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!"