Water-based liquid food coloring is easiest to find, but it produces more diluted colors. Liquid gel food coloring is a little more concentrated, and will make the final product more vibrant. If you’re coloring water for a drink, don’t add too much food coloring. Some food dyes, especially red colors, can have a bad flavor if you use too much of them. If you’re planning on putting flowers in your food coloring-dyed water, wait until the last minute to add them. Food coloring can start changing the flowers’ color within a couple of hours.
Alternately, you can mix the powder with a couple of drops of clear alcohol to create a liquid dye, which can then be added dropwise to your water. [3] X Research source
Do not use this method if you want to drink the water or if your skin will be coming into contact with the water, as the highlighter ink might be toxic.
Strawberries or raspberries produce different shades of pink. Tomatoes can give you a nice red color. Leafy greens like spinach can be used to color water green. Pureeing red cabbage and then adding a little bit of baking soda produces a blue color. Blueberries, despite their name, can be used to make purple coloring.
Mix paprika into water to color it orange. Steep saffron or turmeric to get yellow water. Stir matcha or other powdered green tea into water to turn it green. You can also try steeping green tea leaves in warm water. Add ground coffee or cocoa powder to water, or steep a tea bag in warm water, to color it brown. Honey can be used to create watercolor paints that give colors ranging from delicate tints to dark, concentrated colors. [7] X Research source Combine activated charcoal powder and water to get a black solution.
Make the drops look 3-dimensional by using different colors when coloring in the drop. Use a darker shade in the area immediately surrounding the highlight, and a slightly lighter shade on the opposite side of the droplet. [9] X Research source Blend all the colors within your drop to create a smooth, rounded shape, but give your rectangle highlight sharp edges. [10] X Research source Add extra shading around the inner edges of the drop with a darker color, and give the drop a small shadow on its outside edge to complete the look. [11] X Research source
Each of the lines should look like several connected semicircles. [13] X Research source Make the wave shapes smaller and shallower for faraway waves, and bigger with more pronounced shadows for waves in the foreground. [14] X Research source Add white on the crests of some of the bigger waves to create the appearance of sea foam, and use a darker shade to make shadows underneath the peaks of the waves to portray depth. [15] X Research source
Add highlights to the peaks of your waves with a softer brush in a slightly lighter color. Paint ocean spray and foam onto the tops of your waves with a white or light brush. [18] X Research source
For example, if you’re painting a seascape at sunset and the sky is orange, give the lighter highlights on the tops of your waves a slightly orange tint. [19] X Research source
Make the waves tighter together in the background, and farther apart in the foreground. [21] X Research source Where the wave shapes cross into the outline of the reflected object, make them the same color as the original object. For example, if you are drawing a brown tree trunk reflected into the water, make the wave shapes blue outside of the reflected outline, and brown inside of it. [22] X Research source
