Saturday, July 18, 2009

Hot Plate


Here's a fun experiment using an old hot plate or warming tray, canvas paper, and a box of crayons or oil pastels.

If you don't have a warming tray, you can often find one at a thrift store for a few dollars. That's where I found mine. Plug it in, place the paper on top, and start to sketch with the pastels or crayons. You can even mix them. As the tray warms, the colors will begin to liquify. Oooh la la! Now the fun begins.


Your once solid crayon or pastel now becomes your paintbrush. You usually have to press hard to start, but after awhile, your touch should be light. If you find the colors are getting muddy or running together in a way you don't like, lift the paper off the tray and let the paper cool for a few seconds. The first time I tried this I didn't care for my results, but I kept at and now I love it.

Just a caution - I've never burned myself on the warming tray, but then again my husband says I have hands of asbestos. The old trays do not have heat adjusters, but ordinarily they don't get really hot--just warm. In saying this, I would not have younger children do this activity unsupervised.


7 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh! I remember doing this, it was so much fun! One of the coolest art methods I've learned, definitely.

-Mandi

Anonymous said...

Mrs. Jodi (wink, LOL!)

How cool! Nice blog...

-Funny Fona
aka Phyllis McConery

Anonymous said...

How great that you create works of art, and beautiful ones at that, because you are drawn to the process. You love your works into existence! Your artwork lives and breathes your soul, Jodi.
I am so excited that we can now plug into your blog, and be inspired by your "playing" as we have been for years.
Looking forward to more!
Joan Drennen

Anonymous said...

You really like liquid color, don't you? :^)

Jodi said...

ummm.....yes...:)

Anonymous said...

Curious Acorn!

Love all of your art methods, and I'm excited to learn how to use a hot plate! Can't wait for your next post!

Lots of love,

Cecily Fowler a.k.a "That Fowler Girl" ;)

Anonymous said...

You got me hooked on using a hot plate! It's awesome.
Since i didn't want to use expensive oil pastels to start, i bought Oil Pastel Crayons.

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails