Drawing with Crayons [NeoColor I]

Hello everyone!

Who remembers coloring with crayons as a child? I remember the joy of receiving a box of crayons and discovering all the yummy colors in it. Crayon art is not just for kids these days. If you look online you'll discover some pretty amazing artworks done with this simple yet familiar tool! 

I believe that changing things up in my art practice revives that creative spark so needed for coming up with new ideas for my art journal and YouTube channel, and having seen some crayon drawings by other creatives, I decided to treat myself to a new box of crayons. I bought the NeoColor I from Caran d'Ache. These are hard wax pastels, which are water-resistant - not to be confused with NeoColor II from the same company, which are water-soluble. 

The box came with a cardboard sleeve that contained a convenient swatch card on the reverse side. I swatched the crayons with varying pressure, as I wanted to see the level of saturation. This will serve as a guide for shading. There's a good range of blues, greens and earthy tones - great for sketching landscapes and a decent couple of purples, reds, and pinks. I would have loved to see a light magenta in there instead of the orangy-red, though.

I like crayons as a medium, because they are so colorful and not intimidating to work with. They are also economical, as you can use up the entire crayon.

I started with something simple like a green apple. I selected Nr. 521, Nr. 240, Nr. 245, Nr. 249, Nr. 049 and Nr. 035 plus white. Blending takes some practice. I used cotton swabs as well as paper blending stumps. The paper I worked on happened to be lightly textured, and I like the "fuzzy" effect, but if you prefer working on smooth paper, that works too - in fact, it's probably easier to blend. You can sharpen these crayons using the larger hole of a two-hole manual pencil sharpener. You can draw as detailed as you like, but I quite like my expressive style. In these first examples I decided on a fruit theme. 

These crayons are pricey, but they are highly pigmented and I expect them to last a long time. I have sketched several pages of fruit and I have not worn down the tips yet. They don't have a smell, like some cheaper ones do. I believe I got my money's worth with these ones. Plus Caran d'Ache offer them individually, so if you are just starting out and want to try out this medium you can simply buy a couple of your favorite colors. I would recommend to always purchase the white, as you'll need this for blending.

Crayons don't erase well, so consider the colors for your drawings carefully and test them on a separate piece of paper. They are not a fast drawing tool It takes time (and patience) to fill a surface. I like that these don't leave a waxy residue or crumbly bits on the page. They are permanent and do not require a fixative, although some creatives give their work a light spray.

These are just a few of my very first sketches done with crayons. Obviously, I'll need to practice a lot more, but these fruit drawings have already taught me so much about shading, blending, hatching and crosshatching. Most importantly, they are tremendous fun!

Thank you for visiting and Happy Sunday!