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Conté, also known as Conté sticks or Conté crayons, are a drawing medium composed of compressed powdered graphite
Graphite

The mineral graphite is one of the allotropes of carbon. It was named by Abraham Gottlob Werner in 1789 from the Greek language ??afe?? : "to draw/write", for its use in pencils, where it is commonly called lead, as distinguished from the actual metallic element lead....
 or charcoal
Charcoal

Charcoal is the blackish residue consisting of impure carbon obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances....
 mixed with a wax
Wax

Wax has traditionally referred to a substance that is secreted by bees and used by them in constructing their honeycombs.It is an imprecisely defined term generally understood to be a substance with properties similar to beeswax, namely...
 or clay
Clay

Clay is a naturally occurring material composed primarily of fine-grained minerals, which show plasticity through a variable range of water content, and which can be hardened when dried and/or fired....
 base, square in cross-section. They were invented in 1795 by Nicolas-Jacques Conté
Nicolas-Jacques Conté

Nicolas-Jacques Cont? was a France Painting, balloonist, army Officer , and inventor of the modern pencil.He was born at Saint-C?neri-pr?s-S?es in Normandy, and distinguished for his mechanical genius which was of great avail to the French army in Egypt....
, who created the combination of clay and graphite in response to the shortage of graphite caused by the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars were a series of conflicts involving Napoleon I of France First French Empire and changing sets of European allies and opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815....
 (the British
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 naval blockade of France
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
 prevented import
Import

In economics, an import is any good or service brought into one country from another country in a legitimate fashion, typically for use in trade.It is a good that is brought in from another country for sale....
). Conté crayons had the advantage of being cost-effective to produce, and easy to manufacture in controlled grades of hardness.

They are now manufactured using natural pigment
Pigment

A pigment is a material that changes the color of light it Reflection as the result of selective color absorption. This physical process differs from fluorescence, phosphorescence, and other forms of luminescence, in which the material itself emits light....
s (iron oxide
Iron oxide

Iron oxides are chemical compounds composed of iron and oxygen. Altogether, there are sixteen known iron oxides and oxyhydroxides....
s, carbon black
Carbon black

Carbon black is a material produced by the incomplete combustion of heavy petroleum products such as FCC tar, coal tar, ethylene cracking tar, and a small amount from vegetable oil....
, titanium dioxide
Titanium dioxide

Titanium dioxide, also known as titanium oxide or titania, is the naturally occurring oxide of titanium, chemical formula titaniumoxygen2....
), clay
Clay

Clay is a naturally occurring material composed primarily of fine-grained minerals, which show plasticity through a variable range of water content, and which can be hardened when dried and/or fired....
 (kaolin), and a binder
Binder (material)

A binder is an ingredient used to bind together two or more other materials in mixtures. Its two principal properties are adhesion and cohesion ....
 (cellulose
Cellulose

File:Cellulose Sessel.svgCellulose is an organic compound with the chemical formula , a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to over ten thousand ? linked D-glucose units....
 ether
Ether

Ether is a class of organic compounds which contain an ether functional group ? an oxygen atom connected to two alkyl or aryl groups ? of general formula R?O?R....
).

Conté crayons are most commonly found in black, white, and sanguine
Sanguine

Sanguine refers to a reddish, often tending to brown, color of chalk used in drawing. The word may also refer to a drawing done in sanguine....
 tones, as well as bistre
Bistre

Bistre is both a shade of gray and a shade of brown made from soot, and the general name for a color resembling the pigment. Bistre's appearance is generally of a dark grayish brown, with a yellowish cast....
, shades of grey, and other colors.






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Conté, also known as Conté sticks or Conté crayons, are a drawing medium composed of compressed powdered graphite
Graphite

The mineral graphite is one of the allotropes of carbon. It was named by Abraham Gottlob Werner in 1789 from the Greek language ??afe?? : "to draw/write", for its use in pencils, where it is commonly called lead, as distinguished from the actual metallic element lead....
 or charcoal
Charcoal

Charcoal is the blackish residue consisting of impure carbon obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances....
 mixed with a wax
Wax

Wax has traditionally referred to a substance that is secreted by bees and used by them in constructing their honeycombs.It is an imprecisely defined term generally understood to be a substance with properties similar to beeswax, namely...
 or clay
Clay

Clay is a naturally occurring material composed primarily of fine-grained minerals, which show plasticity through a variable range of water content, and which can be hardened when dried and/or fired....
 base, square in cross-section. They were invented in 1795 by Nicolas-Jacques Conté
Nicolas-Jacques Conté

Nicolas-Jacques Cont? was a France Painting, balloonist, army Officer , and inventor of the modern pencil.He was born at Saint-C?neri-pr?s-S?es in Normandy, and distinguished for his mechanical genius which was of great avail to the French army in Egypt....
, who created the combination of clay and graphite in response to the shortage of graphite caused by the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars were a series of conflicts involving Napoleon I of France First French Empire and changing sets of European allies and opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815....
 (the British
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 naval blockade of France
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
 prevented import
Import

In economics, an import is any good or service brought into one country from another country in a legitimate fashion, typically for use in trade.It is a good that is brought in from another country for sale....
). Conté crayons had the advantage of being cost-effective to produce, and easy to manufacture in controlled grades of hardness.

They are now manufactured using natural pigment
Pigment

A pigment is a material that changes the color of light it Reflection as the result of selective color absorption. This physical process differs from fluorescence, phosphorescence, and other forms of luminescence, in which the material itself emits light....
s (iron oxide
Iron oxide

Iron oxides are chemical compounds composed of iron and oxygen. Altogether, there are sixteen known iron oxides and oxyhydroxides....
s, carbon black
Carbon black

Carbon black is a material produced by the incomplete combustion of heavy petroleum products such as FCC tar, coal tar, ethylene cracking tar, and a small amount from vegetable oil....
, titanium dioxide
Titanium dioxide

Titanium dioxide, also known as titanium oxide or titania, is the naturally occurring oxide of titanium, chemical formula titaniumoxygen2....
), clay
Clay

Clay is a naturally occurring material composed primarily of fine-grained minerals, which show plasticity through a variable range of water content, and which can be hardened when dried and/or fired....
 (kaolin), and a binder
Binder (material)

A binder is an ingredient used to bind together two or more other materials in mixtures. Its two principal properties are adhesion and cohesion ....
 (cellulose
Cellulose

File:Cellulose Sessel.svgCellulose is an organic compound with the chemical formula , a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to over ten thousand ? linked D-glucose units....
 ether
Ether

Ether is a class of organic compounds which contain an ether functional group ? an oxygen atom connected to two alkyl or aryl groups ? of general formula R?O?R....
).

Conté crayons are most commonly found in black, white, and sanguine
Sanguine

Sanguine refers to a reddish, often tending to brown, color of chalk used in drawing. The word may also refer to a drawing done in sanguine....
 tones, as well as bistre
Bistre

Bistre is both a shade of gray and a shade of brown made from soot, and the general name for a color resembling the pigment. Bistre's appearance is generally of a dark grayish brown, with a yellowish cast....
, shades of grey, and other colors. They are frequently used on rough paper that holds pigment grains well. They can also be used on prepared primed canvas
Canvas

Canvas is an extremely heavy-duty plain weave cloth used for making sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, and other functions where sturdiness is required....
es for underdrawing
Underdrawing

Underdrawing is the drawing done on a painting ground before paint is applied, for example, an imprimatura or an underpainting. Underdrawing was used extensively by 15th century painters like Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden....
 for a painting. The sticks' square profile make Conté crayons more suitable for detailed hatched work as opposed to the bolder painterly
Painterly

Painterly is a translation of the German language term malerisch, one of the opposed categories popularized by Swiss art historian Heinrich W?lfflin in order to help focus, enrich and standardize the terms being used by art historians of his time to characterize Work of art....
 drawing style demanded by soft pastel
Pastel

Pastel is an art medium in the form of a stick, consisting of pure powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are the same as those used to produce all colored art media, including oil paints; the binder is of a neutral hue and low saturation....
s.

See also

  • Trois crayons
    Trois crayons

    Trois crayons refers to a drawing technique using three colors of chalk: red , black, and white. The paper used may be a Artistic tone such as grey, blue, or tan....


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