NOTE - I have added additional information at the bottom to answer a few questions I have been getting...
O.k. so I decided to see what the Distress Crayons looked like side by side with Gelatos and Prima's Oil Pastels.
First, let's take a look at what you get with each of the mediums... As you can see even though the Distress Crayon is about twice the size of a Gelato stick the contents are about the same with the Distress Crayon being a about 1/4" longer. These two products probably have the same amount of medium because the Gelato stick is actually a bit thicker in diameter than the DC. The Prima crayon has probably 2-3 times more medium as it's not only longer but has a much thicker diameter as well.
Price wise -
Prima's Water Soluable Oil Pastels - $15.00-20.00 for 24 crayons = $0.63 - 0.83 each
Gelato Sticks (regular size) - sets vary greatly depending on set size and extras. Generally you can get a set of 4 for 7.00 = $1.75 each
Distress Crayons - $11.00-15.00 for set of 6 = $1.83 - 2.50 each
So, I did a side by side of Gelato, Distress Crayons and Primas Water Soluble Oil Pastels on plain regular cardstock. I chose this substrate because let's be honest, most people aren't going to take the time to gesso a piece of cardstock for every card they want to make.
So, I scribbled a 3" long line with each of the mediums - I smudged the bottom portion with my finger tip. As you can see the Primas smudged away to the point you couldn't see the initial markings, smudged Gelatos didn't do quite as well but - you can tell it's a bit darker where the initial scribbles were but it did disperse very well. Distress Crayons on the other hand were more difficult to diffuse - they just don't glide over the paper much and all of the lines still show up.
Next I went in with a water brush and tried to move the mediums around that way. Gelato's and Primas were very water friendly and could easily be spread over a very large area. Great for watercoloring if you chose to do so as they dissolved quite easily. Distress Crayons on the other hand were difficult to dissolve and didn't have much travel, you could in fact still see all of the initial markings which no matter how much I tried I couldn't diffuse on this or any other attempts.
Since that wasn't working so well I decided to try a "removal" technique - basically just color a piece of cardstock with the various mediums, over lay a stencil and use a baby wipe to remove the color medium.
First up I tried the Distress Crayons - as you can see I had a difficult time smudging out the crayon. The original scribble lines don't go away and I really couldn't blend the colors much either.
I placed the stencil over the panel and tried to remove the medium with a baby wipe. I had a difficult time with this. I just couldn't pick up the color much at all - in the end I basically rubbed the top layer of paper away trying to get the color up. (see below).
I ended up pilling the paper instead of removing the color...not the look I was going for.
Next up Gelatos - scribbled, blended and removed without much problem.
Finally Prima's - WOW, I used the same amount of medium as the other two examples but had far more medium than was necessary. It blended so nicely and I could have moved it over a much larger area than I had room on my panel which is why some areas are still so dark with pigment. A little bit of this stuff goes a very long way! So then I placed the stencil on the panel and easily removed the color with a baby wipe. This took almost no effort whatsoever. The results were amazing.
Here are all three side by side. You can see the startling difference for yourself. I had planned on trying a few more technique comparisons but decided that I had seen enough. I don't know about you but I don't want to have to fight a medium to get it to work.
***Edited to add - a couple people have mentioned that in some of the Distress Crayon videos they make the colors/techniques look amazing...Why don't they look like that here?
Here are a few things to think about/look for - if you look at many of the demos people share if you really look when they run a waterbrush over them - they get the same look but they don't focus on it for long. They just swish the water over the medium then move on. In most of the videos I've seen of the Distress Crayons when you color directly on an uncoated (no gesso or collage medium) paper/cardstock/etc. some of the color moves around (as it does in the above examples and again below) but you'll be left with a darker stain where the medium was originally applied.
So I colored an area that has solid color and a heavy coat as advised -
I then went over it to blend it out with a waterbrush. While there is color movement you still end up with the darker stain of color where the original DC was originally applied with a much lighter wash surrounding it.
It is stated right in the demos that you have to use LOTS of product to get the intended look - I find that this is far more product than what you would normally apply with Gelatos or especially the Prima pastels (a little goes a very long way). In this example I colored a large block of color with a thick layer of medium and smeared it around with my finger. The black lines outline where the original product was applied.
Next I overlapped two colors to blend - both solid coats with heavy layers of medium.
Smudged it together with my finger tip and this is the result. The black lines show where the colors were originally colored and where they overlapped.
To get the really vibrant mixed colors the Distress Crayons were applied on a coated surface (coated with something like gesso, a collage medium, or other sealed surface) then mixed but if you notice most of the time the demonstrator either adds additional layers of Distress Crayon or another Distress product to enhance the results. Many of the examples you see are not just a single layer of color as shown here.
I'm not saying these crayons are good or bad, that is for you to decide. I'm just showing what this particular medium looks like in a few real life tests/comparisons. I don't get paid for this and I buy the product with my own money. Again, I'm not the judge here, just showing you what it looks like IRL.
So there you go...
the choice is yours to make.
Give-Away Time
Would you like to try the Distress Crayons for yourselves? If so, please post below. (be sure I have some way to contact you)
I have 6 sets (2 of each set) to give away - please note that 3 of the sets were used to make the examples so while they aren't brand new there is still lots of life in them to experiment and play with. You have until April 2nd to post a comment to be eligible for a set. If there are more than 6 people that would like to try them I will draw names at random using Random.org.
