Melty Crayon Art- Alternate Techniques

So, I've been slacking on the updating lately, and for my one and only follower I'm sure this is disappointing.

This tutorial is a continuation of my melty crayon pointillism. I'm going to cover two other techniques I've used to create some awesome artworks. Two for sorority purposes (big/little gift and a gift for a beautiful Zeta Tau Alpha friend of mine), and one for my own decorative purposes.

The first technique I learned, and probably the easiest to do, is to line the crayons up on canvas and use a blow dryer to melt them down.

First, pick out your colors and peel the crayons. If they're off-brand, test the color on a piece of paper first. I once had a "gold" crayon melt into a nasty chartreuse sludge that ruined a Chi Omega design I'd worked hard on. I've never had a problem with Crayola crayons doing this, but God help you if you use a cheaper brand. Still works, just check the colors. From there, I snapped each crayon in half. You're using less crayons this way, and you don't have an overflow of color.

Now the trick is to secure the crayons to the very top of the canvas. (I've never tried this on a different medium, but the wax sticks very well on the canvas and looks great) I tried a LOT of methods to getting them to stay where they belong instead of blowing away and sticking crayon to your wall. So far, the best was a line of hot glue to secure them in an orderly fashion. I tried simply melting them slowly first so they would stick to the canvas, but that was a disaster. Don't even try that method, I promise its not worth having to peel twenty more crayons. After that, I tried tying a string around them. That sorta worked but it still wasn't great. And then again I tried tape around them, which didn't work at all. The hot glue really is the best way to go.

Space the crayons out a bit. They don't need to be all together in a line. I probably left a half inch between each 'pair' of crayon point and top. This also keeps from too much wax being in one spot.

If you're adding a monogram or design:
Tape your design out with masking tape. Any non-geometric/ non-letter designs should be drawn out on the canvas, and then taped over. For the monogram and fox, I taped the letter with no underlying outline because I wanted it to be completely white underneath. Then I drew my fox out in pencil, went over my final design with a fine point marker, and covered it in small pieces of tape to conform to the design as closely as possible.

This is my finished product for the monogram. As you can see, some of the top left crayons left their posts so I just tossed them out instead of trying to stick them back on.

For a complicated design, such as my ZTA crown and words, I used tiny shreds of tape to create the design. This took a lot of time and a heck of a lot of patience, but it turned out great. I did the words in colored pencil, then covered them with masking tape. After most of the melting was done, I removed the tape and did some slow speed-careful melting around the words to make it look not so square. I then went back over the words in colored pencil again to ensure that you could read them.

Now comes the fun part. Set your canvas upright, crayons right side up, with a garbage bag or plastic bag underneath/behind it. I set my fox one in the sink because it created a nice nest for it. Then start by using the blow dryer on a low speed setting to melt the crayons together a bit. Point your air stream so that drips fall down onto the canvas and are propelled down towards the ground. Don't get too close or it will go sideways instead of down! Once the crayons have melted a bit, you can switch to a higher setting and finish it up. Should you want to keep part of your design right where it is, or keep your crayon line from drifting downward (this does happen occasionally if not secured properly, they start to sink down) just switch your blow dryer to cool setting real quick and go over it until it cools, keeping enough distance so as not to blow the drop any farther down the canvas.

If you added a tape design, when you're done blow drying you can remove the masking tape. Start by laying the canvas flat on its back, and remove the tape while it is still soft. Otherwise, it can come up in chunks and ruin the shape under the tape.

Here is my simple one, no taping required:

The tag on the corner says "Sisters come in all different colors"

There you have it! I may re-read this and clarify any spots I feel need it after I finish my ridiculous amount of Chemistry homework for the week. :-)