Magical Crayons

I’ve been travelling quite a bit this summer and I wanted to take easy, portable art supplies with me so I’ve been grabbing the watercolor paints and crayons.

Turns out kids love these “magical crayons” as much as I do.  It’s easy to make some fun, vibrant art like the photo above.

You can sketch out whatever comes to you (we used Pitt pens) or you can just draw patterns or shapes with the crayons themselves. You’ll want to use a heavy paper that has some absorbency.  We used watercolor paper.

Then whip out your box of magical crayons-we use Staedtler watercolor crayons

They look like your average, old dollar-store crayons but they have secret powers

Just use them to color in your sketch-you can combine different colors for highlighting and variation.  Here I used green, yellow and blue.

Then take a brush and some water and begin blending. (My daughter is in love with the travelling watercolor brush-as am I.  It’s self cleaning!)

And that’s all there is to it.  Just coloring and painting with water.  A perfect project for a summer’s day.

Here’s my daughter’s work that she made during some down time in the Adirondack Mountains.

Wouldn’t these make sweet greeting cards for the grandparents?

The Art Adventure Experience

 Just in case you’re wondering what we do on our Saturday Art Adventures, here’s a little sneak peak…

While we’re waiting for everyone to arrive, we play “kiss a fish” at the pond: We lay down on the rock pier and put our faces near the water and then throw some fish food in.  When the fish come up to get the food they make a little splash.  It takes a little bravery and gives a little thrill.

 

We take a short 10-15 minute walk up the hill to the pavilion or Yurt, depending on the weather…

We introduce ourselves with a warm-up game….

Then we get down to business with different art materials, often exploring the environment to find natural items to help us create.

We usually need time to let things dry, so we play group games while we wait.

Then we finish up our projects….

We get a little messy, but that’s part of the fun….

And we always end with a sweet game to give us the energy to get back down the hill.

Down past the trees and horses, to the real world again…

Many thanks to Orenda Springs for hosting our events, Beverly Karsteter for dropping in to lend a hand and Dru Nordmark for being our roaming photographer.

Saturday Art Adventures will be back in September for more art and games in the wild! 

 

Check our Events Page for September Dates.