It's crayon day, established to commemorate the creation of the tool that most kids use to learn to write and draw. But the history of the crayon technique is an important one in the history of art. Almost 73,000 years ago, a human used a crayon, as a combination of wax, dirt, and pigment, to draw on a now-fragmentary stone. Thoughts, attitudes, memories, and emotions are expressed through the drawing of lines. Since the late 14th century, when plaster as a wet medium was colored, artists and laypersons experimented with tools that would not need a pot to dip out pigment. Instead, they would be consumed in the act of creation. The conte crayon, a French technique, was invented in the late 18th century as a mixture of graphite and clay. It became a hard pencil tool in limited colors of blue, black, and brown which could sweep color onto canvas. Alois Senefelder, in 1798, testing stone and moisture absorption, invented a process called lithography by sticking wax and lamp black to alternating sections of drawn greasy crayon.
In addition, charcoal crayons that have been deeply dipped in oil show a brownish streak left by the oil alongside the lines; this technique was used in the 20th century by the American artist Susan Rothenberg. The attempt to produce a crayon or pencil of the greatest possible uniformity has led to the production of special chalks for drawing; what we think of as "chalk," was invented as a form of crayon. Pastel chalks are particularly favoured for some portrait techniques; their effect approximates that of color-and-area painting rather than line drawing. But the effect of crayon -- that tool which is consumed as it creates -- remains. As the conte crayon evolved, purified, and washed, graphite could henceforth be made with varying admixtures of clay and in any desired degree of hardness. The hard points, with their durable, clear, and thin stroke layers, led to the graphite pencil, another form of crayon.
Artists' mediums on crayon emphasize the diversity of crayon outcomes:
But most people's first brush with crayons comes courtesy of the Crayola brand in the United States. Looking at the textures of chalk and oily wax from the artists' palette use, two American cousins invented the first box of black, brown, blue, red, purple, orange, yellow, and green crayons in 1903. The Crayola company became synonymous with back-to-school lists, art time activities in public education, and the drawing interests of generations of children. In 2003, in honor of its centennial, the company hosted a contest to bring a retired color back, and "burnt sienna" returned -- along with the reminder that the color was originally inspired by "burning the land of Sienna" -- an Italian region known for its artistry with crayon technique, as their artists sought to create the reddish-orange hue from mixing heated wax with the dirt of their region. As late as 2020, Crayola caused controversy with its "Colors of the World," a 40-pigment box set meant to inclusively represent the skin tones of young artists.
How does wax turn into a colorful crayon? Follow each step in the production cycle--from melting wax into a liquid to coloring a fun picture--in this fascinating book!
Social and emotional learning is at the heart of good teaching, but as standards and testing requirements consume classroom time and divert teachers' focus, these critical skills often get side lined. In Sharing the Blue Crayon, Mary Anne Buckley shows teachers how to incorporate social and emotional learning into a busy day and then extend these skills to literacy lessons for young children. Crayons as metaphor for cooperation are a common theme.
