Trying Crayola Paint Sticks

While I love using my growing collection of artist quality supplies like Prismacolor and Ohuhu, there's a special place in my heart for Crayola. It was the first art brand I loved as a kid, the brand I used in my classroom as a teacher, and the one I introduced to Trevor when he was a young toddler. Crayola products are the best among student-grade art supplies and their huge product line provides kids (and adults) a very affordable way to explore different media. My favorite Crayola products are their iconic crayons, colored pencils, Model Magic, and Silly Scents.   

Crayola's Washable Paint Sticks (affiliate link) have been around for a couple of years, but I hadn't tried them. I thought it would be fun to get my hands on some and give them a go. I got the 12-pack, which contains the usual rainbow colors plus silver and gold. The paint sticks are about the size and shape of a glue stick and the paint is similar in consistency. I tried them on some pre-painted paper I had laying around to see how they would perform. The paint went on fairly smoothly with decent coverage but some small paint blobs.  

I thought I'd be able to smooth out those blobs with a wet brush, but instead the water basically erased the paint. The more I tried to smooth it, the more of the background showed through. I tried applying the wet brush directly to the paint stick and then painting with that. Meh.  

I used a different section of the pre-painted paper to see what kind of detail and blending I could get with just the paint sticks. The black really didn't want to go over the existing paint, especially the pink areas. 

I switched to watercolor paper and made some blobs of color with four different paint sticks. 

Then I dragged a wet paintbrush through them. Very satisfying!

I tried each of the colors on a pre-painted dark navy page in my sketchbook. This is where the gold and silver worked best. 

Overall, I had fun trying out Crayola's Washable Paint Sticks. Like all washable art supplies, they are marketed toward young children. That's definitely the audience that will appreciate them the most. I can see myself using them in abstract paintings like this one, but otherwise I'll save them for crafting with young kids. 

Have you tried Crayola's Washable Paint Sticks? Or a different brand? Tell me what you think in the comments.