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News

making watercolour paints at home with KROMA pigments

Since making the dry pigments Kroma sources from all over the world available for sale, we've seen considerable interest in home paint-making. While making acrylic paint at home isn't really practical, making homemade watercolours can be a truly rewarding process. With that in mind, we've been working hard to share our paint-making knowledge and bring the raw materials necessary for home paint-making into the shop. 

Kroma is excited to announce that we've written an article all about making watercolours at home and are happy to answer any questions about the process via phone, email, or social media. You can also stay tuned to our paint-making materials page, where you can find everything you need to make paints at home.

We are OPEN!

Store hours at KROMA:

Monday: 10am - 4pm
Tuesday: 10am - 6pm
Wednesday: 10am - 6pm
Thursday: 10am - 6pm
Friday: 10am - 6pm
Saturday 12pm - 5pm
Sunday: closed

 

Visit, phone or place orders over the web. We will continue to expand our opening hours in the coming weeks as our team returns to work. 

Parking is currently free on Granville Island :)

KROMA is temporarily closed to the public in response to COVID-19 concerns.

Dear Friends,

 

We are grateful for your business and support during this unusual time. In order to do our best to protect our community and practice social distancing, we’re modifying our usual operations until it is safe to resume regular work.

While the doors to the Kroma workshop will be closed beginning today, March 18th, we will continue to ship orders daily. You may still place orders through our web store and submit purchase orders through email. We will respond quickly to ensure you receive orders in the usual 2-4 business days within Canada, 4-6 throughout USA. 

Kevin is isolating between his home and our Mergatroid workshop, where our pigment is milled. I am isolating between my home and the Kroma workshop on Granville Island where our paint is made and sold. We are both able to safely walk to work. The rest of the Kroma crew will be at home and in close communication. 

To our dear community, stay safe, stay well. Stay in touch. Call me at the shop! Love you all!

 

Yours,

Jessica

NEW COLOUR: Phthalo Turquoise

Turquoise, Turquoise Acrylic Paint, Acrylic Paint, Blue-Green, Phthalo Turquoise, Phthalo Blue, Phthalo Green, Ultramarine Blue, Zinc White

Introducing our new colour, Phthalo Turquoise. Our blend consists of Phthalo Blue and Phthalo Green pigments, plus a small addition of Zinc White.  Phthalo Turquoise has high tint strength and a translucent, emerald like blue-green undertone.  In combination with Raw Titanium, Titanium White, or Zinc White, Phthalo Turquoise will produce an array of aquamarine blends.

As with all of our new pigments and blends, we are excited to show off how Phthalo Turquoise behaves when mixed with other colours.  Check out some of our favourite results below:

 Phthalo Turquoise, Turquoise, Blue-Green, Burnt Sienna, Dioxazine Violet, Arylide Yellow, Cadmium Orange, Titanium White, Phthalo Blue, Phthalo Green

  1. Phthalo Turquoise with Arylide Yellow
  2. Phthalo Turquoise with Nickel Azo Yellow
  3. Phthalo Turquoise with Burnt Sienna
  4. Phthalo Turquoise with Cadmium Light Yellow and Titanium White
  5. Phthalo Turquoise with Cadmium Orange
  6. Phthalo Turquoise with Nickel Azo Yellow
  7. Phthalo Turquoise with Dioxazine Violet
  8. Phthalo Turquoise with Benzi Burnt Orange
Click here to see more on colour and pigment information on our product line.

Special Holiday 2015 Shop Hours

Kroma Acrylics Iridescent Silver

 

This year Kroma will be open by chance or by appointment from December 26 - January 3 and will resume regular business hours on Monday, January 4th, 2016. To arrange a visit to the shop during the holiday, please email Kevin or Jessica at info@kromaacrylics.com

The NEW Vancouver Grey

We are pleased to announce our new 2015 batch of Vancouver Grey. For the month of November all orders placed on the web receive one free 60ml tube of Vancouver Grey. This includes orders which select in store pickup.

 

Each time we grind a different colour we rinse out the mill and save the pigment residue. Over the year this residue accumulates into a beautiful sludge made up of layers of different colours. When enough has accumulated to make a batch we put it through the mill again and blend it all together to make Vancouver Grey. If you looked at this grey through a microscope you would see all kinds of brightly coloured pigment particles.  

NEW COLOUR: Cobalt Teal

Cobalt Teal is so undeniably beautiful! And it is now available in store and online.

This is genuine Cobalt Teal- an inorganic, synthetic, mixed metal oxide formed by the calcination of cobalt oxide and aluminum oxide. It is one of the most precious, and therefore expensive pigments available to artists. It is often imitated by mixing less expensive pigments (such as ultramarine, however never successfully as an exact match of the genuine hue as it has especially unique characteristics). It was first discovered by Thenard in France in 1802, and introduced as an artist’s colour in the 1820s.

Cobalt Teal has a greenish-blue hue and is an extremely opaque pigment with a very light mass tone (one of the lightest for blue pigments without the addition of white). Its opacity and light value give it a unique glowing mass tone, similar to the dayglow type effect of cadmium orange. It has average tinting strength similar to its relatives, cobalt blue pure and cerulean blue. Cobalt Teal has excellent lightfastness and weather fastness, making it suitable for outdoor applications.

 

NEW COLOUR: Nickel Azo Yellow

We are so happy to include Nickel Azo Yellow into the Kroma colour palette. This was a bit of a long time coming, but is the first of a stream of new pigments and products we hope to unroll this year. We hope you enjoy!

Nickel Azo Yellow is an azo/nickel complex organic pigment which has a dull, brownish-yellow mass tone with a clean greenish undertone. It is very translucent with strong tinting power and excellent lightfastness. Because of its tinting power and translucency, it is very useful for glazing techniques and watercolour style washes.

 

Custom Digi-Blue Paint for the Film Industry

We were recently asked to custom formulate a very special blue screen paint for a production that is currently in town. We had so much fun! Here are some action shots from our production...

Can anyone remember the Alan Wood Ranch Project from the 80s?

Ranch: The Alan Wood Ranch Project, a film by Steve DeNure and Chris Lowry (1985, 25 min.)

Recently while brainstorming for a project on Granville Island we were reminded of Alan Wood's Ranch Project from the 80s - and then found this clip from an equally special film that Chris Lowry and Steve DeNure made about it in 1985 that is a work of art in itself. The Alan Wood Ranch Project is an art installation on 320 acres of land in the foothills of the rocky mountains. Each piece of wood is wrapped in artist's canvas and painted with Kroma paint using a special painting machine.

We are posting this excerpt from the film with permission from Chris Lowry. More about Chris Lowry here: Ecotone Productions

Custom Paint Colours at Kroma Artist's Acrylics..


A sample of custom Kroma Artist's Acrylic colours. 
These blends are based on the addition of titanium white to some of our most popular artist's pigments:

Hansa Light Yellow, Arylide Yellow, Phthalo Green, Phthalo Blue, Dioxazine Violet, Quinacridone Red and Quinacridone Magenta.


We provide service and expertise to an increasing number of custom projects and fields involving the production of custom paint and pigment dispersion.

For more information please call us toll free: 1-888-669-4030

NEW Earth Tone Group Set

NEW The Classics Group Set

Explorations of Green and Blue (Turquoise)

Here is how to make Turquoise:

Turquoise, in painting terms, is the infinite relationship between green and blue. It is defined as a greenish-blue or a sky blue colour. Given the vast spectrum of green and blue pigments that are available to us as artists, the exploration of mixing them in combinations is endless. We have provided samples below of blending turquoise as a wash (paint diluted with water) and with Titanium White.

 

Turquoise Washes:

1.  Cobalt Blue with Phthalo Green
2.  Cerulean Blue with Phthalo Green
3.  Sap Green with Phthalo Blue
4.  Cerulean Blue with Raw Titanium and Phthalo Green
5.  Benzi Burnt Orange with Phthalo Blue and Phthalo Green
6.  Phthalo Green and Phthalo Blue
7.  Cobalt Blue with Raw Titanium and Phthalo Green
8.  Ultramarine Blue with Phthalo Green
9.  Alizarin Crimson Hue with Phthalo Green
10.  Cobalt Blue with Phthalo Blue and Phthalo Green
11.  Cobalt Blue with Phthalo Green
12.  Phthalo Blue with Phthalo Green

 

Turquoise Blends with Titanium White: 

1.  Cobalt Blue and Phthalo Green with Titanium White
2.  Alizarin Crimson Hue and Phthalo Green with Titanium White
3.  Benzi Burnt Orange and Phthalo Green with Titanium White
4.  Phthalo Green and Phthalo blue with Titanium White
5.  Cobalt Blue and Phthalo Green with Titanium White
6.  Cerulean Blue and Phthalo Green with Titanium White
7.  Cobalt Blue and Phthalo Green with Titanium White
8.  Phthalo Blue and Phthalo Green with Titanium White

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