I've been wanting to paint on fondant with food coloring but haven't had the chance to try yet. I have a background in painting (art major in college) and have always wanted to use that to my advantage and I've finally gotten the chance with a cake coming up. My question is do you use the gel colors straight out of the bottle or mix them with anything? What about bleeding? Is that a risk? Any way to prevent it? Thanks for your advice in advance.

You can use alcohol(vodka) to dilute your gel colors.

Hey! I have done a small painting before using food colouring which i painted on gumpaste which would be pretty much like fondant i reackon (the painting is in my gallery if you want to have a look)

I use paste/gel colouring and like said above i dilute them with a tiny bit of vodka (don't mix with too much vodka as it can go very watercolourly faster than normal paint with water)

If you don't have or want to use vodka, vanilla extract or lemon juice can also be used but i havn't tried them.

I havn't had any trouble with the colours bleeding so far. Also a tip if you make a mistake just dab the area with a clean brush dipped in a bit of vodka then dab with a cotton bud and that will erase it.

HTH