Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Tuesday Tips and Techniques: Crayon & Acrylic Resist

Nothing says childlike fun more than crayons!  When you add some black acrylic paint and a craft knife to the mix, how can you possibly go wrong?  In just three easy steps, you can create a fabulous image.  I'll show you how I created the sugar skull.



I began by drawing the skull with a marker.  I drew in the eyes, nose, mouth and other design features.  Then I colored the design with my water soluble pastels. (Crayons work equally as well!)  After the design was colored in, I colored the skull with white, and added purple and blue to the background.


After my drawing was completed, I added a layer of black artist acrylic to the entire area with a brush.  I let it dry thoroughly. (Remember, any area left untouched by pastel/crayon will remain permanently black)


After the page dried, I took my craft knife and began scraping the paint away.  The wax in the water soluble pastel (or crayon) acts as a resist to the paint, and the paint scrapes away from the crayoned areas quite easily.  Even though I had just finished the design, it still felt like opening a gift as the image revealed itself!


I love the finished look of this resist method!  It has a similar feel to batik or woodcut.  I used a paper towed to wipe the image clean of any remaining dust from scraping.  Here's a detail from the sugar skull:


Just look at all of that crackly, textural goodness!  Of course, I had to prepare a beautiful home for my sugar skull, so I created a border on my journal page.  It probably goes without saying that I had to create a similar environment on the right page - you know me too well!


A little Mod Podge as adhesive, and my sugar skull was ready to live in the pages of my journal.  I hope you'll try this really fun method, and the timing couldn't be better - run out and get yourself a giant box of Crayolas while those "Back To School" sales are still on!  

Whatever you're doing to express your creativity as summer begins to wind down, I hope you remember always to "Celebrate, LOVE, and Create!"

4 comments:

  1. Hi Angelia;
    I love this technique! I remember when the kids would bring home their art work done in this technique and then I would get all excited and asked them to show me how to do it! Those are great memories I will have forever! Beautiful pages Angelia, you chose wonderful companion pages! I hope you are doing well.
    Hugs and many blessings dear friend.
    Kelly

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  2. Oh Wow, Angelia, you are so creative! I just love this technique and can't wait to get home from work to try it now. I love the border you added and your accompanying page. Just fantastic.
    Lee:)

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  4. Is this done on paper or material?

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Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me! It's a pleasure sharing the creative world of art journaling with you. I love hearing from you, so comments and questions are always welcome.

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