As an art student way back in the 1990's I used lots of alternative versions of more expensive art materials due to limited funds. After a recent trip to Cass Art I treated myself to some Dr.Ph.Martins concentrated watercolours, luckily they were on sale at £39.99 instead of the RRP of £79.99.
It reminded me that I used food colouring as a student instead of expensive inks.
I decided to do an experiment with the two media so I bought some food colouring in red, yellow, blue and green from the supermarket at a reasonable £1.00 each.
The first thing I noticed was the rather 'natural' smell of the food colouring and gelatinous texture compared to 1990's food colouring that was more fluid. The next more obvious observation was the muted colours - which in terms of food colouring is probably soooooo much better for you to consume but for art hacks the colours didn't really pop like the 1990's food colouring version.
I then opened the Dr.Ph.Martins concentrated watercolour inks and for comparisons sake tried to re-create similar effects using the same colours. I guess the experiment was pretty doomed from here on in as the Dr.Ph. Martins were just so bright and intense I didn't really want to continue using the food colouring...
I experimented further by using some watered down household bleach to work into the wet inks / food colouring. This bleaches out the colours and creates interesting effects. It was certainly lots of fun.
Quick health and safety warning about using bleach. Use gloves if you have sensitive skin and in some cases use protective goggles because the fumes and liquid can irritate skin and could damage your sight if you get neat bleach in your eyes.
Here are the final experiments. I worked back into ALL the postcards as the food colouring ones were a little dull in colour so added more concentrated watercolours into the wet paper.
Experiment conclusion
Food Colouring: Present day food colouring is not a good substitute for inks unlike it's 1990's counterpart that was probably just neat E numbers and artificial dye colour!
Concentrated Watercolours: The Dr.Ph.Martin's watercolours are clear, bright and awesome. They are certainly worth it if you regularly paint and do craft projects.
This post is linked to #handmademonday organised by Julia of Sum of their Stories.