Crayon Art - How To

So I realized after reading my last post that all I said about how to make the crayon art was that I had looked it up and figured it would be easy. That really isn't much help for anyone reading this blog, because, ok, so I know how, but you may not!

So I decided to make this post. A "Crayon Art - How To" for those of you who don't know how these are made.


First off, you're going to need a canvas (you can get these really cheap at the dollar store), at least two boxes of crayons (more if you have a really big canvas), a hot glue gun and glue, a blow dryer, and news paper to put down to protect your work surface.

Now, I like to go through the crayons and sort them out first, work out the pattern or order that I want them to be on the canvas, they lay them out in that order, so that they're quick and easy to get while gluing them to the canvas. If you're going for just random colours in whatever order, then just make sure that they're easy to get.

I decided I was going with a rainbow order this time, as you can see in the picture above.

So once you have everything together, and you have your crayons sorted, you get to start gluing them onto the canvas. You want to start with your first crayon as close to the edge as you can, with the flat end lined up with the top of your canvas. Lay down a line on the hot glue and stick the first crayon on. You do have to go pretty quickly, as hot glue cools down and hardens rather fast. Once the first crayon is down, put another line of glue and put the next crayon. Keep going till you get all of the crayons on the canvas.

One you have all the crayons on, give it a minute, just to make sure that the glue is totally cooled down, then the fun starts. Make sure that your surface is covered in the newspaper, and get the blow dryer. 

Now, if you want the drippy looking crayon art, you're going to want to prop the top of your canvas up. Heck, even for the crazy misty whatever kind that I like to do, you're going to want it propped up, at least at first. Make sure that the news paper covers whatever you're using to prop it up too. 

Then you get the blow dryer. Turn it on to low air, and hold it to the crayons. 

Now, I'm telling you to use the low air, because if you have it on high, the air blowing out of the dryer, will blow the melting wax along your canvas, instead of letting it run naturally and give you those great drips and stuff. 

I use high air, but that's because I don't go for the drippy look. I just want the wax to melt and then have lots of wax to mess around with on the canvas. 

If you're going for the drippy look, just keep slowly melting the crayons, allowing the wax to run down the canvas in whatever way it wants to do. You may want to tip your canvas up higher, or lower it. The more upright it is, the faster the wax will run down, and so you will get more individual drips and runs, whereas if you lay it down more, the wax will puddle and spread a bit before running down. It's a bit of a play it by ear situation till you find just the right height for the look you're going for. 

If you want the look that I like, where the wax is all over the place and there aren't any drippy bits and what not, you want the canvas almost laying flat. Turn the blow dryer on high, and get lots of wax on the canvas. Then, just use the blow dryer, directed at different parts of the canvas to remelt the puddled wax and to move it around, creating the waves and craziness that is my crayon art. Keep at it till it's how you want it.

You can add pieces of crayon on spots of the canvas that you want random colours as well. 

On this one, I had the rainbow along the top, then I added a few pieces of white in the colours while melting it, to get some lighter and different areas. 

Play around with it. Find what works best for you. And most of all, have fun. Don't get frustrated if it doesn't work out just how you want it to. It's abstract art after all.