Caution:Artist at Play-Artwork by Shana Rowe Jackson

   If you have been following me for a while, then you probably know that I recently tried the Caran d' Ache Neocolor I Wax Pastels for the first time (To see the review of the Caran d' Ache Neocolors feel free to click here. ) These are essentially artist-grade crayons. While working with them they gave me that old familiar feeling from childhood, the one we all know too well. The feeling of coloring with Crayola crayons!   This got me aching to try a piece using just Crayolas. So, that's just what I did! To further challenge myself I also decided to limit what kind of paper and supplemental tools I could use. I limited myself to doing my preliminary sketch with a number 2 pencil and blending with q-tips and rubbing alcohol. I also decided to get innovative and used masking tape to lift out certain details. For the support, I used...that's right, none other than the famous Crayola construction paper! This took me straight back to kindergarten and I loved every red-hot

   If you follow my YouTube channel, you know that in the past year I had the joy of trying the Holbein Artists' Colored Pencils for the first time. Along with the pencils I was also given the Holbein Meltz Colored Pencil Blender (thanks Holbein!)    I usually use Gamsol Odorless Mineral Spirits (OMS) to blend my colored pencils. However, OMS is poisonous, so I was really intrigued to find out that Holbein Meltz is a water-based formula that does not give off any harmful fumes!    While using the Meltz, I also discovered a trick that I could not do previously with OMS! I could make my pencils act like watercolor! That is, I could scrape pigment off my colored pencil onto a different surface, dip a brush into my Meltz, then pick up the pigment and paint it onto my surface! This is something that is not as easy to do with OMS because of the way it stains the paper. Typically speaking, you need a lot of layers of colored pencil down on your paper before blending with OMS because it