3 Materials Challenge: Day 3
After having to rush to photograph and blog the first two days of the challenge, I decided to get an earlier start, today. I snapped a photo from a movie I was watching as a reference—though as it turns out, I didn’t follow it very closely at all. The idea of a mother and son walking down a path or sidewalk with plants on either side came from that, though.
I decided to think outside the box on the a couple of the materials, this time. The first is just a micro-tipped black pen (same as yesterday), but for the second, I pulled out my dusty old box of Crayola crayons.
I’ve used a water-soluble crayon for days 1 and 2, but since I can’t activate them with water on this paper, I thought I might as well just use a regular old crayon! This particular one is a bit odd, though. It’s something called a Crayola Gel FX. No color name is listed, but it’s green. I looked them up, and they’re apparently formulated to work well on black paper, which I take to mean that they have superior opacity, compared to a regular cheap crayon. I think there may only be two in my box of 96 crayons.
For my third material, I used another product I haven’t really reached for in several years—Decorating Chalk for a Pastel Touch. (I think I used them with polymer clay, so it’s been a long, long time!) I’m not sure they even make these any more… I think they were often used in card-making and scrapbooking. They look like crafts-grade chalk/soft pastels in pan palette form.
I only used one color of the chalk pastel, as per the rules: It’s the bright yellow-green one you see between the crayon and the pen. I dabbed it on with a paintbrush and a fingertip.
Figure drawing is very far out of my comfort zone. I think it might be nice to try it more often, though, staying firmly in the less demanding realm of “not attempting realism or accuracy”.
As far as the materials go, it was interesting to try something old that I haven’t used in so long. The chalk does give a pleasantly soft-edged effect, but I’m not sure I like the mess of it. I do like the playfulness of the crayon, but it’s obviously not a material to use where precision is required. (Not when I’m the one wielding the crayon, at least!)
