September is ‘new pencil cases’ time for us. Join us in a celebration of colouring crayons
There’s not much that cheers our hearts more than the idea of a bit of new stationery. Once you’ve sharpened your colouring pencils ready for the new term, buy a copy of our September issue, in which we have a Sketchbook Club feature with artist Jennie Maizels to help you learn to draw beautiful birds. We also were lucky enough to visit her colourful home, and you can see those pictures and read all about it from p94. We particularly coveted her bright studio with its pots upon pots of colouring pencils, paints and crayons, and it reminded us of a time when we knew the ‘names’ of all our crayons and always had a favourite - definitely a top ten at least.
So here, in no particular order and judged completely on whim and without reason, are our favourite Crayola Crayon colours. Do share yours with us in the comments section below.
Cerulean. Blue is repeatedly voted the nation’s favourite crayon colour. After all, it deserves some credit after all that stoic painting of skies and seas. Plus, we just loved the name. Why aren’t more children called Cerulean?
Inchworm. Named for the bright green caterpillar of the geometer moth (which disappointingly is itself a sludgy brown). It reminded us of the Hans Christian Andersen song, too.
Macaroni and Cheese. A warm orange hue, named by a child as part of a competition Crayola ran in 1993 with Kraft Foods.
Purple Mountains’ Majesty. This scores points for just being really fancy - and giving Farrow and Ball a run for its money.
Corn silk. Back in the good old days, crayon colours were a bit educational, too. We mused for hours (while filling in suns and sandy beaches) over what corn silk might be. Turns out it’s the stringy bits on the top of a corn cob. Anyway, it’s a much better name than the brighter Unmellow Yellow… who wants their yellow UNmellow?
The colourful array of colouring things in the picture by Carmel King above is from artist and founder of Sketchbook Club, Jennie Maizel’s home, which is featured in our September issue. You can find a tutorial on how to draw birds by Jennie on page 102. Jennie has run Sketchbook Club from her home and online for five years. For all the kit you need to get started, including paints, pencils and paper, visit: jenniemaizels.com and head to Jennie Maizels’ Sketchbook Club YouTube Channel for supporting ‘How to’ videos for these projects. You can also follow Jennie on Twitter and Instagram at @jenniemaizels.
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