Faux Aged Fresco

What ever you'd like to call this technique, faux fresco, broken stone etc. it's a fun technique that gives your imagination a chance to just take over.

You'll need:

A sheet of white paper
Quality crayons (crayola, laurentian etc. Dollar store crayons might work if the pigment is strong)
Black india ink or watered down black acrylic paint
Paintbrush
Paper towels
An old iron

This is an EASY one for those of you who *think* you can't draw!
Use your crayons to scribble, and I mean scribble, a picture on the sheet of white paper. Your image will look quite subdued in the end, so don't be worried about details. Let your imagination go wild, and let go of the "I can't draw" mantra.
You can draw anything you'd like.

The key here is to use good quality crayons with deep pigments and to colour with a very heavy stroke. The thicker you can get the crayon onto your paper, the better this technique will work out. If you aren't interested in making a "picture", this is also a great background technique. Colour random shapes or scribbles on your paper, just remember to use a heavy hand. Any area of paper that is NOT covered in crayon will end up black in the final product.

Once you are happy with your colouring, crumple the paper up. Be careful not to tear it! This will cause cracks in the colouring, you may not be able to see them at first, but they're there!


Now spread your sheet out as flat as you can.

Dip your paintbrush into your india ink, or watered down paint, and start brushing it over the image in small sections. Do one section at a time to avoid letting the ink dry. Quickly buff off the ink from the section you are working on. You'll notice the cracks in the crayon now!!


Continue until your entire picture/image is covered.


Now, take your sheet, lie it between two sheets of paper towel and iron it on a medium to high setting. This will flatten out the paper, and absorb any extra crayon, giving your image a nice finished look.