The history, use and characteristics of wax-based drawing media

Summary While waxes have been used in a variety of artistic purposes for over 3,000 years, wax-based drawing media are only 200 years old, evolving along with the lithographic process in the late Eighteenth Century. In the Nineteenth Century, the development of petroleum-based waxes along with oil soluble dyes, catalysed the introduction of more versatile and reliable drawing media. Today, artists have at their disposal wax-based products ranging from simple grease pencils and lithographic crayons, to brightly coloured children's crayons and pencils, oil pastels, and, most recently, paint sticks. Although the term ‘crayon’ has been used for almost 500 years, its meaning remains ambiguous, traditionally referring to any drawing medium in stick form regardless of the nature of its binder. Currently, in English-speaking countries, the term more often describes a stick of colour with a wax, fat and/or oil binder used for drawing purposes. In order to help curators and conservators differentiate between them, six categories of ‘crayons’ are described in more detail: coloured pencil, grease pencil, lithographic crayon, wax crayon, oil pastel, and paint stick. A chart is provided for each which describes its history, ingredients, method of manufacture, visual characteristics, and typical conservation problems.