order to extract these pigments from the thylakoid membranes of the chloroplasts, the organelles in which photosynthesis occurs, fresh, ground or torn leaves (preferably spinach) may be soaked in acetone or concentrated alcohol.

Can you extract color from leaves? ›

These molecules also give the red hue to apples, cranberries, strawberries and more. Although a leaf is a mixture of these pigments, you can separate the colors using a method called paper chromatography. This process dissolves the pigments and allows them to be absorbed by a strip of paper.

Can you turn flowers into paint? ›

Making paints from flowers is relaxing and exciting! It's a fun STEAM experiment that tests what pigments we can create from flowers. Each flower can give us a variety of colors. By experimenting with additives from the kitchen - like salt, baking soda, alum, and lemon - we can see how the colors change.

Can we make Colours from flowers? ›

Blue pea, jacaranda or any other blue flowers can be boiled for making blue colour. Rose, rose periwinkle (nayantara) or four o' clock flower (godhuli gopal) can be used to make pink colour for Holi.

How do you make paint pigments from plants? ›

How to make your own natural paints: Push berries or other soft fruit through a sieve to extract your pigment, then mix with just a small splash of water! Grind petals, leaves, or other dry items before mixing with a tiny, tiny bit of honey! Powders are the easiest!

How do you make 3 ingredient paint? ›

Combine flour and salt in a small bowl. Add a bit of water and stir until you get a smooth, thin paste (about the same consistency of stirred yogurt). Add food colouring, and mix well. Put painting into microwave for 30 seconds and watch it puff up!

What is petal paint? ›

Using a state-of-the-art extraction process, JAT's team of technicians isolated the flowers' natural pigments to create an innovative range of emulsions christened, Petal Paint.

How do you make Petal ink? ›

Mash the flower petals in a jar or bowl using a pestle or any other grinding implement. Pour boiling water over the petals, just enough that they are covered. Let sit for 24 hours, preferably in a sunny spot. Strain and use!

What are the 4 main ingredients of paint? ›

All paints generally have four main ingredients -- pigments, binders, solvents (liquids) and additives. Pigments provide color and hide, while binders work to "bind" the pigment together and create the paint film.

How do I make homemade paint? ›

Recipe for Homemade Salt and Flour Paint

Blend 1/2 cup of flour with 1/2 cup of salt. Add 1/2 cup of water… and mix until smooth. Divide it up into three sandwich bags and add a few drops of liquid watercolor or food coloring to each bag.

What natural things can you use to make paint? ›

Getting Started
  1. Blue – blackberries, blackcurrants, blueberries!
  2. Red – beetroot, rose petals, cranberries, strawberries!
  3. Yellow – mustard powder, pumpkin, bee pollen!

What flowers can you use to make paint? ›

Coreopsis or dahlia petals bleed well – but any flower type will do. The key is strong colours. The colour doesn't always correspond to the flower. I collected some white petals that I was almost certain would yield some transparent water, but as the swatch will show, it actually came out a fantastic brown/yellow.

What is made up of petals? ›

All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the corolla. Petals are usually accompanied by another set of modified leaves called sepals, that collectively form the calyx and lie just beneath the corolla. The calyx and the corolla together make up the perianth, the non-reproductive portion of a flower.

Can you make flower petals into paint? ›

All you need to do is pour boiling water over petals, stir them to release the colour, then choose if you'd like to alter the pH with an acid or alkali. Then paint! It's that easy.

How do you extract ink from flowers? ›

How to Make Natural Ink From Plants and Flowers
  1. Materials You'll Need. Leftover flower petals. ...
  2. Step One: Mash Your Flower Petals. ...
  3. Step Two: Grab a Pot and Boil Some Water. ...
  4. Step Three: Leave Them in a Sunny Spot. ...
  5. Step Four: Strain. ...
  6. Step Five: Put it to Use.
20 Oct 2021

What plants can be used as ink? ›

Dry mangosteen leaves are one of the raw materials used to produce marker ink.

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