Art Activity In Action:
“Crayon Etching and Crayon Resist”
The following art activity is inspired by the
“simple lesson plan ideas”
on the website,
with example artwork included
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Let Us Get Inspired Work With Crayons:
• We o&en think of crayons as something we leave behind when we get markers or pencil crayons.
• But there is a lot of magic in the mighty crayon. Some of my favorite memories of art in school involved crayons!
• Explore some of the teaching books on crayons, such as “Crayons,” by Henry Pluckrose.
• Share your own ideas for crayon creaGons.
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Let Us Get Inspired Work With Crayons:
•Enjoy “The House In the Night,” by Susan Marie Swanson, pictures by Beth Krommes.
• It uses an art technique called “scratchboard,” or “etching.”
• We will use this technique with crayons to create a star similar to that found near the end of the book.
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Let Us Get Inspired Work With Crayons:
Check out the crayon resist and crayon etching ideas on the website:
• hPp://kinderart.com/drawing/cetching.shtml
• hPp://thevirtualinstructor.com/
crayonetchingdemo.html
• hPp://www.kid-‐at-‐art.com/htdoc/lesson35.html
• hPp://www.how-‐to-‐arts-‐and-‐cra&s.com/crayon-‐
etching.html
• hPp://www.schoolpaints.com/2012/07/scratch-‐
art-‐crayon-‐etching-‐lesson-‐plan.html
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On a small piece of white paper, make your own sketch of a simple star, such as found in “The House In The Night:”
Keep your star drawing very simple. The magic in this art technique comes from the color paPerns we do later.
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Draw your simple star with pencil, and then ﬁll in the lines with a thick black felt pen.
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Next, ﬁll in your whole page with bright, lighter crayon (or pencil crayon) colors. Did you know starlight, and light in general, is made up of a spectrum of colors, found in the colors of the rainbow, or light through a prism? We will use these colors for our artwork:
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Using dark black poster paint, cover your whole page with black. In this case, because we want to ﬁnish our art today, we will use a black crayon to cover our drawing:
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Use a toothpick, nail, or other etching tool to “etch away” color paPerns. I will use circles and lines for my paPerns:
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“Starlight, Starbright,” inspired by the scratchboard or etching artwork found in “The House In The Night:”
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Other AcGviGes:
• Go to our website “Art and Picture Books”
• Click on the Contents link related to your art acGvity.
• Browse the other suggested “Simple Lesson Plan Ideas.”
• Look at some of the teaching books.
• Enjoy the picture books related to your art form.
• Don’t forget to share your own great ideas with the others in your group.
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