The Sale is on! It is officially Christmas in July in the n*Store where you can get 20% off Stamps, Stencils, Mugs, Cards, and DVDs now through Sunday 7/16/2017. Just use the coupon code JULY20 when you check out to save. Start shopping here :)
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 :)
It really was :)
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
Jackie, I was in color heaven indeed …I never saw a place like that before either- it is really unique!
Wow, what a great class! It must have been so fun. Love the colors you “manufactured”. :-)
Yeah- it was fun — and thank you about the colors. Some of them turned out really great!
How fun!
Thanks for visiting Stephanie :)
This painting which also appears in my book Artful Adventures in Mixed Media was inspired by the city of Berlin and also a Wim Wenders Movie (Wings of Desire). Berlin is just a 1 1/2 hour train ride from my home city Hamburg and I always love going there. If you do not know Wings of Desire- I highly recommend it. The movie is about invisible, immortal angels who populate densely populated Berlin and listen to the thoughts of the human inhabitants and comfort those who are in distress that feel alone and isolated.
Throughout the history of Berlin there are many thoughts angels could have heard and many that needed comfort – that is what I had in mind when I made this painting.
It is 9×12″ in size and I used acrylic paint, acrylic ink, spray paint, marker and charcoal on canvas. It is available for purchase- like some of my other paintings- so if you are interested, send me an email
A couple weeks ago I did a guest blog post for StencilGirl Design and in case you haven’t seen it- I thought I post it here too :) I made a video showing some Pattern Play with some of my StencilGirl Products Stencils and the coordinating ArtFoamies Foam Stamps I designed. I love how different sizes of the same pattern on different tools open up many fun possibilities to do true Mixed Media projects.
Pattern Play with Nat Kalbach from Nathalie Kalbach on Vimeo.
I hope you enjoyed the video and they triggered some ideas for you on how to play with pattern.Here are some photos of the canvas boards in the video
using these Buenos Aires Stencils and Foam Stamps
and
using these Manhattan stencils and foam stamps
Supplies that I used- some links are affiliate links:
Thank you so much for playing with me :)
Look at all these awesome photos of wonderful peeps that got my book Artful Adventures in Mixed Media – I cannot even tell you how happy every single one makes me! It’s like as if my book is going on a big adventure :) Thank you!!!!
If you happen to have gotten my book, send me a pic or tag me on instagram or FB :) Maybe you take it on vacation with you or it is in your studio while you are creating – I would love to see :)
Lots of Love!
“If it doesn’t open…it’s not your door.”
I had this template from a shrine kit (I show you that one later ) which I found intriguing and just placed on top of an crazily busy art journal spread and spray painted over.
I made some marks with brushes , stamps and stencils. A quick and fun page- and I do like how dimensional the masked off areas come out.
Here are some supplies I used – some of the links are affiliate links:
Cool layout. Love the quote!
Wishing everyone a wonderful week ahead and my American friends a great celebration day tomorrow!
What a fabulous card!
Wow! That looks like SO much fun!
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