1. Crayons are cheap. When someone urges you to try something new, you are smart to ask, “What is this going to cost me?” With crayons, the answer is, “Not very much.” A basic box of 24 colors, for example, only costs a couple of bucks. With those colors and almost any kind of paper, you can determine in short order if the crayon medium interests you at all.

2. Crayons are self-sufficient. Almost all kinds of paint require the support of brushes, liquids, containers, and rags for clean up. Even pencils demand sharpeners. Common wax crayons, on the other hand, are immediately ready for your guiding hand. They are faithful lone rangers riding silently in your pocket until an irresistible scene strikes your eye.

3. Crayons aren’t intimidating. Unless you dropped in from Mars, common crayons are old acquaintances. You know immediately how they work, so you can use them boldly. If you don’t like the result, you can wad it up, throw it away and start again.

4. Crayons are versatile. In addition to the basic wax crayons, there are many other kinds available in art and craft stores. There are water-soluable ones you can paint with. There are Conte crayons hard enough to hold a sharp edge, making delicate line work possible. (Pastels are a close cousin, but they can required too much hand-washing for some of us.) There are literally hundreds of different colors on the market, allowing you to attempt very sophisticated compositions. As your skill increases, you may want to mix different kinds of crayons in the same picture, also adding watercolors, inks, or color marking pens.

5. Crayons become good friends and build strong friendships. If you are a Codger who has been successfully enticed by crayons and now wants more and better arts involvement than this site provides, take a good look at all the programs available to Super Mature Types in your community. The numbers you find may surprise you—classes in drawing, painting,sculpting, printmaking, many of them taught by highly-qualified former artists and art teachers. If that’s not the case in your community, be pro-active. The next time you drop by the neighborhood recreation or senior center, take out your crayons and show ‘em what you can do. If there’s a computer around, have them open this Crayons for Codgers site. They will understand where you're coming from—and you may expose them to something catching.

ELEPHANTINE MOUSE (Click on image to enlarge)

Don't underestimate crayons; in capable hands they lend themselves to art of great delicacy. Take pride in knowing that fine artists have been using them for at least a couple of centuries.

THE STRIPED SKIRT

WHAT A BOX OF 24 CAN DO FOR YOU

Head Codger Note:

Joseph Klipple has been making pictures and writing almost all his life. He drew before he could read and had graduated to oil paints before he was out of elementary school.

He got a job as a sports writer for a daily newspaper while still in high school, and went on to become a sports editor, political reporter, travel editor and a fiction writer. He is author of the novel Charlemagne Summer and dozens of short stories.

Photography loomed large in his life after a sister gave him a camera as a graduation gift. Eventually, he operated his own photojournalism and advertising photography studio. Nowadays he spends his time in a traditional artist's studio, where he has become more of a cartoonist than anything else.

He knows first hand how good crayons can be for Super Mature Types. "They make a strong line, which is a big help if your vision isn't what it once was," he reports, "and they cooperate with cranky, arthritic fingers better than pens and brushes."

If you doubt his codger credentials, take a look at the portrait Becca Olson did of him for the Visiting Artists page of this site. She is universally known for her ability to capture a likeness.

COLORADO FEEDLOT, 1940

ONE OF THE HEAD CODGER'S EARLY PAINTINGS