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, although adult artists have occasionally produced works in crayon. 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.
