A few months ago I was moving junk around in the basement and I found an old tin of crayons. It was like Christmas all over again!! I would never have guessed that a simple box of crayons could spark my imagination like it did. I must have filled half of a sketchbook getting reacquainted with this childhood staple.
What surprised me the most was the ease of blending. I guess when I was drawing stick people and puffy purple clouds as a kid I didn't fully appreciate what techniques could be applied with crayon.
As always it took a bit of experimenting with different papers to find what worked the best. Turns out Pastelmat, my very favourite pastel paper in the whole world, was the best for smooth blending. I also tried Canson's Touch paper which has a very rough tooth almost like a fine sandpaper. I like it for portraits but it does give the illustration a fuzzy, out-of-focus softness.
So yup, my portraits need work but I mostly draw animals so what did I expect? I'll keep trying new papers and post my progress. I want to try some coloured papers next to see what crayons can do on a darker surface.
So what is the best part about rediscovering crayons? They smell like childhood :)