Gel Crayons
I love my Caran D’Ache Neocolor II‘s but have also been testing cheaper alternatives – and I’m pleased to have found some!
These “gel crayons” or “media crayons” have been popping up everywhere lately – from baby toys to use in the bath, to face-painting sets, to versions for serious crafters and artists. They are wax crayons, but they are also water-soluble!
What’s great about gel crayons?
(gel sticks, water-soluble pastels, aquarelle stifte, so many names!)
- lipstick-smooth texture (yum!)
- smudgeable, blendable before they dry
- can apply with a brush, like watercolour
- semi transparent – like a highlighter
- NOT opaque … which is easily solved by laying down some white gesso first.
- all the ones I’ve seen are labeled ‘non toxic’ (do read the labels)
I was excited to find kingart Artist Mixed Media Gel Sticks on an American website, at a really reasonable price … with beautiful colours, and lightfast*, according to the manufacturer! So I need not worry if my SmashBooking supplies wander over into my fine art projects.
Other lightfast brands I have found are:
- BUDGET FRIENDLY: water-soluble artist oil pastels by Mungyo or Prima Marketing. These are fat, juicy, highly pigmented and totally water soluble. (The Crayola Portfolio ones look identical, but reviews say they are more waxy, less pigmented and less soluble).
- Lyra Aquacolor crayons. Only available in sets. Look and feel like Neocolors, but cheaper: wax crayons in paper wrappers. Shipped in a nice tin box. They’re waxy, not lipstick-like, and even more soluble than kingart!
- Marabu Art Crayons. Available in 4-colour sets and individually, so they’ll cost you more but you can buy just the colours you want. Marabu look identical to kingart brand. The Marabu Gold crayon is lovely.
If you don’t care about lightfastness, I can personally recommend Keyroad Gel Crayons (which look identical to kingart 🤔) and Maped Color Peps (which are smaller) – both are quite smooth and water soluble.
The children’s brands can be iffy, though. For example, the Ideen mit Herz set looked great but some colours were only barely water soluble. So do experiment – but remember that price is no indicator of quality – for example, the pricey Distress Crayons are reviewed as waxy, less pigmented and less water soluble!
Tip: Search the web for
“(product name) review”
to see how users like them.
I also tested some “tempera paint sticks” like Carioca and Playcolor One. Nope. They are a whole other thing: shaped like a chapstick, made to replace poster paint, they dry in seconds and are not very water soluble. Mind you, the metallics have a place on my shelf now 🙂
By the way: something I discovered while testing is that those smooth, lipsticky gel crayons dissolve Sharpie & other permanent markers! I think they contain alcohol. Just so you know.
I was thrilled to find a kingsart set of 24 pastel colours! I ordered them from Amazon.com for substantially less than the Amazon.de price. They’re apparently designed in New York, and made in China.
Let the fun begin!
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* the term “lightfast” denotes colours which do not fade under normal light. It’s a spectrum, and fine art materials are clearly marked with degree of lightfastness. On the opposite end of the spectrum are the ‘fugitive’ colours. These may make art that looks good now, but becomes patchy and pale after hanging on your wall for a year – especially if strong light falls regularly upon it.
