Since I’m more into drawing than painting, atm, I decided to try these Conte crayons that I heard about. The artist I saw on Youtube described Conte crayons as being “Conte crayons”. He said it’s hard to describe them, but they’re a cross between crayons, and hard pastels. He also said they’re easy to blend. It piqued my curiosity, so I had to give it a try. 

I got the box in the mail a few weeks ago, and thought I’d give you a look inside the box, in case, like me, you’ve never used them before. 

please excuse my messy table 
which is covered in oil pastel marks

I didn’t buy these from Amazon. Not only did I find them cheaper on eBay, and I like to give fellow eBayer sellers business when I can. The Amazon bag is there to make the surface cleaner because the oil pastels have pretty much destroyed my table. I need to figure out how to clean it or buy a new mat, but anyway..

The packaging felt expensive to me. The box is sturdy, and the crayons are snuggled in foam to protect them in shipping. All of my mine were fully intact, unbroken, but I have seen reviews of people complaining about getting broken ones. I don’t think that’s something I would have objected to, since these crayons are hard. I actually am surprised they didn’t get broken in transit.  

My initial thought was – wow, these are tiny. They’re very skinny, light, and delicate to the touch. They look and feel like hard pastels, but are only about half the size in thickness. They didn’t seem all that waxy to me, but that comes later, I found out.

I took a comparison shot of the Conte crayon beside an oil pastel for size.

I’m reluctant to call them “crayons” (but I will because that’s the brand name) because to me, they appear harder than hard pastels. If I made a line, even without pressing down, it created a fairly hard line. It didn’t take a lot of effort. The issue was, it stayed a hard line. It didn’t blend out with a tortillon much, if at all. I guess that can be used to your advantage, if you want a hard line, but since I work with oil pastels, and I’m big on building layers and blending, it’s something I’ll have to get used to. 

On the plus side, because of the hardness, Conte crayons produce little dust, which I do appreciate. I’ve been itching to use my hard pastels, but haven’t because of the dust they create.

I’m not always drawing near a garbage can, and I know you’re not suppose to blow on the dust to remove it. One, it would get all over everything, and two, it isn’t good to breathe in the dust particles. I was able to tap the paper on my drawing tray, and keep what little dust it created off to the side, while I kept drawing. This isn’t something I’d do with hard pastels because it would be too messy. 

I decided the only way to get comfortable using these Conte crayons was to get busy using them. This is the first drawing I started, and have since done a series of 10 masquerade mask portrait drawings.

I thought the series was successful, but it turned out to be a complete flop – which I didn’t realize until I took photos of the drawings under bright lights to list on eBay & Etsy. After seeing the photos on my screen, I decided I can’t sell the drawings as they are, and each one needs more work. 

I’ll show you photos of the drawings, tell you the huge mistake I think I made, what I need to do to fix the problem, and write more about these Conte crayons later this week. Stay tuned for more. 

I hope you have a lovely creative day. If you like this blog post, please share it using the buttons below.

***

My affordably priced artwork can be purchased here on my site, and in my eBay store. Plus, new items are available in my Etsy shop, and more are being added daily – coffee mugs, postcards, notebooks, iPhone cases, tote bags, throw pillows and blankets. 

I’m also accepting orders for custom paintings, and drawings. As always, if you want to say hello or have any questions you can write me here. I love getting email, and hearing from you. 

Other places to find me online. I’m most active on Twitter, so follow me there. 

Sign up now to get my blog posts delivered to your inbox for free.