Art Lesson: Cracked Wax Resist

For the past few weeks during our Wednesday afternoon art time, we have been learning about wax resist painting.  One of our favorite resist projects so far has been this simple cracked wax technique. Even my four year old was able to show his artistic prowess.  (Just a quick side note:  I know it is quite difficult to conduct art lessons with preschoolers and babies in tow.  Most of the time, I reserve art for nap time and allow my three year old, who rarely naps these days, an opportunity to create a modified version of our project.  He typically uses the same materials, but just free-styles an "abstract" painting/drawing.)

For our cracked wax pieces, we chose to create a flower print, but you could produce any number of simple wax pictures.  Basic lines and shapes work best, especially when teaching little ones.

What you'll need

• wax pastels (wax crayons are a cheaper alternative)
• sheet of heavy art paper (not construction paper)
• tempera or poster paint in a dark color

To make a floral cracked wax resist

About 1/3 of the way down from the top of the page, draw/color a 1 inch circle with a wax pastel.

Using tear-drop shapes, create colorful pedals all the way around the circle. 

Draw a rectangle at the bottom of the a page.  Top the rectangle with two short diagonal line going out from the rectangle and one horizontal line connecting the two diagonal ones to create a basic pot shape.

Fill in the pot with a light shade and create a "shadow" on one side of the pot with a darker shade.

Draw a stem connecting the flower with the pot.  Try to make the stem curved since stems rarely grow straight up and down.  Add a few tear-drop shapes onto the stem to create leaves.  

With a light hue, color in the surrounding area.

Crumple the paper.  The more the paper is crumpled, the more "cracked" the picture will appear.

Un-crumple and flatten out the picture.  Don't worry if some of the colors smudge.

Paint a thick layer of dark tempera or poster paint over the entire page.  (Light colored paint will not show up as well.)

Immediately rinse off the paint.  Do not over-rinse.  Some paint should be left into each fold of the crumpled page.

Allow to dry.

Stay tuned for more simple art lessons to come.