A Day at the Beach: Crayon Resist

By: Lucy Oliveri-O'Hearn

There are so many wonderful things to see at the beach. Whether you are at the ocean or on a pond or lake you will notice fish, boats, people, crabs, shells, waves and many more things. Here's a colorful way to capture what you see so you can always enjoy it.

Using a pencil, draw a beach scene showing your favorite things. Then with wax crayons (using a wide variety of colors), color everything in as dark as possible, trying not to leave any white paper spaces in the parts that you're coloring. The paper will later be com¬pletely covered with watercolor paint. The white paper areas will be covered in blue or green, so plan ahead.

A crayon resist means that you color your picture as darkly and solidly with crayons as possible. Then when you paint over the picture, the paint will only stick to the areas of the paper without crayon (white sections). The paint resists the crayoned area giving it its name, "crayon resist."

To begin, collect all of your materi¬als ahead of time and find yourself a work¬table to use.

Materials Needed:

  • White construction paper-roughly 12"x18"
  • Box of crayons
  • Watercolor paints
  • Wide paint brush
  • Cup of water

Steps:

  • Draw out your beach picture with a pencil.
  • Color in your scene, being sure to color it as darkly and solidly as pos¬sible.
  • Using the wide paintbrush, mix up your blue watercolor paint so that it is a deep, watery blue.
  • Next, paint a large wave like area (about 3 inches wide).
  • Now switch your paint to green; again color a thick wave like band of green paint.
  • Now go back to the blue paint and then again to the green paint and continue the wave look pattern. If you want to, you can just blend the colors and paint the entire painting a blue-green mix, or you can paint it blue and spatter green over the blue paint.

     

There are many variations you can try with the paint wash over your crayoning. You may want to make a second picture and try a completely different scene and paint wash of col¬ors. Be as creative as you like; in art there is no real right or wrong. It's all personal taste.

When you are finished, set your beach crayon resist aside and allow it to dry for an hour. Once it's dry you may want to mount it on another sheet of larger construction paper or poster board. This will not only hold it flat down but it gives your painting a border and a more finished look.

Happy beach painting.

Article provided by Homesteader.

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