Had the opportunity to gather some more photo reference of Florida wildlife and natural backgrounds on a visit to the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary.
Red Shoulder Hawk hunting for mice near the forest ground.
Gator hiding in the vegetation.
Hawk soaring in the sky.
Lettuce Lake near the midpoint of the boardwalk.
Vulture spreading its wings under the rain.
Wasps nest.
Picked a couple of souvenirs from the gift shop: a gator soap and the Twist-Up Crayons set of 8.
The crayon set was made in Korea.
Twist-up crayons assembled and taken apart.
Color reference chart on white card stock and quick test doodle. Colors were fairly bright. Twist-up advancing mechanism worked well, and crayon leads simply had to be firmly pushed into the barrel when they came lose.
Found this set of 12 oversize Iron Man crayons in the dollar rack by the entrance of a Target store in Raleigh, NC. Thought my young nephew Mateo might be able to enjoy them since I noticed he tended to break the thinner Nordstrom crayons with his mighty grip.
These crayons might be thick enough to resist breakage even in the hands of a rambunctious toddler, but they are awfully low in pigment load yielding rather pale sample color swatches. For a buck, they are not a bad deal as a pacifier or short-term distraction. Yet they are unlikely to foster a child's creativity given their poor performance and rather dull color marks.
Some of the discounted supplies found on recent trips to Office Depot: large 11" x 14" Mead sketchbooks and oversize 14" x 17" Foray Marker pads for $3 each that I plan to use for in-class drawing demonstrations. They will come in handy when the limited range of expression of dry erase markers becomes an obstacle to the clear exposition of drawing tips and techniques.
It had been a while since I actually tried using Crayola crayons for anything, but decided to test a box of 24 crayons on the Mead sketchbook paper as a potential inexpensive coloring tool for the cartooning classes. While the colors appearance on the paper is nowhere near as saturated as that of the Caran D'Ache Neocolor I wax crayons, I have to admit that for 30 cents this compact set is a pretty good value for the quick-sketching of early rough color studies.
Comparing the line quality and writing performance of several pigment liner pens of similar nib size (around 0.3 mm in diameter) on Foray marker paper, no significant difference was apparent at first glance. Unlike most of the specialized pigment liners shown, the Sharpie Pen is a fairly common find at local retailers and office supplies stores while costing the least of this bunch.
While marketed primarily as a precision writing tool, I find the Sharpie Pen quite suitable for doodling with ink. The nib feels strong and glides smoothly on both marker paper and regular copy paper leaving dark uniform lines with no bleed through. Despite some online reviews warning of poor durability (mainly paint chipping off the barrel and loosening up of the plastic cap after posting it on the back of the pen), the Sharpie Pen seems promising as a sketching tool given its initial performance and recently lowered price (found the 2-pack for $2.50 at a local Walmart Supercenter store). I just plan to either use it at home or carry it securely in pencil cases that would prevent rubbing against other tools that might cause the dreaded paint chipping. When posting the cap on the back of the pen while in-use, avoid using excessive force and do not push the soft plastic cap all the way down to prevent it from getting loose prematurely.
Picked a new set of coloring tools when I spotted them on sale at Target: Crayola Twistables extreme colors ultra-bright twistable crayons . These crayons are quite strong and crumble very little under pressure producing very bright fluorescent colored patches. This set of 8 is quite a convenient way of adding visual punch and excitement to any collection of coloring crayons. The entire color palette is displayed in the picture below along with a few coloring samples that combine also some True to Life twistable crayons and Caran D'Ache Neocolor I crayons. "Lemon Glacier" in particular pops out just like a fluorescent yellow highlighter, and it was used on the energy sword, fairy wing, and dragon breath.
Had to go with a digital photograph since the bright fluorescent colors were not picked up by my scanner. Recommended fun kit that would also be ideal for decorating greeting cards and enhancing signs.
Recently spotted this new Crayola "True to Life" crayons at craft stores and local retailers. This carded set of 8 twistable tri-color crayons is a fun compact coloring kit that packs one important lesson: "Fire isn't just red, it has shades of orange too!" Beginning artists tend to use a single crayon to represent a color they think they see in nature ending with flat colored pictures with little visual interest. In real life, the color of most objects can be best represented by overlaying and combining closely related primary shades with a secondary color for highlights. These tri-color crayons take out the guesswork of choosing the more harmonious useful color combinations and provide a convenient palette to breath life and visual punch to kids' drawings.
The left side of the third coloring test was sketched using the "True to Life" crayons while the right side was done using single colored crayons. Thus with the same amount of effort, kids can create livelier pictures while learning to reach greater coloring depth by mixing colors. While I still have to get this set in the hands of our prime tester (Nicole), I would not hesitate to recommend it as a treat to any crayon-loving kid.
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