contra crayon

Definitions

Sorry, no definitions found. Check out and contribute to the discussion of this word!

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word contra crayon.

Sorry, no example sentences found.

MaryW commented on the word contra crayon

"contra crayon" must be some art technique, but I haven't been able to find it defined in general or in art dictionaries and I've found just a couple of instances in various online searches.
"We were at your home, and you were sitting under that huge painting done in contra crayon of a mountain of gnarled naked bodies. That was where you always liked to sit. You seemed comfortable with that painting. I hated it and tightened up when I saw it and kept wanting to go into another room."
Irv Yalom, in Irvin D. Yalom & Robert L. Brent, <i>I'm Calling the Police</i> (New York: Basic Books, 2011)

January 30, 2016
qms commented on the word contra crayon

Conté crayon, French crayon conté, drawing pencil named after Nicolas-Jacques Conté, the French scientist who invented it late in the 18th century. The conté crayon is an especially hard pencil, made of an admixture of graphite and clay that can be varied for different degrees of hardness. It is usually made in black, red, or brown and is used as a drawing medium in any combination of these colours.

January 30, 2016