Product Spotlight Faber Castell Erasable Jumbo Grip Crayons set

Found this set of Jumbo Grip Crayons in Peru where they are manufactured.

The 24 crayons are packaged in a sturdy tray along with a small block eraser and a crayon sharpener.

The clear sharpener is labeled for "crayon use only", and the marks are fairly erasable with my electric eraser.

The triangular shaped jumbo crayons are easy to hold and fairly break-resistant.

Their marks are on the pale side, but they are certainly capable of adding texture in mixed media applications.

Crayola Crayons

Got a new box of Crayola crayons to test and play around. Despite their popularity, I have not used them much lately myself since I prefer the softer and more pigmented Caran D'Ache Neocolor crayons. Still we always have a few sets available in most of our classrooms as a quick and easy coloring tool option.

While obviusly all were new, they were not arranged as shown on the picture on the back of the box.

Had to pour all six cardboard sleeves on my desk and sort them into their color families.

Also set aside the gel crayons and metallic versions.

Prefer to start a new box of coloring tools with every color neatly arranged accordin to their hue and tone.

Quick color sketch drawn on Deleter comic book paper. They work ok even on its smooth surface. Takes regular pressure and repeated passes to deposit enough colored wax over the paper surface. I consciously have to control my drawing pressure to avoid breaking the crayon since they are rather fragile.

Happy Halloween 2017

Traffic was light on Halloween night, so upcoming classes will get to use the extra Halloween pencils with skull-shaped cap erasers that remained by the end of the night.

Also got quite a few leftover custom sketchbooks that I made by hand, so each and everyone would  have a one-of-a-kind cover drawn with a white gel pen or pigmented India ink pen..

Compact Sketching Kit for under 10 bucks: Casemate Sketch Diary and Pentel Sharp P207 0.7 mm mechanical pencil bundle pack

Found this Casemate Sketch Diary (Made in India) at  Walmart. It features 70 letter size (8.5" X 11") sheets. They also carry the Pentel P207 0.7 mm mechanical pencil bundle with tube of 12 spare leads and 2 extra erasers.

You can customize its cover. By inserting your own drawing in the top-loading sheet protector front cover.

Sample pencil sketches.

Cartoon Sketching Demo in the Screened Porch at Bond Park

Spent 3 hours last night at "Bands, Bites, and Boats at Bond Park" in this screened porch area.

There was plenty of room, overhead fans, table space, light, and art supplies for whatever crowd of kids decided to indulge in artistic endeavors as the band played and others opted to row in the evening.

Probably because of the lack of visibility, I had plenty of time to doodle some custom illustrations for coloring pages. For future events, we should probably put a bigger sign outside with sample pictures to entice more guests to come in.

Then in strolled Steve and asked if I could draw cartoon portraits of his party of six on a single sheet. Since I only had letter size card stock on hand, I drew him and his wife on one. their three kids on another, and their aunt on a third sheet. Happy birthday Steve! Glad I could brighten your family's evening.

Then this set of twins came in and had their portraits drawn while they colored some of the dragon coloring sheets I had on the activities table. Since they allowed me to choose, I drew one as a ninja and the other as a Jedi.

When i started to clean up, I offered them the pile of custom drawings I had made throughout the night to keep them busy until they can join us for some of the upcoming classes and camps at the Cary Arts Center. Also introduced the Center and passed brochures for ladies that stopped by to inquire about the nature our program for the evening. Thanks to everybody that stopped by.

Summer Art Camp Cartoon Portraits and Pop-Up Cards

Just concluded a Summer Art Camp focus on "Aquatic Creatures" and another on "Merfolk and fantasy creatures". By the end of the week, we were all pretty much done with the "fish/underwater" theme. Thus students in the older group got a cartoon portrait each, some continue drawing, and others made pop-up cards.








Several students in the younger group made multiple pop-up cards for different occasions.