I need to paint something gray. When I've tried in the past with Wilton's black thinned with vodka, it splits into green and pink. Will Americolor's black do the same? And if so, what do you recommend? I think I can get some powdered black food color, not black petal dust but just black food color. I don't have time to order anything, so I have to go with what I can get locally.

I love painting with powdered colors (both food and petal). The only problem here is, black will be black, no matter how much you try to dilute it. I don't know what the addition of white white will do. But, I suppose it's worth a try.

How were you planning to get grey from black paste? Isn't it black no matter how much you dilute it?

I usually just add vodka until it's not all the way black. When I've done it in the past though, I was painting rocks and it looked okay for them to be sort of greenish here and there. This time I need to paint a shark, or part of a shark. I'm figuring I'll cover him with white fondant and then paint his back gray. This was a last minute thing for a friend's son.

I know it doesn't work to thin white-white with vodka. I wonder if just diluting black gel with white white would work, if it would dry on the fondant...then I could use what I have and not have to go to the cake decorating supply shop, where I can never seem to just buy what I came for.

If you mix the white white with the black gel, let me know how it turns out.

I'm gonna guess that it will dry on the fondant because white white dries so well. A little too well -- the rubber flange on my garbage disposal is permanently stained from it!

I'm thawing out a piece of fondant to test it on right now. I'll let you know how it works

It works! Thank you so much for the idea!

This is how it came out...I used two shades of gray, and then white, to see how it blends. Sorry about the blurry photo, I'm too short to take good pictures on my kitchen counter



Looking at how it comes out and at the photo my friend sent me as an example of what she would like, I'm thinking that may be the exact way they painted the shark on their cake. I had thought it was airbrushed because of the color blending.

This project is a lot more interesting to me than it was before

That looks cool! And is it drying nicely on the fondant?

It dried sometime while I was out running errands...not too sure how long it took but it's dry now. It doesn't have an absolutely perfect finish but it should be a good finish for a shark