Crayon Craze

Join me on the exploration of different crayons on various surfaces!

About Crayons

Crayola this, Crayola that. At this point, you probably believe Crayola invented the crayon. Contrary to popular belief, and a bit disappointingly, they did not. Crayons' roots can actually be traced back all the way to Europe. These kid favorites were first made out of charcoal and oil. As time passed, the charcoal was substituted with powdered pigment hues and the oil with wax since it made it sturdier for easy use. And thus, our love for crayons began.

MATERIALS

• Crayola regular crayons 8 ct. ($ 1.07)

• Crayola "Colors of the World" crayons

24 ct. ($ 1.58)

• JUMBO Crayola crayons 8 ct ($ 3.64)

• Cray-Z-Art Crayons 24 ct. ($ 0.86)

• Pen & Gear crayons 24 ct. ($ 0.76)

• Strathmore Visual Journal Drawing

($ 8.70 - $ 9.34 depending on size)

• Strathmore Mixed Media Pad

($ 9.88 - $ 25.32)

• Strathmore Toned Tan Mixed Media Pad ($ 5.08 - $ 15.64)

• Plaza Newsprint Pad Rough Surface

18"x 24" ($ 8.99)

Price Commentary

Pen & Gear appears to be the cheapest option, with Crayola being most expensive. Because I bought all of the Crayons from Walmart, those are grocery store prices. The papers were bought at Plaza Art and the prices I listed are with an educator/student discount. Otherwise, they would be more expensive. Keep that in mind!

About the crayons

Despite the different brands, all of these crayons are nontoxic and vary in the quantity of crayons. For the purpose of this blog, I will explore mostly primary colors when testing on the papers, then I will show a little tutorial for coloring.

Strathmore Visual Journal Drawing (medium tooth)

Crayola:

• High pigment and most velvety of the three brands

• Smooth, least glossy finish

• No smudge

Cray-Z-Art

• More "waxy" than Crayola

• More gloss when finished

• Black is most pigmented and velvety (even more than Crayola), therefore it is easy to be smudged

Pen & Gear

• Least pigmented, especially the red

• Most "waxy" out of the three brands

• Most gloss when finished

• No smudge

Strathmore Mixed Media Pad (vellum surface)

Crayola:

• More glossy finish than when put on drawing paper

• Smooth, still pigmented

• No smudge

Cray-Z-Art

• More glossy finish than when put on drawing paper

• Smooth but a bit "slippery" when drawing it on

• Black still can smudge

Pen & Gear

• Opaque finish surprisingly (perhaps it's due to less pressure I put)

• Most "waxy" out of the three brands

• Most "slippery" when drawing but still smooth

• No smudge

Strathmore Toned Tan Mixed Media Pad (vellum surface)

Crayola:

• Most glossy finish out of the three brands on this paper

• Smooth, but not as pigmented, especially the yellow

• No smudge

Cray-Z-Art

• More glossy finish than when put on drawing paper

• Smooth, but not as pigmented, especially the yellow

• Black still can smudge

Pen & Gear

• Most opaque finish out of the three brands on the paper

• Less slippery to apply bc of paper tooth

• Yellow shows up best and brightest of all 3

• No smudge

Plaza Newsprint Pad (Rough Surface)

Crayola:

• Little clumps due to surface

• Lost its shine

• Still pigmented except for yellow

• No smudge

Cray-Z-Art

• Little clumps due to surface

• Lost its shine

• Yellow also lost pigment

• Black and red were really velvety on this paper, and the black showed boldly

Pen & Gear

• Most opaque finish out of the three brands on the paper

• Least slippery to apply bc of paper tooth but still "waxy"

• Yellow shows up best and brightest of all 3

• No smudge

Crayola "Colors of the World"

Back when I was in elementary school, I would only see one skin color (light tan) for colored pencils, markers, or crayons. I'm very glad Crayola created this edition of crayons so that everyone can feel included. I highly recommend buying this for your classroom to promote inclusivity and bring your students comfort knowing they're being represented. These crayons behave the same way as normal Crayolas on Strathmore drawing paper and come in 24 colors.

JUMBO vs Regular + HOW TO HOLD THE CRAYON

I decided to explore the widths and strokes possible with regular Crayola crayons vs their jumbo ones. By playing around tilting the tip of the crayon, you can get thin and wide strokes from both, but more with the jumbo. This is perfect for pattern making with children.

Jumbo crayons also allow little ones in pre-K to have a better grip if they're just starting out to doodle, and they're also not as easy to break compared to the regular ones. However, Mary Hafeli, author of Exploring Studio Materials, suggests to reinforce good hand positions for writing to students so they don't get confused. Once they have good hand-eye coordination, you can then model and encourage them to explore different positions.

How to Draw, Shade, and Blend with Crayons

Step 1

Draw an outline with a pen. If working with children below 4th grade, I suggest with just a pencil.

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

Overall...

Age appropriateness: I would give the normal sized crayons to those five and up. With the jumbo ones, however, I feel like you could give them to toddlers as early as the age of three with supervision. For uses and techniques for certain grades, refer to my comments in my "how to" steps.

Strengths: Personally, I liked the Crayola brand most. Its biggest strength was being velvety. Crayons in general are very nice to work with for solid details and patterns, as well as helping children with their hand-eye coordination.

Limitations: Crayons are not easy to blend, which is why you need to keep layering. They're very hard to use for small details since the lines aren't always thin. They're also easily breakable, especially the Pen & Gear brand since some broke without me even touching them. If gripping too hard, however, crayons can also break. Refer to the pictures above.

Comfort Level: I feel comfortable teaching with crayons. Since they're non-toxic and easy to use, I think my students would be safe even if I'm not next to them the entire time. However, I would like to expand on the techniques of blending and pattern making if I were to teach older children, as well as what prompts to give them.

Possible health or safety concerns: I don't think crayons pose a real safety concern for K-12 children since they're nontoxic. The younger ones could also use the Jumbo crayons so I'm not worried about the kids swallowing them.

Happy coloring! :)

Reference:

Hafeli, Mary Claire. Exploring Studio Materials: Teaching Creative Art Making to Children. Oxford University Press, 2015.