Colored Pencils: Are They Really Worth My Money?

Colored Pencils: Are They Really Worth My Money?

Opening:

Many people buy colored pencils because they are deemed cheaper than markers, and paint can often seem like something the “important” people use, but I am here to tell you that colored pencils are worth the money, whether you buy the “good” quality ones or if you buy the ones from cheaper brands like Crayola ™ or RoseArt ™.

Main Thought:

Sometimes colored pencils get a bad rap, it's like people think colored pencils it's just Crayola and after all “dats kidz stuff!” Although depending on the brand this is true to a point, but colored pencils take as much skill as any other type of media, learning it and mastering it is key; Basically become a Zen Ninja and learn the way of the pigmented graphite! You may think that you cannot make good art with cheap pencils, I beg to differ! I believe that if you can't master the cheap the better/ more expensive will be wasted trying to learn the media; Granted brand and type are different in hardness, color depth and blending, but if you can get good at cheap then you will be able to expand your color variety and also texture, not to mention you can show how pro you are coloring a super cool drawing using kids pencils...!

I use many types of pencils, namely: Prismacolor Premier, Crayola, EK Memory and also many off brands, I will say that I adore some of the cheaper pencils, they are so nice!

This picture is an example of works that can be done with cheaper colored pencils:

Bigger Version Here.

Although the majority is Prismacolor colored pencils (19) in this image, there are also 15 lesser branded pencils, Namely: Crayola and EK Memory, and also 3 off-branded pencils (dollar-store pencils) and Crayola being the majority.

Another example would be this drawing:

Image Taken From An Earlier Blog Post Which Can Be Found Here.

Although it's not the best artistic feat, it's (near if not total) majority of colored pencils are Creatology colored pencils, which on my scale of pencils are on the minor end of the artistic quality “food chain”. Don't think you're cheap for getting colored pencils!

Other artists have much more time and talent dedicated to the usage of colored pencils, look on YouTube and you'll find many artists!

Mixed media:

Blog Post here.

I'm very much a “Mixed Media” - “Artist”, I love to mix up different types of media, put it together, and make something beautiful! Colored pencils have become a literal foundation for coloring my drawings on paper.

When I say foundation I mean, first thing on the paper is normally colored pencil(s), for me it adds texture, depth, as well as texture both rough and smooth, it makes my markers (which are almost exclusively kids markers) slip about on the waxy base and go on much smoother and can even be blended with my finger or tissue. They are also make a very nice paper stiffener, I am currently in a “pencil only” sketch book, so to color with markers is not ideal, but still possible!

Blog Post can be found here.

My tip to you would be to layer the colored pencils on top of each other to make a thick waxy “coat” over the pores of the paper, also I'd recommend to get a “colorless blender pencil”; This is a colorless wax type pencil that you use to blend pencil together, the softer the pencils the more the blender-pencil will do it's job, for this Prismacolor is best as it's the pencil the blender-pencil was designed to work with, but it works somewhat if you mix brands and it works oddly enough nicely on crayons.

The one I use is from Prismacolor, I'm not sure if other brands make it but it's totally possible.

The Images in this section are examples of Mixed Media Drawings.

Storage:

Ways to store:

• Rubber Bands
• Tupperware containers (small for colors, or a (few maybe) bigger ones to store bound colored pencils)
• Bags (I have sewn bags with zippers my mother made me)
• Storage Units with smaller drawers or cubby compartments.

Please, this is a personal plea, when storing your colored pencils please, I beg thee with ever fiber of my being...put them in color order...Nothing is more irritating and inconvenient (to me) than having a bunch of pencils (or markers) not in color order! Let me tell you some of the good things that come from doing this!!

• Coloring is more efficient
• Coloring Trains of thought will not crash as you look for a certain color
• You will realize when you are out of a color so you're prepared before starting a picture with certain colors in mind.
• You will feel good inside
• I will not come to your house to do it for you....That would be awkward...!!!!

Please, put them in color order!

Other things I would like to note is, when putting them in color order, also put them in brand order.

If you use Tupperware containers to store your pencils put each color in rubber bands, blues all together, pinks, greens, etc..., we all have a certain way to think of colors so I shall not say what order to set the pencils, but have some kind of order. Trust me it helps!!

I normally separate brand and color so lets say I have Crayola in Oranges and RoseArt, I'll put the RoseArt Oranges together and the Crayola Together within brand.

I'm getting irritating now, I'm sorry!

Conclusion:

Pencils are useful! Don't diss our graphic friends, embrace them with love and hugs!

If you want to read up on various brands I wrote a review and comparison on 4 different brands in detail and lightly touch on a few other various brands and types. The post can be found here.

I hope this was useful! Now go out there and create something beautiful and epic for all the world to see!

May God Bless You, Your Family, Friend; Along With The Health Of Yourself, Family, Friends, And All Who Know You. ~ Amen

~ Firefly

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Would You Like To See My Drawings? Click here.

Have A Question?

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Colored Pencils; Which are best?

 Colored Pencils; Which are best?

In this blog post I will be doing a similar review as I did with inking pens writing out the different brands that I've used and saying what I think of them and how they work.

Please keep in mind that I am also thinking in terms of how I color and also from my skill level; And also please remember that everybody has a preference I will not say you need to get anything, I will let you decide, I'll just say what I know and see from my perspective on things.

Okay, lets begin!

Crayola:

Crayola is probably the most famous because nearly every child (at least in the US) has had at least on pack of crayolas (second closest brand I believe would be RoseArt), these are actually very good considering they are for children. I probably have between all brands that I have, I have Crayola's most, some of them are about 10 years old (Orange is my most common color for some reason) and they are still great. I personally love them because they are harder than a better brand like Prismacolor (if you use the premier pencils). You can get a very wide range of colors; here's a list of colors for the Crayola 64 pack.

Desaturated colors:

1. 

   Image Not My Own

   
   

   Black
2. Slate
   
   
   
   
3. Silver
4. Grey
5. White
6. Toolbox
7. Platinum
   
8. Cool Grey
9. Auro Metal Sarus

Reds:

1. Red
2. Red-Orange
3. Maroon
4. Mahogany
5. Rose Red

Yellows:

1. Yellow
2. Yellow Orange
3. Yellow-Green

4. 

   Image Not My Own

   
   

   Bronze Yellow
5. Lemon Yellow
6. Harvest Gold
7. Gold

Oranges:

1. Orange
2. Mango
3. Light Orange
4. Peach

Browns:

1. Brown
2. Dark Brown
3. Light Brown
4. Meat Brown
5. Sandstorm
6. Taupe
7. Sand
8. Tan

Pinks:

1. Pink
2. Bubble Gum
3. Salmon
4. Pale Rose
5. Magenta
   
6. Rasberry
   

Image Not My Own

Purples:

1. Violet
2. Mauve
3. Orchid
4. Amethyst

Greens:

1. Green
2. Guppie Green
3. Electric Green
4. Dollar Bill
5. UFO Green
6. Green-Blue
7. Pine Green
8. Jade Green
9. Aqua Green
10. Lime Green
11. Turquoise
12. Teal

Image Not My Own.

Blues:

1. Blue
2. Navy Blue
3. Sky Blue
4. Cerulean
5. Ball Blue
6. Light Blue
7. Baby Blue
8. Spiro Disco Ball

There are also other colors in special packs, their biggest pack of colors pencils is a 200 pack but the catch is there's only 12 colors per pack or 240, this is mainly for if you are running an art class with kids or a daycare or something like that. It's called the Classic pack and it can be found here.

There are also colored pencils that you can erase, as well as mechanical colored pencils I do not own these, they also sell “special” packs with “special colors”, prices range but you can get a 64 pack of Crayolas for up to $12.00.

Crayolas blend reasonably not perfect but reasonably and are good to layer with different colors and make a visual nice texture.

For a beginner and more specifically a young beginner with not much money these are good to pick up.

As a young non monetarily advanced artist I say these are very nice to start with and to keep using through the years. I haven't bought pencils from Crayola in years because I keep having duplicates and such so I know they last a long time.

Creatology:

Picture from my personal box.

Creatology is a company that sells pencils exclusively at Micheals Craft stores, I have their 72 ct. Set of colored pencils that were given to me as a gift. The colors aren't named individuality so they're pretty much up to your own interpretation. There are 36 colors and each pencil has a duplicate, good if you have a favorite color because lasts longer or if you want to share you have a duplicate and can work easy without having to give the same pencil away. I do not know how much they cost, I cannot find them online so I believe they are only available in stores.

Pros:

• You have doubles of each color making the colors last longer.
• They are very light to work with.
• Most likely cheap.

Cons:

• They can be a bit sketchy. (Can be good if you like that effect)
• These colored pencils tend to get dull rather quick and when sharpening them you loose a lot of pencil.
• More on the box than anything – The box is horrible for storage you'll need another container. (I wouldn't let this bother you too much but it's still worth noting)
• These pencils don't blend very good.

All in all, I don't not recommend them but I don't highly recommend them, I like them but I don't prefer them. It's up to you.

Prismacolor:

Image Not My Own (From Amazon)

Prismacolors are on the much higher end of quality, the type I use are their Premier Pencils, but they also sell Verithin pencils which I do not own but from what I've heard about them they are much harder than the Premier pencils. Prismacolor Premier pencils have 150 shades, they have many different sets, I personally own the Sanford Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencil Set, 48/Tin it includes 48 different colors, depending on the pack also 2 “free” art stix (normally both the same color) and a hand held pencil sharpener. These are much softer than Crayola or other “Children's Brands”, and they blend much better, but they also cost a lot more, depending where you go a pack of 48 can range from $30.00-$72.00, I've had my 48 pack for about 3 years, I went through a time of not using them much because I was scared I'd waste them but still it's 3 years! I've used them the most in the past year and a half, my poor little pencils some are down to almost nubs!

Here's a color Chart for all 150 colors:

Originally from: http://transientart.deviantart.com/art/Prismacolor-150-Premier-Colored-Pencil-Chart-273397018

Image Not My Own

These pencils are best used with a “Prismacolor Colorless Blender Pencil”, in short it's a pencil that you use super fast to warm the wax causing it to become softer than it already is and blending the wax together; The colorless blender pencil also works good with Crayola and Crayons but not as good at Prismacolor pencils because it's made specifically for that type of wax.

My main “Con” for this would be that these pencils tend to have their color points fall out, mine are older so that might account for some of the problem, but I've read places that they are not supposed to fall out but they do!

Prismacolors come in different containers and can come un-sharpened and pre-sharpened, I recommend personally get them un-sharpened, I've read that Sanford does not sharpen their pencils evenly before selling and they put the point on the end where the code number and color name is on some of the pencils, which is important if you want to buy a specific pencil as they can be sold individually in stores and online.

The Black Prismacolor has gained it's own spotlight in a sense as Illustrator, Author and Youtube Drawing Tutorial Sensation – Mark Crilley's Famous Black Pencil he uses in his video is from Prismacolor Premier.

Mark Crilley Using A Black Prismacolor Premier from his "How To Draw a "Realistic" Manga Face: Anger" video.

The white Prismacolor is good for adding lighting to drawings colored with:

• Pencil then marker over the top,
• Marker alone,
• And mixed media with Watercolor over the top.

I do not recommend to use it for eye shines, though, it's not thick enough, but that doesn't mean you can't try and prove me utterly wrong!

EK Memory Pencils:

These are very mild pencils both in price and useability, they cost $ 1.50-13 Dollars depending where you go for sets of 12. They have sets by color type groups like Primary, Earth, etc.., . These pencils are in between Crayola and Prismacolor in softness, they're blending is reasonable but not wonderful, they were designed for memory books and crafting projects but they are fine for coloring too, advertised as waterproof and fade proof.

I have pencils from 3 different sets which are:

• Primary Colors – The Basic colors, vivid not very vast for 12 colors but it's still alright to have.
• Earth colors – Much warmer tones, very “earthy” as they are so called.
• Pastel - Much softer shades than the two mentioned above, good for young looking images. They are not as saturated but still pretty.

Images Not My Own - I put them all in one image

If you are interested in these I suggest doing your research a bit to get the best price I've seen them sold very cheap then really expensive, it's all about smart shopping!

Off Brands:

I've bought many off brand colored pencils and they are alright, dollar stores and other stores that seem random brands are a gold mine for super cheap pencils, they aren't the best quality but sometimes you get those few good pencils that have super nice colors. For $1-4 I'd say it's worth a stab in the dark, if they don't work for you, you can always save them for a child later on to use.

Notable mentions that I do not own:

Faber–Castle: These are higher class pencils, I only own a 12 pack of their watercolor-pencils and I like them, I do not know about their other products.- Some Crayola Products are produced in their factories.

RoseArt: A Child's company much like Crayola, I do not own a set of these only a few randoms that I was given, from what I can tell they are alright but I can't really have an opinion on them as I do not own a set. - I do own, however, their markers and I like them.

Prismacolor Verithin: I do not own these as stated above but from what I've heard they are harder, I also do not own any watercolor pencils from Prismacolor.

Quick Note For Pencil Care:

My key to long pencil life is learn to work with them from super point all the way down to flat, then sharpen them again (In other words I'm stingy.), and don't press so hard when you are trying to color big areas, shadows and things like that pressing harder is good but still don't press too awfully hard!! - You can break the point or make the pencils dull quicker.

Also use a good sharpener, a bad sharpener can break your points and you loose a lot of pencil, either get a good hand-held sharpener, or get a good electric sharpener, I have my sharpener for almost or about 5 or 6 years and she's still kick'n at sharpening thems pencils!

Another tip, if you dislike the container that your pencils come in, sort them by color order with rubber bands (blues with blues, yellows, reds, etc..) and put them in something else, like a tote-bag or a better resealable container. - Even if you like the container I still recommenced color ordering your pencils, no matter how many you have; It's so much easier to color when they are in color order to start so you're not searching for the color you want in a confusing mix up. - It's Worth The Time!

 _________________________

I hope this has helped some of you artists out there!
Happy coloring!


May God Bless You, Your Family, Friends; Along With The Health Of Yourself, Family, And All That Know You. ~ Amen


~ Firefly

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Have A Question?

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Washable Markers, Cheap But Useful!

Washable Markers, Cheap But Useful!

 Original Image Source: sergiogomez.org

We all have a few of these scampering within the drawers of our homes, normally the 8 pack of Crayola brand markers we bought our child for his or her birthday and did they use them? Nope. Do we keep them possibly even years after our child has grown up? Yep!... And do we use them? Nahhhh, maybe if we can't find a pen when we have to write down a vital phone number but that's about it, but I say that though they are cheap they are still very useful! They are wonderful for coloring, maybe not as high of quality ink wise but they are still fine to use.

Main Idea:

You can color with washable markers and blend with them, and once they dry out you can use the dry markers to blend a color that is wet. I color with Markers over colored pencil so my paper is very smooth from the wax and it takes a little longer for the color to soak in to the paper, with that style that I color with it's easier to make markers look soft shaded with blending colors together and stuff.

I use The Crayola 50 pack that costs about 7-10 dollars and RoseArt 50 pack for a similar price, compared to 7 dollars for one Copic or 4 Dollars for one Prismacolor. Although with price there is better quality, I have 3 copics markers (2 light purples and one skin tone) and 3 Prismacolor (two shades of blue and one black) and they are amazing but I still love my crayolas and I highly recommend them to people who are new to art or coloring, good art supplies aren't what make you good at art, it's talent and practice, learn to make something amazing with lower quality stuff before you go to the the good quality stuff.

Crayolas are also good for making watercolors when you don't want to use or buy watercolors See more here: Washable Markers; A Painting Beginner's Delight! - Blog Post

Washable Markers are one of the main medias I used in these Drawings; I used Crayola Markers for these, I also used colored pencils and other medias but each of these have over 15 crayolas used each.

My main warning for washable markers and really with markers in general is that the cap colors aren't the same as the color of the marker itself. Other than that it's all good!

Taking care of your markers:

Keep them in a reasonably temperatured place or else they will dry out eventually, this would probably apply to most if not all markers in general.

DON'T use tissue to take another color off of the tip of your marker, the tissue drains the marker almost instantly and then your marker is dry, if you want to try and get the tint off of your markers use them on a separate piece of paper until the tint dirty look goes away, that normally works.

Try to keep the original box or package that the markers came in (if the dog ate the box, you can't do much about that, it's bye bye boxey) then arrange your markers in color order, you will have a huge pain if your markers aren't in color order, if all else fails keep them in color sections bound together with rubber bands.

That's all I can think of for now, so with this I bid you Adieu!

Enjoy your markers!

May God Bless You, Your Family, Friends, The Health Of You And All That Know You ~ Amen

~Firefly

Washable Markers; A Painting Beginner's Delight!

Washable Markers; A Painting Beginner's Delight!

Many of us have these little devils running about the premises of our homes, whether a few are puttering about in our desk drawer or in our child's old toy chest they haven't touched since you have given them that regrettable cell phone and/or ipod, you are bound to have a few someplace and I must say these little fellas are very useful. I'm not going to get in to everything about them, and believe me I can do one if not two more posts about washable markers but I will stick to the subject at hand...How they can be a painter's delight!

Main idea:

Washable markers like Crayola ™ are not water resistant thus making them the perfect watercolor paint alternative when you can't afford paints or you don't want to buy paints but want to experiment w/o the coast of buying then feeling it's not for you and wasting your hard earned money. With everything there is a process to making these useable as paints, I'll get in to the usefulness of using washable markers in a painting in fuller detail later, at the moment, lets just focus on making the paint for now.

How To Make Paint:

Materials you'll need:

• Washable markers – I use Crayola ™ and RoseArt ™ personally but whatever you like, Prang ™ is another nice option.
• An Egg carton (Not the cardboard kind) or anything that is a sealed container that doesn't absorb water.
• Water – I always use normal temperature water I have never waited for it to be cold or hot so I cannot say if it makes a difference.
• Paint brush – The none plastic ones are best in my opinion but everybody has a different liking.

To make a paint with washable markers you need something that is sealed and smooth that won't absorb the wetness of the marker ink or water, I use an empty egg carton (white is the best, but you can do it with any one of them – NOT cardboard) a little bit of water and that's it and the process is reasonable easy.

Note: If you use an egg carton inspect the bottom and the sides of the sections, I have had problems with some egg cartons having two holes on the bottom-side of some of the individual egg holding areas, they are hardly noticeable but it will make your paint leak out so make sure they're not punctured! 
 

Step One:

Get your egg carton (or whatever you are using to hold and make the paint inside of) after making sure you don't have any punctured holes and place it before yourself; now select what markers you want to make a paint color, then draw on the insides of an egg carton section doing you best to cover the inside. - Make sure you cover the bottom the most but hit the “walls” too. (Full coverage isn't possible on a washable marker to a smooth  surface) 

Step Two:

Get a small bit of water, very small, maybe a teaspoon worth at most and add it to your egg carton; then get your paint brush and mix the water with the marker –When making the paint make sure that when you are using the paintbrush that you scrape the brush part on the side making the excess color come out back in to the paint, often times the brush soaks up the color and leaves the water behind because it touches the pigment/ink separate from the water. 

Step Three:

Test and see if it came out as a watercolor that you like, if you don't draw on the sides a bit without touching the water then get your paintbrush and take the “paint” we have made and brush the marker off the sides of the egg carton (or whatever container you chose to use) and mix it with the pre-made paint. - By now it should be like dyed water, if it's too much water it just looks like tinted water not flat out dyed water.

By now you should have paint, so I say you're done! The hardest part would probably be finding the right amount of water that doesn't make the paint so thin you hardly see it.

Pros and Cons:

Cons:

• Lighter colors will be harder because if they are already harder to see on paper watered down to paint them will be worse, but if you are good with color theory then you might be able to make the color you want by combining darker colors to equal the original color you wanted.

• If you run out of the color to remake unless you make a log can be difficult but if you like this process then maybe it's not so bad.

Pros:

• If you use markers like the markers in a 50 pack of Crayola ™ you have all those colors plus the colors you can get combining 2 or more markers together so you really have at least 100 colors to choose from, this is very good for a young child to start out without you having to buy paints that if they don't like the activity forget about and become no longer in use for many years until you sell them in a yard sale or revisit the activity yourself.

• This is essentially free, unless you are buying the markers for this purpose you most likely already had them so though you did pay at one point you've had them so long it feels free.

I know these work on printer paper, watercolor paper I haven't made any artworks using self made paints on watercolor paper but I have used markers and painted water over them and it worked just fine.

I am in no way comparing this to paints like Sakura Brand watercolor paints, but these are very nice for children or people just starting out no matter the age!

Conclusion:

Making simple paints isn't so hard and very affordable! I hope that this has given you a jump start in your painting endeavors. I will post at a later date different painting techniques for using washable markers. If you can't seem to get this to work feel free to post a question I'll answer the best I know how, but if I don't know I'll be honest with you and say I don't know.

Until we meet again...!

May God bless you, your family, friends, your health and the health of all that know you. - Amen

~ Firefly

Crayons: Childish Trinkets or Artistic Wonders?

Nearly all of us have colored in a coloring book sometime in our lives, most likely the first 10 years of childhood when we first explore that wonderland of a world called color, it's so big and beautiful; It's a time when we in our childhood minds dance on tree tops, slide on rainbows and sleep on clouds, color Rapunzel as she has her happily ever after, and maybe even drawing on daddy's big project that is for his job causing him to have to redo it. Yes, we have enjoyed crayons as children, it's normally introduced before pencils and markers probably because they are bigger and don't stain the carpet and the heirloom tablecloth from great grandma as much, but when did we start giving these little waxy wonders the cold shoulder? And why? This should not be so!

I proclaim as princess of this castle a decree! Crayons aren't simply for the 2^nd grade!

Main Idea:

Crayons are good! We shouldn't diss them, I'm not talking about the special art crayons that you can buy at Micheals ™ , or Hobby Lobby ™ , I'm talking about Crayola or RoseArt type crayons (of course there are plenty of brands, that's just naming two.), the ones you buy for you two year old niece for her birthday because you have no clue what she wants, one week it's princesses, the next it's Pablo Picasso, then the next she likes ladybugs, so you throw your hands up in the air and buy her crayons and a few random coloring books,think to yourself  "she's bound to like something here!" and you work is done...But what happens to those crayons when she uses them 5 times then get bored and doesn't touch them again for years? Probably thrown in a drawer, the toy box, or on a shelf someplace, but again I say this should not be!

Crayons are good for texture and for a sheen on your image, as well as backgrounds, it adds an innocence since they are paired with youth and childhood whereas markers or colored pencils can be but aren't as much. I say to all crayons: Crayons unite because you're busting out of the box! - 

Usage: 

 

When using them in a big image, plan it out carefully!

After coloring an image that has been layered with colored pencils of different textures and markers galore putting a bit of crayon over the top make a lovely sheen when you move the art work in the light. Of course if you use a color that is closest to the color you are going over is best, not many things are worse than ruining an artwork because of one small mistake! (Trust me I learned that the hard way!)

Before jumping right in to using crayons they with everything else take practice, please don't think you're pro just because you used them 15 years ago in the 3^rd grade you can well ruin a lot of work if you use the wrong color or aren't one with them (yes we must be zen ninjas and be one with the art materials). Before using them on a large piece experiment on paper (remember also the texture of your paper does matter), if you can't see the color that is fine depending on your goal. When I use crayons I don't normally use them for the color, I use for the sheen in the light when I move the drawing/artwork around, I think it's a nice touch. However if you are using for the color just remember that if you go over it with markers to rub the markers tip with your finger (NOT TISSUE YOU WILL DRY OUT THE MARKER!! - and don't push the wax, kind of flick it off) to make sure no wax is clogging the pours of your markers, although crayons are the waxy wonders it's more expensive to buy markers than crayons! Just play with it, coloring with crayons can be messy not as in staining grandma's formerly mentioned tablecloth but messy in the fact that their waxy build up can mess your art work up but I won't say they will! Brand does matter and so does color, the lighter the color (as far as I have noticed) the smoother the crayon, because they aren't as dense from the pigments used to make them super dark. I've seen darker crayons as well as colored pencils break up because of the heavy pigmentation they use to make them. It's almost criminal! I protest also the abuse of over-pigmentation! Crayons have rights!

Conclusion:

Take your old crayons that have been either in your desk drawer, art cubby for years, or in the closet of your child's old room that had been empty since they went to peruse their dreams 5 years back and use them! These poor little fat friends of ours haven't gotten enough love. If all else fails use them at least for a background to an image you have drawn, remember: Great for texture and innocence!

I will look in to seeing if the Prismacolor Colorless Blender Pencil works with crayons as well as their pencils, so indeed, to be continued!

May God bless you, your family, your friends and your health and all that know you! - Amen

~ Firefly