Hello, we're glad you made it!

Before you start, you need the following:

• A glass of water
• An old plate or painting palette
• Paper towels or kitchen roll
• A marker for your signature

You’ve done it.

With the KREUL Master Forger Box, you’re one of us now.
In just a moment, the Master Forger will take you on an exciting art journey.
Are you ready?
Do you want to come with us into the fantastic world of painting.
Want to join us on a creative adventure?
In our following description, we show you step-by-step how to copy a famous masterpiece.
Scared that you won’t be able to do it?
Oh, no worries, sure you can do it.
You are not on your own. And you have plenty of time to finish your work of art.
And if something unexpected does happen, just take a break.
But enough talking.
Now let’s get started on our journey.
Have fun! And remember, stay cool!

ANCHOR:
The art world is frantic. For months now, forgeries have been in circulation that are astonishingly similar to original paintings by old masters. Only experts can tell them apart from the originals. The only difference, if you look very closely, you’ll discover small hidden details that you won’t find in the originals.
Experts have proven that these pictures have only been painted recently and they are in fact master forgeries. How is that possible? Apparently, a master forger has hacked the firewall of the biggest art museums and got their hands on the notes of the most famous artists in the world. These contain all the details needed to copy famous paintings. The authorities don’t know why this secret information is now being passed on.

MASTER FORGER:
Cool that you’re here and joining me on my mission. We are now a team and we are going to show the world that art really is the greatest thing. Just don’t tell on me.

The two of us will work together to forge one of the world’s most famous masterpieces. That is exciting, but we have to stay relaxed. You’ll need a steady hand for us to complete our work of art.
I have already got all the information we need and shall explain what you have to do step by step.
We have to be careful, but don’t worry, everything will work out fine. Together, we’ve got this.
But that’s enough talking. Let’s get started. Let’s show the world how great art really is. Let’s get creative and paint a masterpiece together.

ART HISTORIAN:
Our picture was painted by one of the most famous artists. By Vincent van Gogh. It is called “Starry Night” and it’s totally famous. Vincent would be 169 years old if he was still alive today. The original picture was painted over 130 years ago. Phew, the painting’s really old, but it isn’t boring at all. Oh, and by the way, from what I’ve read about Vincent, he wasn’t boring either. He did his own thing and didn’t care what anybody thought. It would certainly have been interesting to meet him. But the picture itself tells us a lot about him.

MASTER FORGER:
When artists start painting a picture, they usually begin with the background and paint their way bit by bit into the foreground. So with this picture, let’s start with the starry sky.

ART HISTORIAN:
Incidentally, Vincent was a real stargazer. In letters to his brothers and sisters, he was always telling them how the night sky fascinated him. He really loved the stars because he thought that they twinkled in different colours and no night sky looked the same as another. Do you feel the same?

MASTER FORGER:
Okay, to start, you need the stiff paper with the faint help lines. Place this on the Master Forger board, on the free space under the original picture. Look at the colours we’ll need to paint the starry sky. That’s exactly right, for a really twinkly starry sky, you need a lot of yellow and a little orange. In any case, you will also need white and black and all the shades of blue you can conjure up by mixing the paints. You can arrange all the colours on your paint palette. It’s best if you squeeze just a little dab of each colour paint onto your palette, about the size of a hazelnut, that’s just right. Now let’s start painting. It’s best if you start off with all the light-coloured areas and paint the dark-coloured bits later. You can use the dark-coloured paints to paint over the light colours. Painting a light-coloured paint on a dark colour doesn’t work so well. So, start with the light-coloured stars. How many can you see? That’s right, Vincent painted one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven stars as well as a brightly shining moon. For the stars, paint a yellow dot first, and then add small circles in yellow around it. You can do that for all the round help lines in the starry sky. Paint lots of little dots and strokes around the round help lines in the starry sky.

Take another bit of white paint and dab it around the stars, so they look as if there is a halo of light around them.

So, we have the stars up and twinkling, now time for the moon, Vincent painted this as a crescent moon. Start with a really big circle, first in light yellow. You mix that from white with a little yellow. Use orange to colour the shape of the moon. You decide how you want to paint the moon.

What next? Hmm. Oh yes, artists often take a step back to look at the picture they have started. Why do they do that? Well, you look at the picture in a different way and suddenly you can see where you may need to change or add something. So, let’s take a quick look at the picture together.

If you look at Vincent’s picture from a little distance away, then you can see a big wave in the middle of the sky. It looks a bit like a swirling whirlpool in the middle of the ocean. Start by mixing white and blue to make light blue and paint the big swirl in sweeping strokes so that it looks like a wave, with a second smaller wave coming from it. Follow the help lines to make this easier.

Make sure you start with big, bold strokes to paint a huge wave, filling in the top part of the picture completely.

The rest of the sky, as you can see, is a little darker, so take some plain blue paint and add a tiny drop of black from the tip of your paintbrush. If you mix these two colours, you get dark blue. You can use this to paint around the stars, the moon and the wave and fill the entire sky right down to the mountains so that you can’t see any white bits left.

Wow, you’ve finished the sky. That’s great, leave it to dry for a moment. Now it’s time for the mountains. The landscape you can see is part of a small mountain range in Southern France. There, olive trees grow, and there is lots of grazing land for cows and sheep. Because it is the middle of the night, of course, all the colours are dark, and because you can’t see very well at night, you can only make out the trees and hills very faintly. Take some darker blue and paint in the different meadows and hills.

Now, dab some paint and, at the bottom right, add some smaller spirals of paint so that they look like trees and shrubs. Fill the entire canvas. Ah, don’t forget, the picture continues on the far left, here there are hills and meadows that you need to paint, too.

Voilà, now for the village. This is called St Remy and lies in the south of France. Vincent liked spending time in this village and painted many of his pictures there, including Starry Night. The village isn’t that easy to paint, after all it is the middle of the night. The best thing to do is to take a tiny bit of black on the tip of your paintbrush and paint a tall church tower. You can see help lines outlining the church tower.

Use black paint to sketch out the houses. Paint a triangle for a roof and rectangles for the houses. Paint and arrange as many little houses as you want, sometimes with a long roof sometimes with a short one, sometimes a big house, with a little one next to it. And now colour in the houses in light blue.

Now, we have nearly finished, it’s a good time to make the stars really shine. For this, take a little orange and mix it with yellow. Just look how the colour glows. Use this to paint a circle around the stars to make them light up.

And now make the moon really shine, by colouring in the circle around the moon with yellow.

Then take orange again and colour in the moon with paint.

If you have any paint left over, dab some orange on the houses so they look as if there is light shining from the inside. Not too much. Three or four dabs of paint are enough.

On the left of the picture there is one shape we haven’t painted yet. Here, Vincent painted a big tree in dark colours. It looks a bit like a flame flickering up into the sky. These trees are called cypresses. Cypress trees grow where it is warm and dry, like in Southern France. In the daytime, they are rich green in colour, swaying in the wind, but here it is night-time, and they look very dark. To paint the cypress trees at night, take black and fill in the free space with paint. Like a dark flame. Paint sweeping lines as if you were painting a dark campfire. Just be bold.

Oh, yes, that looks great. Now you have painted the entire picture. Every area of white should now be covered with a good coat of paint. Excellent. Vincent was without doubt a phenomenal artist, but who says that we can’t be at least just as good. So that the art world can see what true art is, you have to add your very own personal mark, an extra little detail that you think up yourself. For instance, use purple to add an extra little feature, perhaps a house, an aeroplane, a car or a secret symbol. I’m sure you’ll think of something.

And finally, add your signature. A signature? Yes, artists sign their pictures to show that it is only them that can paint in this way and to make the pictures into true masterpieces. That is their signature. You should do that, too. Choose a marker and write your name in the corner of the picture.

Et voilà, Starry Night is all finished. Wow, we can be proud of ourselves. That was perfect teamwork. Though, you have more reason to be proud of yourself, after all, you did most of the work. We have almost completed our mission. Now let your masterpiece dry properly, and then you can show it to everyone and so prove how great art really is.

If you want, send us a photo of your work, and we’ll display it in the KREUL Master Forger Gallery. Thanks again that you have used your creativity to make the world even more beautiful. I am already looking forward to our next mission together, I hope you’ll join me.