How To Paint A Cookie?

Arty McGoo posted:

My setup goes something like this:  
*I prefer Wilton as it has a more paste-like consistency rather than gel and I think it dries better.

*I prefer to put my colors out on a palette and let them dry so I can use them just like watercolors, but I will use fresh.
*I don't dilute the colors in the palette.  I dampen my brush and take on the color as needed.  Darker, more opaque colors needed?  I take less water onto my brush, sheer, lighter colors: more water.

*I HATE HATE HATE white food coloring!    For me they never dry, it muddies up everything and I do not use it.  Did I mention that I hate it?    One of the very rare exceptions for painting with white is the blackboard cookies.  On those I use CK powdered white food coloring which works amazing and actually dries.  I also use water with that.

*The black can be a "problem" color and I will put that in my palette and pour alcohol over that so it dries it out better.  If there is ever any smudging, it's from the black so I find this helps.  I also will use powdered black if I'm worried.

 

I hope these tips make sense!  There are several ways to paint, and this is just the way I do it.  I know a lot of people use white, but for some reason, it doesn't work well for me.  If there is white in my design it is because I've either worked around the background white of the frosting or do a wet on wet white.

 

The mermaid cookies:  Those are all wet on wet, except the outlines were painted in a dark brown.  

 

One other thought:  cookies can take a lot more water abuse than you would think   I have painted, "erased" by brushing off all the color with a damp brush, repainted, and even repeated that process again before on a single cookie.  I think the key is that your royal icing has some corn syrup in it.  It helps to make a nice canvas that is more "waterproof".  

I hate white paint too, but I found that using the mate dust powder and a little vodka or water works for me better than liquid white paint.   I use it only  for hand paint details.

Hello everyone,

I am trying to "watercolor" one iced cookie that I dried overnight, but the icing is dissolving under the water color and my smooth surface is gone : did I use too much water ?  Or, is the icing not the right one for this type of job ?

Thank you for any suggestion  

I made my first icing painted cookie using this forum and it worked exactly as described! Huge thank you. It was my first icing, and I kept thinning it as time went on so that it would continue to spread on 24 cookies. Very painful btw. As a result, some were soft icing and some harder, or maybe I just didn't wait long enough to dry as it spread pretty thick. Using americolor gels on a dining plate for a palette and 3 small model paintbrushes from a pack from Michaels and two small bowls of vodka to clean brushes and thin gel as needed. Two bowls because one was muddied from cleaning and the other more clear to thin the colors risking less cross contamination...or I could've just used one bowl per color but it didn't seem necessary. I didn't let the gel dry. In fact it was easier to use it wet, as when it started to dry I had to be careful not to have little clumps and I was going for a softer look anyway where I wanted to brush it on. On the soft icing the slightest pressure would start to indent dissolve it so I was very gentle, but it worked with every cookie. For the deer I just googled reindeer clip art and picked a silhouette I liked. I hope this helps other experimenters out there. Oh, also I drew it on the plate first so I would know how the gel behaved and what the layout might look like. I might use it to paint messages on people's dinner plates sometime it worked so well LOL. So here's my first painted cookie attempt. Also, for context I'm a novice mediocre artist a la Bob Ross painting level, and obviously terrible at icing which I hope never to make again, so it wasn't too hard with a little bit of talent to nevertheless impress friends. Even the first cookie turned out well, because with this technique and gel colorong it worked and felt and looked exactly like using acrylic paints on a palette. Thanks for the help!

Congrats, @Amy101; they look great! Please feel free to post this image into our Clips area, where it will flow through the home page feeds (for a while) and be more likely to be seen.

I am just trying a paint your ow. Cookie for Easter and wonder if I need to use the Americolor AIRBRUSH he's or can I use the regular gel colors by Americolor to work; and would you suggest I add or do anything different if I use this type of gel?  Your input is greatly appreciated!