Except for consistent reference to a stick of dry colour, the term ‘crayon’ is ambiguous. Historically it has denoted various fabricated, direct-line drawing instruments, made of ground pigment and binder, that are cut or moulded into cylindrical rods or straight-sided sticks about 60–70 mm in length and 10 mm in thickness. Included in this definition are pastel, red and black chalk and crayons de couleur (wood-encased crayons), also oil, charcoal, conté, lithograph and wax crayons. ‘Crayon’ has become a generic term for colour sticks made with oily, fatty or waxy binding media, such as lithograph, conté or children’s wax crayons.