I have been challenging myself to work with more expressive marks- really scribbling the colors in rather than careful application of watercolor pencils and neocolor 2. Wide brushes and generally looser marks. The marks are precise but also loose. It’s hard to explain.

One of the ways that I’m exploring the looser marks is to use materials that are bigger. Case in point these iCrayon water soluble mega crayon things. They are big. They are messy and most of all, they are fun.

I’m also using thicker unsharpened pencils.

My brush lately has been the wide flat water brush.

Working on postcards with those iCrayon mega crayon things? Pretty much impossible, they can cover an entire care in one swipe, which might be a fun thing to play with, but today I used a 9×12 inch strathmore mixed media sketchbook, which still felt too small for these mega crayons.

I plan on doing a bit more with these crayons, but also combining them with some of the water soluble charcoals I have.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun being loose and spontanious. I really liked how the loose marks really showed up in the finished images.