A couple weeks ago I took a 1 day class on how to make acrylic paints at Kremer Pigments in NYC.
They usually only held classes so far on how to make watercolor and oil paints, and I found out about the acrylic making class a day before it took place and had to jump right on it.
The class was held in the basement – it has a little closed off area where they make their Kremer paints.
Below my workspace :)
Roger, who held the class, explained that this was the first time teaching it, as acrylic paint is one of the hardest paints to make.
It all starts with making a color paste out of pigments and water , sometimes also alcohol is needed to break the water tension.
Roger showed us how to mix the color paste and how the consistency of the paste should look like.
and here I am mixing orange
using a muler for another color to grind out the last lumps
look at this luscious ultramarine blue
the green pigment below was accidentally in the pile- it turned out this wasn’t suitable for acrylics – but it was for sure pretty (bummer)
Here are my color pastes
After making the colors pastes in the first half of the class it was time to make acrylic medium in the viscosity and sheen of our liking.
If you wonder about some German labels, Kremer Pigments is actually a German company :) The medium making part was harder for me than the color paste as there are so many different ways to make it.
The next step was to combine the color paste and the acrylic medium
and voila – I got acrylic paint. I mostly strived to make thick and soft bodied matte paint. Some of them turned out pretty cool – some of them I think were a bit weak in their consistency of the color paste and one of my mediums was really off and changed a bit later (guess I didn’t do it the right way- LOL)
But all in all I love my new acrylic paints and I definitely will do this again by just using pre-made mediums to get the colors and the consistency of my needs. It was a really awesome class, Roger was incredibly knowledgable and so patient – answering a hundred million questions from us (we were all there for different reasons – to make paints for different needs). If you are in NYC and you feel you would like to learn about making paints check out their class schedule. And …the store is worth a visit in any event for some color therapy :)
Comments (8)
Tracy Krueger
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Wow! That looks like SO much fun!
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nathalie-kalbach
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It really was :)
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Jackie P Neal
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OMgosh! How fun and interesting Nat! you must have been in color heaven!!
Wish we had cool places like this near us! “(
Thanks for sharing- great post!
hugs,Jackie
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nathalie-kalbach
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Jackie, I was in color heaven indeed …I never saw a place like that before either- it is really unique!
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Jean Goza
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Wow, what a great class! It must have been so fun. Love the colors you “manufactured”. :-)
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nathalie-kalbach
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Yeah- it was fun — and thank you about the colors. Some of them turned out really great!
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stephanie
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How fun!
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nathalie-kalbach
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Thanks for visiting Stephanie :)
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