Drawing With Wax Crayon
Economical, plenty of colors, and this can be a challenging and rewarding art form.
"Pear in Crayon"
Hand-made beeswax crayons
on Winsor & Newton hp watercolor paper
Following my page "What Do I Really Need?" that addresses our current economy and examining my artist's need for materials, I turn to color.
I have decided that the bare minimum I need as an artist is a graphite pencil and paper. That I can learn from only working in pencil, and that I can progress as an artist by honing my skills at tone and form. I also, however, have evolved over the years, into an artist that may be termed "a colorist", so what's an economically-conscious colorist to do when graphite seems too formal for a colorist style? Crayons.
When I was young, I had what many of us had, a box of 64 Crayola crayons. Recently I scrounged through my son's things left behind when he headed for college, and found his box of 64 Crayola crayons. Like Mom, like son, he saved them long past when he was using them regularly.
My Crayola crayon 64-count box from around 1990 - my favorite year and color selection of Crayolas.
I, as an artist, have worked with many professional materials. I like the best pigments, paints, inks, and surfaces, because they last the longest, and have found over the years that the additional cost is generally worth it. However, looking into my own future, with portability and economy in mind, I wanted an art material I could stick in my back pocket, that is very inexpensive, and can be easily replaced. The Crayolas.
Crayola crayons are the brand that I have grown up with and into, so I do not know if Prang, Faber-Castell, and the other brands have similar quality, but generally, wax crayons are wax and pigment.
To back up a little bit, crayons have been used for centuries by artists. Pigment held together in the form of a small stick is an ancient tool. I myself have "professional" crayons, such as the brands Conte and Yarka. These are pigment crayons that are made of pigment and clay, and are closer to pastels than wax crayons are. Below is a photo of Yarka brand Sanguine & Sepia crayons, Sauce crayons (carbon is added to these), and Charcoal. Charcoal is similar to crayon in shape, but does not have similar binders, and so would not be considered a crayon, per se.
The great benefit of working with Crayola crayons is the color selection at such a reasonable price. The professional crayons shown above average about $5.00 per box at this writing, with a few colors being included. A box of all of Crayola's 120 colors, available at this writing, is about $12.99. When cost is such an element in choosing an art material, then I at first have to look at what is the difference in the materials? Pigment. The professional crayons will have much more pigment than an inexpensive wax crayon. But, if the quality of the wax crayon is high, then the amount of pigment becomes less of a factor for me. In other words, if I want to simply draw in color, and I don't plan on the drawing to be archival or expect it to last 200 years or more, then there is absolutely nothing wrong with wax crayon. I actually don't know the longevity of wax crayon drawings, but the wax would not be the factor as much as the strength of the pigment. Ancient drawings done in crayon that survive today were not all done with the most expensive materials.
As an artist, I do not see many drawbacks, if any, to drawing with wax crayons, and especially Crayola crayons. I say especially because as I have been using them again in developing this page, they are consistent, they have a very good pigment strength, they are very smooth in the lay-down, and yes, I just about love them.
So, what can you do with Crayola or other brand wax crayons? Below are some samples. For the most part, I've chosen drawings of pears to depict different styles or effects, but almost any design can be depicted with crayons, from abstract to closely rendered drawings.
First, the "professional" crayons. These are "typical" sketches using traditional artist's drawing crayons.
"Pear in Yarka Sanguine and Sepia Crayon"
on Winsor & Newton hp watercolor paper
"Pear in Yarka Sauce Crayon"
on Winsor & Newton hp watercolor paper
Now, the Crayola crayons. These are also "typical" sketches.
"Pear in Crayola Crayon No. 1"
on Winsor & Newton hp watercolor paper
"Pear in Crayola Crayon No. 2"
on Winsor & Newton hp watercolor paper
"Pear in Crayola Crayon No. 3"
on Winsor & Newton hp watercolor paper
You can see by the above samples, that different styles may be achieved with Crayola crayons. All of the samples above are on a high-quality hot-press-surface (smooth) watercolor paper by Winsor and Newton. The luminosity of the layers of crayon may appear similar to watercolor with the right method of strokes.
Below is a sample of a pear drawn in ink first, with Crayola crayon used to fill in design areas and as an overlay to the ink. This technique is useful for commercial illustration.
"Pear in Crayola Crayon No. 5" (Noodler's "Legal Lapis" Ink under Crayola crayon)
on Strathmore 500 series charcoal paper
Below is a photo of another technique that crayons may be used for. I have drawn the orange in graphite, and then "tinted" it with an overlay of Crayola crayon. Crayon will smudge graphite, and lighter colors will still smudge, leaving them looking more grey than lighter in hue.
"Orange on Table No. 2" before crayon
on Strathmore 500 series charcoal paper
"Orange on Table No. 2" after crayon
on Strathmore 500 series charcoal paper
The designs below show a traditional style rose drawing, and an abstract drawing. Both were achieved with only Crayola crayon on Winsor and Newton hp watercolor paper, and are further examples of the different styles crayons may be used for. I drew a similar rose in colored pencil, and in fact, that drawing is one of my favorite pieces, so I was comparing the two mediums, pencil and crayon, when I drew this rose in crayon. It is not as detailed because it is more of a sketch than a finished drawing, but I feel crayon could achieve the same results as the more expensive professional pencils I used for my pencil drawing. With the abstract crayon drawing, I was comparing the color effect to that which can be achieved with oil pastels, and although those two mediums seem similar in their make-up, they are actually much different in their use, with crayons acting more like pencils than oil pastels. And again, for the effective use of color, the crayon drawing is as effective as an oil pastel drawing of the same type.
"A Simple Rose" in Crayola Crayon
on Winsor & Newton hp watercolor paper
"Crayon Abstract No. 1" in Crayola Crayon
on Winsor & Newton hp watercolor paper
When contemplating "the ultimate" crayon to use, believe it or not, I am generally choosing the Crayola brand for a brand to purchase. I purchased a set of Stockmar Beeswax crayons and they are truly lovely to use. The beeswax adds a softness and luster to a drawing, and it "feels" more traditional and "ancient" to draw with beeswax crayons. However, they do have some special features that keep them from being my "crayons to grab". They are expensive - $ 12.95 for 8 colors at this writing. I don't want their lovely tin to get scratched. Beeswax tends to build up more quickly on paper, so although the luster of a drawing done entirely with beeswax crayons is a beautiful effect, the uneven lay-down of the natural wax does cause some problems if multiple layering is desired.
I have also made my own crayons, using both melted broken crayons and using raw wax and pigment to make my personal colors of choice.
Below is a drawing I did with my own hand-made beeswax crayons:
"Pear No. 9 in Crayon"
Hand-made beeswax crayons
on canvas
And yet, for sketching purposes, the tin of Crayola crayons in eight colors, is what I use most often. The "collector's tin" with an older design, costs $2.99 at this writing, from Crayola.com . (This page was written before I fully developed my own line of beeswax crayons, which are now what I use most often).
Support surfaces such as different papers, will yield varying effects with crayon. I am also working on some pieces in crayon on canvas. Each of these supports will yield a different texture in the finished drawing. I like the idea of canvas because wax on canvas is very appealing as a challenge. The layers must be built up carefully, the colors must be selected and applied with forethought, and the end result is closer to a "painting" than a drawing. Working on canvas is pushing the medium just a bit, and yet, when done well, the resulting art is very rewarding.
More traditional drawings are done on varying types of paper. From newsprint to watercolor paper for smooth textures, and charcoal or pastel paper for more rough textures, the paper, as with whether or not to work on canvas, is a personal choice. I personally find Strathmore 500 Series Charcoal paper to be the best paper for most drawings, with medium "tooth", archival quality, and it is fairly reasonable in price.
When choosing canvas, I use economical canvas panels. The rigid support of the cardboard interior, is very nice to work "against". Another option would be linen mounted to wood panels, which would make a canvas crayon piece more archival, however, the crayon itself may or may not be archival, so in some ways, it is spending more money than is needed to accomplish the art piece by creating it on linen and wood.
Below is a photo of three pear pieces - On the far left is Stockmar Beeswax Crayons on Strathmore 500 Series Charcoal Paper, the center is Crayola Crayon on canvas from a canvas pad, and the third is Crayola crayon on a canvas panel. I believe you can see the textural differences in the drawings. The crayon on the canvas panel is not what I would term the best of the three, and it is obviously over-worked. I did have fun doing it though, because I did it without the forethought and care I mentioned above - I was like a kid, drawing away! LOL, ah well, everyone needs a day like that. I would say the drawing done with the Stockmar Beeswax Crayons is the best of these three, with the crayon suiting the paper well. The pear on the plain canvas resembles a preliminary painting, or perhaps a pastel drawing with the light color of the canvas support showing as it does.
Wax crayons are an inexpensive way of expressing oneself through art, they can be "pushed" as an art medium, and are both convenient and portable. So, put a pack of Crayolas in your back pocket, you never know when you might want them.
My line of Simply Art (c) Beeswax Crayons are now only made for my own use.
All artwork and images remain © laeom, Laurie A.E. O'Meara. Page content originally published 2011 on my website.
