Using Crayola Crayons as Fine Art Tools

“Blue Angel, © Sara Light-Waller, 2014.

9” x 12” Crayola crayons on Stonehenge paper.

I am a big fan of crayons. Give a person a crayon and they will lose all their artistic inhibitions. Honest, it's true! Give it a try sometime and see for yourself.

I had a hole to fill in my art calendar and I decided to try a fine art piece using Crayola crayons. For my subject I chose a funerary statue of an angel that I think is quite beautiful. I’m fond of painting and drawing statues, the textures and colors of worn stone are endlessly fascinating to me.

For this piece, I chose a limited palette of Crayola’s – Cornflower, Cadet Blue, Cerulean, Blue, Indigo, Blue Violet, Violet, Purple Mountain Majesty, Mauvelous, Orchid, Burnt Sienna, Brick Red, Black, and White. I used Stonehenge paper, as it has good tooth and you can scratch it without too much damage. As I'm sure you'll remember, you can't erase crayons. But you can scratch them out with a sharp craft knife to bring back some lighter colors from underneath.

I have made a little video showing the progress of this piece. (Actually, this is only my second video and one of my intentions for 2014 is to do more videos, so here we go – the first one this year.) I hope you enjoy it and my “Blue Angel.”

Happy New Year 2014!