26 students plus 26 boxes of 24  crayons plus 100 pages to pick from plus ONE KICK ASS MOVIE= these coloring book pages from the third “What It Is”class

The class is part of Lynda Barry’s spring semester Arts Institute Residency at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

You can get really deep solid color with your crayons, but it can’t be done fast.

You have to be patient and willing to spend a long time going over the same spot, and that’s why listening to music or watching a video or talking on the phone or listening to your roommates jabber while you’re coloring is a good thing to do. It will help you work the wax into the paper in a way you may have never tried before. Especially if you’ve always colored in a way that was supposed to make the crayons last longer. In this class we need to use our crayons up.

While you are coloring, it is good time to half sort of think about a problem that has been stumping you recently. Does coloring something by hand change the way you think about the problem? Does it change the way ideas and possible solutions come to you? How? And sometimes coloring is a good thing to do in the quiet of the night when you can’t sleep.

It can be good to peel back the paper on your crayon about an inch and a half. It can be good to have the goal of getting as much of that crayon onto the page you are coloring. Fill in the entire background of at least one picture. Make the color so solid no paper shows through.Try to wear your crayons down to stubs.

Though kids use crayons, and though we may be coloring images from children’s coloring books, there is nothing childish about what is going on with your hand, eye, and brain/mind when you dedicate some time to coloring pictures.