A crayon is a stick of colored wax, charcoal, chalk, or other material 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.
Wax crayons are commonly used for drawing and coloring by children. They are relatively easy to work with, blunt (removing any risk from sharp points), non-toxic, and available in a wide variety of colors. Wax crayons are not commonly used by artists because of the difficulty in mixing colors. The world's largest manufacturer of wax crayons is Binney & Smith Inc., the manufacturer of Crayola® brand crayons.
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Children can create lifelike self-portraits - just using crayons (http://www.crayonbynumber.com)
Crayons are used by the artist to make groupings of colours and to secure landscape and other effects with ease and rapidity.
The colours are softened off and blended by the finger, with the assistance of a stump of leather or paper; and shading is produced by cross-hatching and stippling.
The art of painting in crayon or pastel is supposed to have originated in Germany in the 17th century.