Monday, September 7, 2009

Resist with crayons

Had time for some quick playing. Never get tired of Resist techniques, so decided to play with an oldie but goodie: resist with crayons. (Part of the ABC of techniques for Art-Venturers). You can make some fun backgrounds by just scribbling or doodling over paper with crayons then cover the surface with dye inks or sprays. The ink easily wipes off the waxy crayons to reveal the original colors. I decided to play with some bird images and using the crayons to add resist color. I stamped the birds on some cheap white card stock with black VersaFine ink. For the bird on the left, colored some of the bird with a white crayon and used the white crayon to highlight around the outside edge of the bird and by the flourishes (sort of like the bandana technique, but doing the white before the background color, instead of after). Wondered if I'd get a similar effect using metallic colored pencils, so used a silver pencil to color in parts of the bird on the right and around the flourishes.
I had some mini misters that still contained watered down dye inks and a bit of perfect pearls in them, so used these to spray over the card stock. The white crayon on the left sample had great contrasting resist. Very similar look to the bandana technique that was so popular last year. The metallic pencil on the right sample is a very subtle look. Might have made a difference if I'd chosen other colors.
Decided to give it a try with two colors of crayons. This time I colored the entire surface of the bird with a white crayon (not sure why some of the black ink got caught up with the white crayon and turned the color gray?!?!!? Used both white and blue crayons to color around the flourishes (must admit I was rushing at this point, I was running late).
Sprayed over the card stock with an assortment of home made color sprays as above. Like the white & light blue around the flourishes. Turned out pretty good for a rush job!!!
The possibilities of adding resist colors with crayons are endless. I had a cheap brand of crayons laying around the house. Think I need to keep my eyes open to pick up some metallic colored crayons. These are much easier for me to work with that the metallic pens. Don't get the big blobs of ink gushing out unexpectedly.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Great stuff and one of my favourite techniques.

Maggi said...

Forgot all about crayons!!!! Gotta try this one, too!

Gaby Bee said...

I always love coming here to see what you are creating.
Thanks so much for your lovely comments. I enjoy your work so much, too! Everything you make is so very lovely. You are so talented.

Sending hugs,
Gaby xoxox

Inna D. said...

Very beautiful! Thank for sharing!