| I've been very interested in art for a really long time, and I wanted to see how I could incorporate art with science/chemistry. I researched online, and I found a lot of sources that made watercolor out of flowers. I could sort of figure out how this worked, but I wanted to learn the exact science behind it. Flowers that have pigment use their colors for attracting honeybees, butterflies, hummingbirds, etc. Every pigment absorbs wavelengths or light, and at the same time, reflects. The reflected wavelengths help determine what the color will look like to the eye. Chlorophyll is the number one pigment, it absorbs blue and yellow wavelengths of light, and reflects green. Carotenoids are yellow orange or red "triterpenoids". These are accessory pigments. They prevent damage. Anthoeynanins are pigments that "appear red to blue". They provide color in roots, fruit, leaves, and plant stems. I decided to buy flowers from vons for my project, because I didn't have time to find flowers around my house. The process of extracting the color from the flowers s very simple. You pick the most vibrant flowers you see, and you heat up about a cup of water. You should take just the flower petals and put each different type/color of flower in a different bag. The hot water helps a lot because when you divide up the water and put it into every ziplock bag, the heat of the water helps the color of the flower drain out. In this process, I also used a rolling pin to squish and flatten out the flowers to help the extraction process. I had bright yellow, purple, red, light blue, pinkish red, and orange flowers from vons. In the end, all of the colors ended up being light brown or dark brown. I was puzzled, because the sight I looked at online had very bright, vibrant colors. This is when I realized that the pictures of the "homemade water color" on the sight was actually food coloring. The people who tried this and made the sight probably realized that it wasn't going to work, so they decided to brighten it up a little bit. I was not going to give this up, so I decided to try it again when I got home. I thought that fresher flowers would work, so I tried it again with the vibrant flowers in my backyard. The best results that I got was a vibrant yellow color from a bright orange flower, and a dark red color from a purple flower. I decided to paint a picture, and the watercolor came out just enough to tell that there was a painting. I think I learned a lot during this process and now if I ever want to try it again, (which I will) I now know to use the freshest most vibrant flowers, and hotter water. |