Mmmm Distress Crayons!

Do you know, I didn't know I needed Distress Crayons until someone (GEMMA!)  lent me theirs at a workshop I was teaching, and they then immediately fell into my shopping basket ;-) I am really liking these as an art journal, mixed media tool. I have deliberately avoided all tutorials and videos showcasing this product because the minute I see how someone else uses a product I can't think of any other way. Best to just play on your own first, and then watch videos (but I still haven't done that last bit bit!)

This is how the page began. I gessoed a page in my black square Dylusions journal leaving a bit of black showing around the edge. I added a very small amount of acrylic paint with my fingers just to get my started, and then began layering the Distress crayons over the top. I like to scribble a bit with them and then blend them with my fingers. You can splat water on them too to make a pattern. But here's the bit I really like ... you can just draw patterns and symbols with them. LOVE! I felt like a kid with a new packet of Crayolas.

Because these are a Distress product, once they are dry you can write over them, and layer up with other products, unlike oil pastels for instance. I also found out, and this is important, that once they are dry they no longer smudge or move on the page. Result!

I added a bit more to my page, including some stamping, some old text, some washi tape ... and more Distress crayon of course.

And then I decided to add a figure. In my head she was going to be quite different to how she turned out, but hey ho, that's art journaling for you! She's not ideally placed on the page - she would have looked a bit better to the left, but I didn't want to cover up the red flower/circle thing so I had to work round it. Yay for no rules!

She had various different things in her hands before I finally settled on a flock of birds. She has a little acrylic paint on her face as a base flesh tone, but other than that she's all done in crayon.

I'm loving the layers you can build up using these crayons:

And here is bird lady on my desk easel. Now, I don't want to upset all of you neat freaks who like to keep things in order in their original packets (you know who you are!) you can see all three of my crayon packets tipped out into one haphazard collection. Ahhh, that's better!

Byee for now!