We did some good old-fashioned watercolor resist painting the other day, using a melting crayon art technique and mostly Christmas colors.
Melting Crayon Art is Fun!
First, Maia drew with crayon on watercolor paper. I’ve been wanting to try more of a melted crayon technique, which I had read about in one of MaryAnn Kohl’s books, but didn’t have the warming tray that she recommends using. However, I finally decided to try it anyway, and use a hot cookie sheet instead. It worked very well!
I placed watercolor paper on a cookie sheet and put both in a 275 degree oven for a few minutes to let them heat up. I set the cookie sheet on top of a couple of towel layers to protect the table and had Maia wear an oven mitt to protect her free hand.
As she drew on the hot paper, the crayon melted, creating more intense, color-saturated lines. Maia thought this was Very Cool. The cookie sheets stayed warm long enough for Maia to do one drawing. I alternated two sheets, one in the oven, and one in front of Maia, so there was always one ready to work on.
Afterward, we went back to the studio to paint over the melting crayon drawings with watercolors. I mixed up some watercolors from tubes rather than using the liquid watercolors
this time, only because I wanted specific colors (red, green, white) that I didn’t have in my “tropical” set of liquid watercolors.
I love the effect of watercolor resist! I think they’re beautiful. We have big plans for these paintings, by the way. Maia and I are going to make our own advent calendar this year with fun, artful activities for the countdown to Christmas.
Update: Here’s the advent calendar we made with these melting crayon paintings.
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