Crayon 101

It doesn't take long for a room of mixed media artists to start discussing the stuff we use.  Probably because as process artists, everything that exists is a potential tool.  Some tools seem to work their way into discussions more frequently than others.  Crayons definitely fall into this category, so here's my two cents worth.   It's all information, so feel free to pass this post along if you think it might be helpful.  

I've been using both oil pastels and water soluble pastels for a long time.  Like most people, I thought the terms "oil soluble" and "water soluble" were the dividing line, and that's what I was told in art school.  But there's much more to it.   

 

 Above is a pic of a one of the less expensive brands of oil pastel.  To get these to work, think of them as oil paint sticks, and blend them with linseed oil, terpenoid, mineral oil or even baby oil.  I like working in oil media, but these crayons have never dissolved into the creamy paste that is so desireable, so I use them only on top of other oil media when I want a dry crayon look.  I almost never use them alone, and can't get them to blend as well as I'd like them to.  Alternatively, Caran D'Ache makes a beautiful, highly pigmented oil soluble oil pastel.  If you want the cadillac of oil sticks, that's what I'd suggest.  No pics of those here, but I'm sure you can find one if you Google it.

 

 

Here's a look (above) at two of the more popular brands of water soluble crayons.  The top picture is Portfolio brand.  As the box indicates, the crayons are oil based, but soluble in water.  They are creamy and blend beautifully.  I use these on top of oil media, or on top of fully dried water media, knowing that it could take up to three months--sometimes longer--for the oils in the pigment to completely dry. I generally keep them away from art journals and other books, although I've heard of people who use them in books and say they've had success with it.  I haven't.

Underneath the Portfolio box is a tin of Caran D'Ache NeoColor II water soluble crayons.  As the tin states, these are water soluble wax crayons.  They are beautifully pigmented, creamy, spreadable with water, and they are wax.  But what many people don't realize is that while the NeoColor II series are water soluble wax, they also contain oil.  So you must take this into consideration when choosing how you will use them.  

 

 

The skinny crayons in the pic above are individual Caran D'Ache NeoColor II sticks.  These are usually what people think of when the subject of Caran D'Ache water soluble crayons comes up.  But Caran D'Ache also makes the more expensive per crayon and harder to find NeoArt water soluble wax crayons.  The chunky 4 pictured above are the NeoArts.  These are the creme de la creme for art journalists and mixed media artists who require a water soluble crayon containing only wax and no oil whatsoever.  In addition, these are the most highly pigmented of all the crayons and outlast the others exponentially.  

And then there's Crayola.  Don't scoff.  In my opinion, Crayola school crayons are one of the best sources of pigmented wax resist drawing implements available!  You can apply them heavily and spread them with a hot iron (Careful! There are special tools for this), or melt chunks of them and spread them around like pigmented encaustic.  You can use them as a resist and then remove the wax with and iron and pressing paper (Careful!  Learn how to do this safely and properly before you try it).  I know fiber artists who color with school crayons on 400 thread ct. fabric and heat set it to make it washable.  I suppose if you're not afraid of burning down the house, you could try heat setting them on paper.  I've tried, but never done this successfully.  They continue to rub-off.  That's something you'd want to keep in mind, especially when working in an art journal.  I usually don't use them in books, and when I do they're not part of the top layer.

For more information on what seems to work with what, see Kelly Kilmer's list of personal favorites. Kelly's also a fan of the chunky NeoArt crayons, and I owe her a big thank you for convincing Debbie at Frenzy to carry them individually as open stock.  As far as I know, Frenzy is the only place you can get them in the metro-Phoenix area since our local art supply stores stock only the Neo IIs.  There a couple of places that sell them in sets online. They are not inexpensive, but because they are so highly pigmented and last so long, they may be the best buy if you use them often.  

 

Comments

[sharon]

great information, barbara! i'm bookmarking this post as a reference. love crayons of all ilk!

[Kristina]

Barbara, this is so awesome!! Thank you so much for sharing all this info - I had no idea the Neocolor II's have oil in them as well, or about NeoArt crayons. And yes, Crayola's, ftw (for the win)!

[Terri@PringleHill]

Barbara, now I know why it's difficult to write over the Neocolor II's - it's the oil!!! Revelation!!!! I'm going to have to track down the NeoArt crayons. Thank you, thank you for this great post! Hugs, Terri xoxo

[Barbara Hagerty]

Terri, thanks for stopping by!! I'm really in love with the NeoArt sticks but until you mentioned it, I had always used them as a top layer and had not even tried writing or drawing over them because I assumed the wax would make that hard-to-impossible. But I just tried it, and it works! I colored three sections of a piece of paper with a NeoArt stick. I used a wet paintbrush on the first section, blended it thoroughly with water and let it dry; I took a rag to the second section and blended it by rubbing it in, and I left the third section alone. Then I tried a regular cheap Papermate felt tip pen (which will not write on top of acrylic), and wrote over all three sections. Perfect! Then I did the same thing with a Pilot gel pen. Yes! Then I used a cheap RoseArt metallic gel pen. It worked perfectly well on the first section, OK on the second section, and eventually worked on the third section, but I had to go over a lot of the spots twice. My guess is that the wax needs to be dispersed if you want to write on top of it with some of the gel pens, but the good news is, that if you put the NeoArt on top of acrylic and blend it with water or rub it in, you'll be able to write on top of it with more options that you would have writing over acrylic alone. See what your comment generated? Now I'm really experimenting with this!