Today I grabbed a white crayon from my daughter’s school supplies to try a Watercolor Crayon Resist, and let me tell you all- this could not be easier! Once you read this tutorial, I am 100% sure you will want to try this yourself.
Make sure to check out all of these previous posts where I different watercolor ideas too- Watercolor Salt Technique, How To Use Masking Fluid in Watercoloring and How to use a Glue Pen in Watercoloring
Supplies you will need:
All you need are your sketchbook, watercolors, a paint brush and a white crayon.
Make sure to check a kid friendly version of this technique in this Step by Step Watercolor Bookmarks Tutorial.
Step by step Watercolor Crayon Resist tutorial:
Today I am sketching a flying bird in my sketchbook. For a tutorial on drawing birds check out- How to draw Birds Step by Step
Step by step tutorial of Watercolor Crayon Resist
Total Time: 15 minutes
Use an Oil Based pen to draw/write your design
Using an oil-based pen is essential when you are watercoloring. These pens will NOT bleed with the water. This step is actually optional, in the second example below, I wing it and don’t start with a pen design at all. I explain this in detail in my previous post Watercolor and Pen: How to use them both together.
Erase your pencil marks
If you have a pencil guideline underneath, make sure to erase it before you watercolor. The crayon and 
Draw with your white crayon for the resist
Wherever you want to keep the paper white, you draw with the white crayon. The crayon will resist the watercolor when we paint over it. 
Wet the paper
To create a beautiful watercolor blend, I find it easier to wet the entire sketchbook page before bringing the watercolor paint onto it. 
Apply watercolor onto the paper
Paint your design as you would want- I’m using a rainbow theme and creating a simple watercolor background here 
The crayon will resist the watercolor as you see here. Some of the white crayon might get slightly stained with the watercolor, but it will mostly stay white. You can iron off the white crayon after like I did in my second example below. 
watercolor crayon resist Video Tutorial:
Watercolor Crayon Resist Video: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CAmfzH-n4RO/
I love how pretty the white crayon resist turned out! I did a quick scribble over the feathers, nothing fancy, but it adds to the fluid flight of the bird here. You can draw any design and this technique will work! This is so simple, easy, and inexpensive that even kids can do it and be wowed!
MORE Watercolor Crayon Resist:
Here’s another example,I used a sharp white crayon to draw my flower and leaves and create the Watercolor Crayon Resist here. I then used Tombow Dual Brush Pens for this card and spritzed it with water to blend the colors.
The best part here though- I ironed off the white crayon after the watercolor dried. Simply place a piece of printer paper on top and iron. The crayon will melt, and lift off the card and get onto the printer paper. The card will then have just watercolor on it and NO crayon texture at all.
Once you have mastered and enjoyed this Watercolor Crayon Resist technique, I have more ideas for you!
Thank you for Pinning this tutorial!
Hi I’m Smitha! I live in Minnesota with my husband and two daughters. You’ll always find me painting florals in my sketchbook. And I love the sheer joy of making something with just my hands! But my bigger love is capturing it all on camera Read more.
Thanks for stopping by today! If you learnt something from this tutorial, do share this post with a friend or on social media! Tag me @smithakatti #smithakatti I’d love to see what you create!
