Pastel crayon

Pastel crayons are used for painting in pastel. Pastel painting entails painting with dry pigments in any case. To facilitate use, the color pigments are formed into crayons. If they are mantled in wood, the term used for them in the strict sense is pastel pencils. To make pastel crayons or pastel pencils, binders are added to the pigments. The various binders used include china clay (kaolin), resins and other substances. In the past gruel, glue, gelatine, gum arabic, gum tragacanth, various emulsions, soapy water and even skimmed milk, honey or even sugar crystals were used. The hardness or softness of pastel crayons depends on the binder used, that means there are pastel crayons in varying degrees of hardness. Unlike the dryer and more powdery pastel chalks, there are also pastel grease crayons. The techniques for using the two types of pastel crayons differ fundamentally and express very different things.