Dictionarium polygraphicum. To make crayons or pastils of which there are different methods.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol I.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
Some direct to take plaister of Paris or alabafter calcin'd, and of the colour of which you intend to make your Crayons a sufficient quantity; to grind them first asunder, and then together, and with a little water to make them into paste; then to roll them with your hand upon the grinding stone into long pieces like black lead pencils, and then to dry them mode rately in the air; which when they are to be us'd, are to be scrap'd or shav'd to a point like a common pencil.

Thus Crayons may be made of what colour you please, fitting them for the faces of men, women, landscapes, clouds, sun-beams, buildings and shadows.

Another way.
Take tobacco-pipe clay, and temper it with a little water with what colour you please, making several according to the heights of colours you would make use of, which mix with the said tobacco-pipe clay, so much as the clay will bear, work all well together, form them into Crayons, and set them to dry for use.

The manner of laying the ground Flesh-Colour for a face to be wrought upon with CRAYONs.
The best way, says Mr. Brown, is to colour the paper that you intend to draw on with a carnation or flesh-colour, near the complexion of the party you intend to draw after; and to cover the whole paper with the same complexion, which is made of ceruss, meny and a little yellow-oker ground with a little gum arabick.
When you prepare them make a good parcel of various complexions together, it being not worth while to make one at a time.
You are to lay on this ground colour with a wet spunge, but let the colour be so bound with gum, that it will not stir from the paper by rubbing with your finger on it.
When this ground is dry, then sketch or draw the first rough draught with coal, that being as you would have it, draw over the same lines again more perfectly with red-chalk, then with your several Crayons you are to rub in your colours first, then with your fingers you are to sweeten and mix them together, scumbling them one into another after the manner of the oi painters.

And because many times the Crayons will not sharpen to so good a point as black or red chalk, you must be extremely careful to close and finish all your work at last with red and black chalk, which you may sharpen at your pleasure.

Hans Holben, painter to King Henry VIII. drew in Crayons the pictures of most of the English nobility both Lords and Ladies; and these were the patterns whereby he painted his pictures in oil.

There is another ordinary way of drawing in Crayons on blue paper, the ground colours are to be rubb’d in first with a pencil, and afterwards with a stubbed pencil or your finger.

And if you please you may work upon parchment exceeding neat and curious. In this manner, says our author, I have seen little pieces extremely well done by the hand of that great master Hen. Goltzius (the faces were about the bigness of a Jacobus) and also some done by the same hand in Crayons, which at a small distance you would have taken for limning.

Some he drew upon the rough side of velum, and some on the smooth side of parchment, being rubb'd in with small stubbed pencils, and finish’d with sharp pointed red or black chalk.

His Crayons were about the length of a finger, and about the thickness of a goose quill.

Mr. Brown says, he has observ'd, that CRAYONs or dry colours are wrought in several manners or ways.

The first is that of Valyant, whose manner was to place several heaps of colours in powder upon white paper, of several temperatures, according to the object he drew after, whether the life or painting.

His out-lines being first drawn, he made use of several rolls of white paper, roll’d up very hard and close, about the length of a pencil stick'us'd in limning, and some of them about the thickness of the same, bigger or lesser according as his work requir’d with which he rubb’d in the several colours. And that his work is reasonably neat, and had a pretty good force.

And that some of the French masters have a manner, which differs but in two things from the former.

Instead of the rolls of paper they make use of stubbed pencils, some of which are stuff'd with cotton, and others with bombast, and instead of placing the colours on paper, they put them into small boxes.

But he rather esteems the way of drawing with a Crayon about the length of a finger, compos'd of several colours and mixtures, ground together of a good consistence and stiffness, and roll’d up and dried.

That though they us'd formerly to temper them with milk, beer or ale, and some have anciently made use of stale size to bind the colours together, yet he approves not of any of these; for either they bind the colours so hard that you cannot draw at all with them, or else they are so brittle or loose that you can not sharpen them to a point.

Another way.
Grind your colours very fine upon a marble, sift them through a tiffany sieve; then take a piece of tobacco pipe clay, and lay it on the grinding-stone, and temper it and your colours together with strong ale-wort.
Great care must be taken not to make them too wet, but of an even temper like moist clay, so that you may roll them up with your hand upon a stone.
Then lay them on a piece of paper, and set them to dry in an oven after the bread has been drawn out, or else you may dry them on a fire-shovel by degrees, till they are of a due hardness, which you may know by trying them on a piece of paper; and if they cast, they are not dry enough, and if so you must dry them longer, till they will not cast; then take a feather and some sallet oil, and oil them lightly over, and then lay them by to dry again; till they have thoroughly imbib'd the oil, which will render then excellent, and work free and easy.

Mr. Brown tells us, that he has taken yellow-oker burnt, and roll'd it up into a Crayon, and dried it with a moderate heat, and when it was thoroughly dry, he made it very warm, and then dipp'd it into linseed oil, and being thoroughly soak'd, he drew with it, and rubbing it with his finger, it would not rub out, nor any part of it stir, and he believes all the rest of the colours may be made to have the same quality; and adds, he doubts not but the German masters and others of the low Dutch had that art, he having by him drawings in Crayons of Goltzius and others, which were extremely neat, and would not rub out, being strong and like oil painting.

He recommends the following as the best manner of making Crayons.

First temper as many Crayons as there are varieties and changes of colourings in flesh, or faces, or draperies, or landscapes, &c. making them deeper or lighter as you please, as

If you were to make a Crayon for a brown glowing complexion, grind upon your stone ceruss; and vermilion, English oker and a little pink, you need not be over curious to grind them extremely fine, but reasonably to bruise and mix them well together; to this add a proportionable quantity of plaister of Paris burnt, and finely sifted through a fine tiffany sive; then mix that and incorporate it with all the colours indifferently thick and stiff like moist clay; and then take it from the stone and roll it up in a lump, out of which lump you may make your Crayons, by rolling with the palm of your hand upon the stone a small quantity of it, as much as will make a Crayon the length of a finger, and about the thickness of a goose quill; then lay it in the sun to dry or the wind, but not by the fire.

In this manner, and with this mixture of plaister of Paris, with all the other colours and shadows in general, you will make them of a gentle quality and bind the colours together, and make them hold a sharpening to a fine point which otherwise would be too loose and brittle. The colour most difficult to work in this kind is crimson, if you make use of lake, which you may avoid and make use of rosset.

Another way to make a crimson Crayon to prevent it from being brittle or hard, you may temper it with a lighter mixture, which will make it more soft and gentle.

Be sure to mix ceruss, with all the other colours and shadows whatever.

The temperatures for greens are made of pink and bice, and masticot and smalt, and masticot and indigo, with which colours you may make them lighter or deeper as you please, remembring that where you are to temper firm colours, as umber, oker, indigo, &c. you are to take the less plaister of Paris; and where the colours are loose there bind them stronger and faster, by adding more plaister of Paris.