Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Yes, you can use q-tips and crayons for fine art! Chickadee Painting

I have recently started a new piece in Inktense pencils and Caran D’ache Neocolor II water-soluble crayons. What a delight! I took my cue from Mona Majorowicz and her Squidoo lenses about using Inktense with Neocolor II crayons in her wonderful animal paintings.

I simply had to give it a try! Although Mona frequently uses Suede Board as the support for her paintings, I decided to use Aquabord for my test piece. The Aquabord surface is quite rough and I felt this would be appropriate for the woody subject I had chosen.


In starting the piece the first step was to choose my palette. I used hole-punched pieces of white watercolor paper (nice and heavy) to match little pieces of color in my reference photo with the Inktense and Neocolor II swatches in my swatch book.


After choosing my palette, next I assembled my tools. Here is a picture of all the pieces laid out. And yes, those are q-tips. I quickly discovered that they were the best choice to smooth the Neocolor II crayons. Brushes work too but dilute the effect of the opaque crayons. On the rough surface, the crayons have been giving me really wonderful textural effects.


Here is stage one of the painting with the background laid in, mostly in Inktense pencils. The brightness of the Inktense provided a wonderful base for the Neocolor II crayons.

Please come by again and watch how the painting progresses. :-)
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11 comments:

  1. ConnieJuly 13, 2011 at 4:36 PM

    Lovely background. I'm delighted you're sharing your process and progress, because I'm just starting to use Neocolor II crayons myself. I love your swatch book idea, too.

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  2. Vicki HoldwickJuly 13, 2011 at 6:41 PM

    I'm loving this and thanks so much for the idea about matching the colors to decide on the pallete.

    Can't wait to see what comes next,

    xoxo

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  3. Sara Light-WallerJuly 13, 2011 at 9:24 PM

    Thanks Connie and Vicki! It's been really fun playing with crayons again, even at my age. ;-)

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  4. kazumiwannabeJuly 14, 2011 at 1:05 AM

    Very interesting! The background already looks wonderful, and it's great to see your process!

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  5. Cathy HoltomJuly 14, 2011 at 3:10 AM

    Looks great so far and fun too!

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  6. Beach Cat !July 14, 2011 at 5:57 AM

    Thank you so much for showing me your materials and process. As a beginner, I am often overwhelmed when I see finished pieces and it is so nice to see what the process involves. I am waiting for Amazon to deliver my first inktense pencils and now even more happy I ordered them! However, you will probably get me wanting the crayons too ... never ends, does it ! Thank you for sharing your art.

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  7. Sara Light-WallerJuly 14, 2011 at 9:15 AM

    Thanks to you all! :-) I do love experimenting, I suppose I'm looking for the "perfect" set of tools. That may not be possible but the journey sure is fun! :-)

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  8. AlexJuly 15, 2011 at 9:18 AM

    Looks great! And it's really nice to be able to see your tools. Thanks for sharing and for your comments =)

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  9. Sara Light-WallerJuly 15, 2011 at 11:14 AM

    Thanks Alex. :-)

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  10. monaJuly 22, 2011 at 2:41 PM

    Thanks for the plug. Next time I work with Neocolors I'll be try to remember to return the favor (getting old and not always swift to remember things but I'll make a note somewhere) especially since you work with a different substrate than I.

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  11. Sara Light-WallerJuly 22, 2011 at 4:21 PM

    Thanks Mona! I really liked the Aquabord. I had a couple pieces of it lying around for ages and thoght I'd try it. :-)

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