Can this be done? I don't work too much with gumpaste but I have already cut out some flowers and are drying as we speak/type. Once dry, can they be painted without the gumpaste becoming soggy?

I recently made some gumpaste butterflies to test out for a cake and used airbrush liquid to paint some and luster dust/vodka to paint a couple and then used luster dust/vodka over some of the painted ones to give a sheen.

Both were a little tacky a couple of hours later (it probably also has something to do with how much moisture your painting on, humidity, just in case, I put a fan on them to help the drying process.)
But, by the next day most had dried completely and a couple of them took about 2 days to dry completely.

After they dried completely there were no noticeable problems, they did not break, have spots where the sugar dissolved, or have any other problems that I noted.

this is why you use alcohol, because it evaporates, theres no risk to the gumpaste.
remember you can use the dust dry too tho - depends on the flowers.
xx

I am quite new to this, but if I am colourdry gumpaste flowers, I use lustre dust dry using a paintbrush and then place the flowers colour side down on a mesh splatter guard (not sure what you call them in US, its mesh like a tea strainer but flat ) and then just slowly waft them over the steam of a boiling kettle of water. I recently made some primroses and the colour came out really well with this method, sorry I havn't uploaded the pics of these.

Yup you can do it dry and then steam them too. Another way is to dust them with dry color while they are still wet and then dip them in confectioner's glaze (50/50). I do mostly the dry dust with steam and the dust mixed with alcohol for vibrant painting. That way, I can drink my paint if I get too upset jk

Thanks everyone. I just tried the vodka painting method but I'm confused. They came out very stripey. The color is blotchy and uneven. Maybe the mix is too watery? Is it supposed to be more like a paste? I'm going to try the steaming method right now.

It's possible you don't have enough dust/color and it's too thin. You have to be careful when painting with the alcohol, ifyou go over the same area more than once it can remove the paint also. It it's blotchy, you might not have mixed the dust in well enough.

By the way, if you make a mistake (which I do a lot!) you can use just clear alcohol to remove any color. I paint on the clear alcohol and wipe with a small piece of paper towel and then dust with the cornstarch right away so it won't get a shine.