Recipe

Murals of Baltimore is proud to let all of its clients know that the majority of all their materials are hand made in studio. Mr. Michael Kirby first learned about art material recipes during his time in Florence, Italy. From Italy, Mr. Kirby studied various recipes in Renaissance text to today’s recipes through experimentation to create soft pastels, oil paints, watercolors and frescoes. Below is are recipes and ingredients that Mr. Kirby has used to create his soft pastels for chalk drawing and street painting.

First in the United States there are various companies that sell soft pastels, they are Koss International, Rembrandt and others. Mr. Kirby has found that these pastels are not in the best interest of street artists because of their expense, materials used to create, or they are too powdery for working on pavements. With Mr. Kirby’s recipes the average cost for a piece of pastel is drastically reduced compared to others which could cost hundreds of dollars in materials for one street painting. Other pastels use high quantities of chemicals and chalk as fillers for the soft pastel which cause fading within hours of application or does not adhere to the pavement properly. The best soft pastel that Mr. Kirby has found that is available on the market has been in Florence, Italy in a store called Zecchi. This same store is where Mr. Kirby buys his pigments for his soft pastels as well as Kremer in New York City.

Once an artist is at the location of where they will create their street painting, they must consider the surface. Pavements come in various materials such as blacktop, brick, concrete, stone and more. Some surfaces have a coating on top of them to protect the surface from harm and which soft pastels will not work on by themselves. The best surface Mr. Kirby has ever worked on is cut stone which can be found on Via Calimala in Florence, Italy. Mr. Kirby worked with fellow Madonnari in Florence to have these stones placed in the streets so that the Madonnari can continue to work on Via Calimala. Stone is able to absorb the colors of the soft pastel on its surface and allow blending with minimum chalk dust. Many surfaces can be a problem due to chalking or chalk dust created when applying soft pastels. The next best surface for street painters is blacktop, again like stone the blacktop allows the soft pastels to stick to its surface longer than other surfaces such as brick, concrete and others.

When coming to a new location for a chalk drawing or street painting, artists should do a test on the surface by just marking the surface with soft pastels and just blending the mark with their hands. If the surface does not take or allow the pastels to stick, then the artist must prepare the surface for the soft pastels. Many stone and brick pavements have coatings that will not allow chalk or soft pastel to work. Therefore, Mr. Kirby created a new method that will allow the work to continue on the coated surface. It is a very simple formula of mixing 3 pounds of sugar with 5 gallons on warm water and brushing the surface with the mixture on the area that the artist wishes to cover. It takes about 1 to 3 hours to dry and once dry, it is easy to apply soft pastels and blend them as the artist wishes. Mr. Kirby discovered this technique by spilling Coke-Cola on stone pavement by accident and drew on top of it.

After the pavement is ready to draw on, the next step is taking a broom and sweeping away any debris such as broken glass which could cut and harm an artist. Make sure the entire surface is cleared and it is also a good recommendation to spread all the materials around the drawing area afterwards. Mr. Kirby also brings a sheet of clear plastic that will cover the entire area of the drawing with 2 feet access around the drawing. In case of rain, Mr. Kirby uses the sheet of plastic to protect his street painting. The edges of the plastic are tapped to the pavement using duct tape. Once the surface has been cleaned, many artists use a grid to apply their drawing to the surface. Grids are a common tool used in mural painting. Mr. Kirby uses a long stick about 4 feet long and tapes a piece of chalk to the end of the stick and draws out his image from a distance. For beginners it is highly recommended to use the grid versus trying to draw free hand using a poll.

Once the pavement is acceptable for soft pastels, the next step is either to start drawing or do another preparation that requires covering the surface in Tempera Paint. Mr. Kirby generally uses Tempera Paint on all of his surface prior to applying soft pastels because the Tempera provides a layer that grips the pastels stronger than most pavements. Not all pavements require Tempera for example the stone squares in Florence are ideal for direct application of soft pastels. Tempera paint is fairly easy to make but does require a lot of eggs. Tempera paint is a mixture of pigment and egg yolk. Artists can buy mixed egg yolk from any supermarket. Most Tempera Paint use just natural pigments versus chemical pigments. Artists working on street paintings should only use natural Tempera Paint. The difference between natural and chemical pigments will be explained later. For one gallon of tempera paint, artists should use roughly one kilogram of natural pigment, any color the artist chooses with 6 to 12 egg yolks depending on thickness that the artist wishes the paint to be. Mix the pigment and egg yolk together until it forms a dough similar to baking dough. Once complete, add water as needed to dilute the past and then you will have a tempera paint. Artists can apply the tempera paint to the pavement using brushes. Tempera paint like soft pastels is ephemeral and will wash away. Mr. Kirby does not complete any details when applying tempera and saves all detailing for soft pastels. The objective is to just cover the surface in large areas of color which roughly match the design for the street painting. Tempera Paint is a useful tool which also allows the street painting to last longer versus a street painting created solely with soft pastels. Tempera paint also covers and fills in a lot of the cracks that the soft pastels are unable to cover providing a cleaner picture in the end.

After the pavement is covered with tempera paint and dried, the artist is finally at the moment to start applying soft pastels. There are two ways to apply color to a street painting, 1) would be to use soft pastels and 2) would be to sprinkle pure pigment on the surface. Most colors it is best to use soft pastels but if there is a large area of one color then using pigment directly could be the best option. Generally, pigment can be sprinkled onto a surface using the artist’s hands and then smeared over the surface with their hand. Another option for smearing or blending is using pieces of carpet. Pieces of carpet are great tools for smearing and mixing the soft pastels on the surface but be careful because the carpets can create a lot of dust. Also, if an artist is going to use pigment in this manner, they should only use natural pigments versus chemical pigments. Chemical pigments are toxic and can cause cancer so should be used with protective gear.

Soft pastels are very easy to make versus other art materials. When preparing soft pastels whether they use chemical or natural pigments, artists should always use protective gear such as respirator and elastic gloves. Pigments come in powder form and are generally sold by kilogram. Natural pigments are the cheapest but chemical pigments such as cadmiums are the brightest in color for example cadmium red or cadmium yellow. Soft pastels are made with a combination of pigments, filler, and binder. Mr. Kirby uses rabbit skin glue for his soft pastel binder or melted soap. Rabbit skin glue is exactly that, skin from a rabbit that is turned into a powder. The rabbit skin glue should be melted over an open fire then added to the pigments. Most manufactures use chalk as a filler which is a way to make the production of pastels cheaper, but it also cheapens the pastel. Another substitute for chalk is plaster of Paris which makes the pastel a bit harder than most and can be very effective for difficult surfaces. Mr. Kirby uses at least 75% pigments in his mixtures for soft pastels to create the strongest colors for his soft pastels with a combination of the other materials at his discretion. Once all the ingredients are mixed, Mr. Kirby adds an oil to the mix to make more of paste, any oil such as linseed, olive, or corn oil will do. Once a paste is created, the paste can be rolled by hand or placed in molds to dry. The best way to dry pastels is to set them in the sun or bake them in the oven. Molds for pastels should be made from clay and then fired so no sticking will occur.

These are the best practices for creating soft pastels and street paintings or chalk drawings. We all at Murals of Baltimore and Mr. Kirby wish you happy hunting.