Can you Paint with Crayons? Of course you can!

All right. New year off to a good start. I'm still working in watercolor, pencils and so forth, but this time I have something different. I like to experiment, see what I can do with certain media, and I had been experimenting with crayons. 

CRAYONS???

No. I'm not crazy. I love the texture, and colors, although the black is a little weak, I sort of get around that by adding purple/violet & brick red.

Anyway, I wanted to share with you all how I go about this. And before you ask if I'm crazy, the answer is "probably."

So, let me get on with this.

Here you see that I've got my crayons all lined up (by color), and I have a painting I did in watercolors I did about 2 years ago to work from. (Yes, you see I am serious about using crayons!)

Above I work in the colors, and below is finished 

painting.

Now for the amazing part.

Yes. Paint Thinner. I do use the odorless kind.

I don't know how many You Tube videos I went to to see if anyone had some different way of blending crayons, which are, of course, wax.

No one that I saw (and I went through dozens of boring videos, some of which I didn't even stay for more than a minute to endure their yammerings). None had suggested using paint thinner. I don't know why. There were some who melted crayons in a glue gun. That's not what I was after. After figuring out that if OMS (odorless mineral sprits), could blend wax-based colored pencils, then why not crayons?

Above and below, you can see where I've blended the crayons. In 

photo below you can really see it in the blue area to left.

And here is the finished painting. the only way anyone can figure out what medium I used is maybe to feel it, or to sniff. One person thought I had used soft pastels. Haha. Fooled him!

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The Frugal Way in Art

I'm always on the look out for a cheaper way to either make my own materials, or get around the more expensive brands when it comes to art. If I knew the reciepes for making my own oil or acrylic paints, I'd try it, really.

But today I have a reciepe for Gesso. You know, that big jar you buy to prime a canvas. It's suggested you put another layer down of Gesso before you paint on any canvas, because usually the cheaper the canvas the less Gesso they put on it--and the cheaper the material, but we'll get to that another day.

I took a look at both Hobby Lobby and Micheals stores to see just how much it is. A 16 oz jar of Gesso at Hobby Lobby is about $25. At Micheals it's about $10. But if you don't need that much Gesso, or, by golly, you don't feel like going into town to get it, and if you have the ingredients on hand, why not make your own?

Here's what you need:
1/4 cup corn starch or baking soda
1 T. white (or any color) acrylic paint
1 T. Glue--can be Tacky, Elmer's, any kind you may have
1-3 T. of water to mix to consistancy you want. 

I used a large cup (seen in background of photo above), and a plastic spoon for mixing, and a Tablespoom measure of some sort. Just know these will all need to be cleaned off right away after you get this done. Also, if you have a canvase handy that could use a coat of Gesso, I'd have it close by and a paint brush to swipe out whatever is left over in your mixing cup/bowl. 

You can easily double or triple the ingredience in order to make more, too. If you go on You Tube, you'll find a dozen videos on how to do it, but there's nothing to it, no mystery. If you can mix a batch of cookies, you can certainly make this up in about 10 minutes.

All I know is that these materials are usually on hand, I used the craft glue, and craft acrylic paints I bought in a craft store, or at Walmart. The paints are the 2 fluid ounce size, so if you wanted to add more cornstarch and glue to make a larger batch it wouldn't be hard to do that.

Anyway, it's a lot cheaper than buying it already made up, that's for sure!

Pelin Air is HARD!

It occurred to me, just recently, that I've always been a Plein Air painter/artist. That's just a fancy name for someone who paints outside, paints what they see in nature.

 I'm lucky to live at a forest preserve--actually, it's a replanted wetland and prairie. Plenty of flowers to paint.

 There are plenty of artists who like to paint outdoors, and enjoy it. But it takes a special type of person who doesn't mind what goes along with it, like the bugs, and wind, and basic comfort needs.
But if you want to see, really see what is out there and paint it, that's the only way to do it. Go outside and paint from real life.

 My backyard is just as good as any place, in some cases. I found this old chair in the barn and thought it would give my flowers a bit of a "frame" to peek through. So I set this up out there and painted it.

 What d'ya think?

 I love clouds, the sky, and love sunrises. Some are more spectacular than others. This is early morning sky over Afton, which I painted below.

I enjoy doing these, and miss being able to go outside, but I have windows I can look out and pick some trees to paint during the winter months.

I follow plein air painter Stefan Baumann

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSNtqYPhDuo

He is quite famous, but I didn't find him until recently, and find that his classes are unique. He isn't pretentious, he's the real deal. Here is a link to one of his many classes. If you're in need of his help, well, he is available in no other way anyone I've ever found is. He gives out his phone #, and you can call him. However, he is not cheap! But his shows are very informative as he stands in front of his classes in Mt. Shasta, or in various other places in California.
I have not found another person on You Tube who has done so much for me (and the people who make comments below his site on You Tube), just by watching, and listening to his lectures. He considers himself a "coach", not a teacher. 

Returning To Art: Bald Eagle

I had no idea that there were magical things you could do to pencils (colored or otherwise), that would blend them to make them appear more vivid. In fact it's the case with other mediums.
I began this large drawing back in October working in colored pencil. This is a large work, and it took me a lot of time, because it was so big and I was using my eyes so much, I'd get cross-eyed if I kept at it more than a few hours.

The work took me a couple of weeks to complete.

When I got it done I wished I'd done the background in watercolor first, because it was just too big of an area to cover (9"x12"). The original didn't have the big dark clouds, but I felt it needed some drama. Besides, I like clouds!

 I knew it was an undertaking filling that much space with colored pencils, but I stuck with it. I'd never done a picture quite that large with just pencils. But the end picture/painting is so much more. I knew I wanted the eagle's head to show up vividly. That's the focal point. When I got enough layers of pencil down I took odorless mineral spirits to blend the colors. I let it dry and added more layers, I also put down watercolor pencil to the sky and various other spots on the bird. I then went in again and did the colored pencil and blended it with OMS.
I've had over 100 likes on the facebook page Free Reference Photos for Artists

My Newest Medium: Crayons!

Crayola crayons.
They were my favorite medium when I was a child. And when I couldn't find paper to draw on, I used walls. My mother had to have been vexed with me, for sure.

Okay, it sounds hokie, but I was determined to see if odorless mineral spirits would do the same on wax crayons as it does for colored pencils.

After trying to find someone out there who might have come up with this brain wave--and failed (only found people just doing drawings or melting the wax. Like what's the big deal with melting wax?

I found a great picture of Anelope Canyon (lower or upper, I'm not sure), and decided to hock it for a trial test with the crayons.

I found that the OMS did work as it did with wax pencils. I found I could put down more layers after it dried. I experimented on how soon I could try. Some colors seemed to blend really well. Others not so well. I should have made note on which ones, but I was having too much damned fun to care!

The final product:

What'dya think? Would you try it? I'm going to do another one soon. Until then, happy creating!

Welcome to my Art Gallery

Just a little background.
I do have a degree in art (2 year degree), which I basically couldn't use. Everything I thought of, I didn't want to do. I was also delving into writing, which I've done ever since (all of my adult life).

I struggled with writing. But I'm now self-published. I seem to have come to the end of the road with that. Oh, sure there will be a few more books coming out. I will have to finish my Sabrina Strong series, of course.

But I've become less and less interested, especially since the writing has gone full circle, and I'm not getting rich, nor am I making any amount of good money in the time I've invested. Writing is fun for me, don't get me wrong. I enjoy doing it. It's part of what/who I am.

But art was my first love, and has always been in me. I've taken a sketch book with me to certain places and drew what I saw--this type of art is called "Plein Air" (must be a French word), meaning you're on site and drawing or painting the subject.

Below is something I did while at Grand Teton Nat'l Park in 1992.

Plien Air can be interesting, and challenging. For instance, below is a sketch and painting of the sketch. What I did is, I've taken a drawing (left), and painted the horse (right). In this case the drawing was done while on the road. Since I've always been able to draw horses, it was easy for me to capture the scene in my mind and just do a quick sketch while we drove on. 

The painting then is called "Mock Plien Air", since I've done it from a sketch. 

Anything from a sketch, or photo is Mock Plien Air. Which is alright, especially if your photo is clear and large enough.

Earlier this week...

I've bought a better paper to paint on, 140 lbs cold press. It's still pulp paper, not 100% cotton, as most watercolorists advise you use. However, that's really expensive as much as twice or more for even less paper than in this pad I bought. So, until I begin SELLING my paintings, the paper will have to do. At any rate, I've never been an art snob (or a writing snob). It's mostly because a lot of watercolor uses WATER in order to get the paint to do certain things. Cotton is very absorbant and pulls in the color and you can throw a pail of water on the canvas (well, not quite a pail), and it won't buckle too much. Pulp paper will buckle, but this 140lb is thicker and I've been able to paint with watercolors and I find it has been working beautifully. I'm not frustrated at all.

Here is a good example of control of medium in this painting:

I made this one extra large so you can see the details. I love doing water droplets. You'd think they'd be hard, but they're not.

Whatever I do, I do it because it brings me pleasure. And it is an escape, but I live in my head, mostly. Just ask my husband if I heard what he just said. No. I'm sure I didn't.

Anyway. This is the beginning of my Art Gallery. I'm going to do virtual hangings of my art. I'm not going to do much in the way of blogging, (unless I feel the need). I've seen how people put things up on Etsy in order to sell. I have no idea how that works. I've a feeling you have to pay for the privilege of doing business through them. Thus, I'm going to sell my art to anyone who is interested. I'll have to figure out prices, as it would have to be shipped through the mail. At this time, I'm not sure how this will work. However I do have a PayPal account. But the buyer would have to have an account there as well. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd sure welcome them. I'm not sure if this will work.

My other alternative is get a booth at local art fests, or craft shows. But, I'm not there yet. I'd rather do one piece at a time, and these take me two days (about 2-3 hours a sitting), and it's a bit of strain on my back. But I think it's my age as well as my scoliosis. Time to get back to yoga!

Oh. I'm working on the Grand Teton picture. What do you think? I've actually found a photo on Pinterest that was close to what I'd drawn, but this had snow on the peek, and I felt was more dramatic.