ENJOYING A SECOND CHILDHOOD

an update on a 5 year old's favorite pasttime

I have been indulging myself in color these past several weeks. On my recent trip to visit my daughter, Emma, in Ohio I packed a 10-color tin of a new art medium discovery: CARAN D'ACHE "NEOCOLOR water soluble" crayons. They are my new favorite toy of choice.

We did a lot of walking, talking, and eating while in Columbus, OH. I enjoyed every minute of my time with Emma and Scott, her husband. But, every spare moment I had I found myself scribbling designs with a black "Sharpie" marker, coloring them in as fast as I could with the "NEOCOLORs", and relishing every moment of applying water over the color. Oh my! What sizzling, vibrant, glowing color! The process is magic and, be hereby warned, addicting.

Above are samples of the "NEO-colored" design before the application of water and the final blazing design after the crayon was washed with water. I was preparing the front and back of multiple papers because I am going to use them as book pages.

For this book project I am planning to write quotations about "the cosmic dance." Thomas Merton wrote wonderful words describing how we are all part of "the cosmic dance." I have other quotations of a similar nature to also include in the book. I wanted the design of the pages to have a cosmic/universe feeling to them. Thus I chose stars, swirls, and galaxy type images.

I first drew the designs on one side of the paper (Arches Text Wove) with a black "Sharpie" marker. I then colored in the spaces with "NEOCOLOR." I only have a small set so my palette was limited. So sad! I didn't let that stop me. I combined the colors in some places which resulted in quite a variety of color when the water blended them all together. You can see places in the images above where I did this. Doing this was definitely part of the magic. There was a learning curve in getting the color blending I wanted but, experimenting was part of the fun.

On the back of the paper I did not draw a design. I just randomly scribbled color on. I was mindful of which colors I put down next to each other. Knowing how colors mix is pretty essential to avoiding a paper that is all brown! eg. I didn't lay green next to red. When they blended the result is....yep....brown. You will notice in the samples that the black marker from the front often bled through to the back. That turned out pretty cool. I did want some pages without bold design so that I had pages with more space for writing text. I was pleased with the softer effects I got on the back side of the paper.

The next step was washing the dry crayon with water. On the front designs I was very careful to spread the water within the black lines. I tried not to let the colors bleed into an adjacent space. If it did, it wasn't a big deal. In other pieces I might want to be more careful. But for this project, it didn't matter. I used a good brush with a good point and good spring. (Winsor and Newton Series 7, #1)

As I painted each area I sprinkled coarse salt onto the color before it dried. I didn't put salt everywhere but in selected areas. My intent was to make a sparkle effect. It worked! I loved doing this so much that I probably over did the salt but....I was really into it.

On the back side I used a large paint brush. (2" cheap house painting brush) I just wanted a nice wash of color and I wanted it all blended together.

Thus is the report of my first project with the "NEOCOLORs". It was fun. It was portable. I worked on it flying on the airplane, in the airport, at Emma's....yes, portable.

I will post some book pages when I get started on those. I've got to do some planning and experiments. That part won't be quite as carefree as my time as the "crayon kid."