A recent class in the use of color pencil got me thinking, how did they come about…?
An Early History of colored pencils is not too well documented. It is known that Ancient Greeks used wax-based crayons and Pliny the Elder recorded that Romans also used colored crayons based on wax. First colored pencils appeared in the 19th century and were used for “checking and marking”. Staedtler, German company owned by Johann Sebastian Staedtler invented colored oil pastel pencil in 1834. Production of colored pencils for art purposes started in early 20th century. First art color pencils were invented and produced in 1924 by Faber-Castell and Caran d’Ache.
historyofpencils.com
The color names are the same as other media, and art color pencils come in professional grades much like the watercolors. Here is a recent work in color pencil.
Own Your Encore 