diy: crayon and watercolor painting

So for those of you who don't know, I was an art major in college. My favorite class was probably my mixed media class. Each week we would try to make art on a flat surface (canvas, watercolor paper, etc.) with a new medium. It was pretty entertaining. I just loved being able to experiment over and over again. Every now and then I will try these old techniques and fun things like this painting happen! What I love about this is that it is so easy. This is a really good exercise for those of you who start having a nervous breakdown when staring at a blank canvas. Here's how you do it...
Grab your supplies. You'll need a canvas, any size will do. Some paint brushes, some water, a pencil, some acrylic paints in the colors of your choosing and a white crayon. Oh, and a paper towel.
Start by lightly drawing your design on the canvas. If you don't know what to draw here, just draw a triangle. I swear it'll still look cool. 
Here's the fun (sarcasm) part. Doesn't take as long as it sounds like it does though. Erase the lines one shape at a time. Once you erase that shape, fill in the space with the crayon. Don't be afraid to push too hard. You don't want to poke a hole in the canvas but you do need there to be a good amount of crayon down. Naturally, it was pretty hard to get a good picture of this process. You can see the crayon in person though because the whites are slightly different in color.
Once you have filled in all spaces with crayon, cover the canvas with a layer of water. Just a tiny thin layer. Don't get too crazy.
Now cover the canvas in paint. It'll be watery but that's what you want. You are thinning the acrylic paints to make them more water color-y. They are water based so they mix very well with water.
Take a dry paper towel (while the paint is still wet) and crumple it up. Drag the paper towel across the canvas starting at the top and going towards the bottom. You will start to see your image re-appearing. Repeat this process until you have run the paper towel across the whole canvas. You will want to re-crumple up the paper towel (these are highly technical terms here) each time to reveal a clean-er spot. You don't necessarily want to be rubbing paint across more paint. You want to be removing paint.
When you are done it should look something like this. Let it dry completely and that is that. 
The options for this painting are endless. You could even try words. I've got plenty of ideas of other things that I want to try. And you can guarantee I'll share it with you when I do!

xo, Savannah

4 comments

  1. Beautiful! I've never thought about doing crayon resists for art at home: we do it all the time in my Kindergarten classroom though!

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  2. Love this project!! It's awesome.

    Blog; abeautifulheart07.blogspot.com/

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  3. Seriously, this is soooo beautiful!!! I just love it!!
    Thanks for sharing.. :)

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