Welcome to: Crayon Gallery
wax crayon on Paper, painted in 1996
Crayons
A crayon is a stick of colored wax, charcoal, chalk, or other materials used for writing and drawing. A crayon made of oiled chalk is called an oil pastel; when made of pigment with a dry binder, it is simply a pastel. A grease pencil or china marker (UK chinagraph pencil) is made of colored hardened grease and is useful for marking on hard, glossy surfaces such as porcelain or glass.
Wax crayons
Wax crayons are commonly used for drawing and coloring by children. Crayons are a staple at most schools worldwide. They are easy to work with, not messy (as are paint and markers), blunt (removing the risk of sharp points present when using a pencil or pen), non-toxic, and are available in a wide variety of colors. You also can make your own crayons if you buy a special maker for them.
History
Europe was the birthplace of the "modern" crayon, a man-made cylinder that resembled contemporary sticks. The first such crayons are purported to have consisted of a mixture of charcoal and oil. Through time, powdered pigments of various hues replaced the charcoal. It was subsequently discovered that substituting wax for the oil in the mixture made the resulting sticks sturdier and easier to handle and to use.
The world's largest manufacturer and inventor of wax crayons is Crayola LLC (formerly Binney & Smith Inc.), the manufacturer of Crayola crayons, which are made of paraffin wax, a petroleum product. Soybean oil can also be used to make crayons, although this is not as common. The brand's first box of eight Crayola crayons made its debut in 1903. The crayons were sold for a nickel and the colors were: black, brown, blue, red, purple, orange, yellow, and green. The word Crayola was created by Alice Stead Binney, wife of Edwin Binney, who took the French words for chalk, craie, and oily, ol?agineux, and combined them.more
A.K.A.'S Inspiration Art for all
This is the site where we gladly share our styles and techniques with everyone.