Brewtiful art
> Lee Sin Yee uses coffee as a medium to paint
in Jinjang behind her house. I grind the beans and boil it a couple of times to get a thick pigment. I don't have an accurate measurement to get the right pigment; I just follow my instinct,” she said.
Lee uses common tools such as a palette, brushes, markers and chooses professional watercolour paper to avoid smears. She uses the marker to draw outlines for live caricatures and portraits. If she needs the piece to be accurate, she will sketch with a pencil first. To achieve various gradients, she mixes the coffee with different levels of water.
“I don't strain the coffee hence on some pieces you can see the coffee beans. I wish to maintain its smell and many have requested for it, but the coffee aroma goes away after a few days,” Lee said.
An interesting fact about coffee art is it does not attract ants because Lee uses pure black coffee with no sugar added to it.
Originating from an Italian word, caricatura, meaning exaggerate, Lee's caricatures are inspired by her point of view. She enjoys drawing caricatures as it is something cameras cannot capture, and it creates a good memory for the individual. She said she didn't learn any techniques for this, only using references online.
She also draws buildings, portraits, pets' portraits and also does letterings. She said some people find caricatures cute and funny, while others cannot accept