| First, choose a painting to copy that is simple and has a limited number of colors. It's not easy coloring chocolate. Create your canvas out of dark or white chocolate, depending on your painting. Melt the chocolate in a dish over simmering water in a pan, then spread it in a rectangular pyrex or metal pan lined with waxed paper or parchment. Don't attempt to mix conventional food coloring into chocolate, as any liquid will cause it to seize up. Spread the chocolate evenly in the pan, press another piece of waxed paper on top, then chill to firm up. Make sure to press out any air bubbles. (I made this the night before.) If you would like to mount the "canvas" on a prop, take the back out of a picture frame and cover it with foil, except for the stand, which must be able to stick out in back. Take the chocolate slab out of the refrigerator and place the frame back on top of your "canvas" and the waxed paper. You'll want to cut around the frame back to make your canvas the same size. Place the pan with the slab in it over a flame to melt the chocolate a little bit, then grab the waxed paper (under the slab) and lift it out. Flip it over onto your hand and peel the paper off the melted side, then flip it back onto the frame back and press it. Put it back in the refrigerator to harden onto the frame back.
When ready to do your painting, take it out of the refrigerator, remove the paper from the surface, and scrape a little with a sharp knife to even it out, if necessary. Lay the slab on some paper towels (flatten the stand - I don't think you want to paint this vertically). If your background is a light color, and you have used white chocolate, you can give it a bit of color by brushing on a little food coloring at this point. I used a paste food color that is available at cake decorating stores. I had a printout of my painting from the internet. You can fold the printout to make a grid of lines which may help you copy it.
Melt some contrasting chocolate in a small dish. Dipping a toothpick in the chocolate, draw the outline of your painting on the slab. It's actually pretty forgiving. If you make a mistake, you can lift the chocolate right off. If some of the chocolate melts into the background, you can scrape it off with a sharp knife. I am attaching a photo of this first stage, and you'll see from the final picture that I made some corrections later.
Melt some chocolate for the large areas of your painting. In my case, I melted some very dark chocolate, and mixed in some black paste food coloring. In retrospect, I think I could have brushed the black on after it dried. I used a butter knife to spread this chocolate on the canvas. The outline you made helps contain the chocolate in that area. After it dries, if you prefer a more matte finish, you can scrape it a bit with a sharp knife. For vivid colors, you can use fruit like berries, and stick it on with some melted chocolate. I used cut fresh raspberries for the scarf. (I was going to frame it with Toblerone, but thought I'd quit while I was ahead).
|
