question: How do crayons get their pigment?
comment: Both of your answers are correct. Some colours can be produced naturally by things found in nature, but more often then not, they use chemicals. Iron for example is naturally red and so can be used to colour things red or orange. Different chemical compounds form with different colours and can therefore be used to colour. Lead iodide for example is bright yellow and iron permanganate is a gentle light pink colour. I hope this helps!
passages: BULLET::::- 1920: Perma Pressed Sharpenable Fine Art Crayons are added to the growing product line, which also includes new Artista brand paints.
   Section::::American crayon companies.:Joseph Dixon Crucible Co..
   BULLET::::- 1885: Joseph Binney retires; Edwin and C. Harold Smith, form a partnership and call their company Binney & Smith. Early products include red oxide pigment used in barn paint and carbon black used for car tires. During this time, Binney & Smith took an active role in the development and production of carbon black from natural gas, after natural gas deposits were found throughout Pennsylvania.
  
  BULLET::::- 1889: Binney & Smith made yellow oxide pigment. Now there are three colors: Carbon black, yellow, and red.
  
  Section::::List of Events.:1900–1950.
   Section::::Biotechnology.:Pigments.
   Section::::American crayon companies.:Eberhard Faber.
   In the modern English-speaking world, the term crayon is commonly associated with the standard wax crayon, such as those widely available for use by children. Such crayons are usually approximately in length and made mostly of paraffin wax. Paraffin wax is heated and cooled to achieve the correct temperature at which a usable wax substance can be dyed and then manufactured and shipped for use around the world. Paraffin waxes are used for cosmetics, candles, for the preparation of printing ink, fruit preserving, in the pharmaceutical industry, for lubricating purposes, and crayons.
   Crayola (formerly named Binney & Smith) developed their line of wax crayons beginning on June 10, 1903. Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith had been long established in the coloring marketplace through Binney's Peekskill, NY chemical works factory making lampblack by burning whale and carbon black and later instrumental in the coloring of automobile tires. In 1902 they developed and introduced the Staonal marking crayon. Edwin Binney, working with his wife, Alice Stead Binney, who coined the name Crayola by combining the French word for chalk, "craie", with the first part of "oleaginous", the oily paraffin wax used to make the crayon.
   Section::::American crayon companies.:Prang Educational Company.
  
  Louis Prang, one of the principal fathers of art education in schools throughout the United States, also developed his own line of watercolor crayons, very similar to the modern wax-based crayon. Through his business, the Prang Educational Company, he sold several crayon products during the timeframe from the late 1880s through the early 20th century. Several examples of these exist in private collections to this day. In 1915 Prang merged his company into the American Crayon company and he served on the board for several years afterward. 
  
  Section::::American crayon companies.:B.B. Crayons.
   Section::::American crayon companies.:Charles A. Bowley.
   The Franklin Mfg. Co, founded in 1876 in Rochester, New York, was one of the first companies to make and sell wax crayons. While it is undetermined when the company began manufacturing wax crayons, they were indeed selling them as early as 1883, having appeared with a display of crayons at the World's Colombian Exposition that year. They regularly advertised their Rainbow, Radiant, Penguin and Educational brands of crayons in various art and educational catalogues and periodicals throughout the late 19th century and early 20th century. In 1906, they changed their name from the Franklin Mfg. Co to the Franklin Crayon Company and remained in operation until 1927.
   Section::::American crayon companies.:E. Steiger & Co..
  
  One of the first companies to offer up a line of wax crayons aimed for kindergarten use. Located out of New York, NY, it is unclear when this company started producing crayons but based on a known ad from 1881, they clearly offered wax crayons in boxes of 6, 12, and 18 colors. 
  
  Section::::American crayon companies.:Franklin Mfg Co..
   BULLET::::- 1900: The company begins producing slate school pencils in its newly opened Easton, Pennsylvania mill. Their carbon black wins the Gold Medal at the Paris Exposition.
  
  BULLET::::- 1902: "Binney & Smith Company" is formed September 30, in Easton, Pennsylvania, and serves as general distributor for several carbon black producers, introducing Carbon black to other countries. This also marks their first crayon product, the industry crayon "Staonal" in black. This crayon precedes the Crayola brand by a full year and still exists to this year.
   Section::::Crayons.:Colors.
   After mining, the mineral used for making a pigment is ground to a very fine powder (if not already in the form of clay), washed to remove water-soluble components, dried, and ground again to powder. For some pigments, notably sienna and umber, the color can be deepened by heating (calcination) in a process known as "burning", although it does not involve oxidation but instead dehydration.
   Section::::American crayon companies.:American Crayon.
   Section::::American crayon companies.
  
  The initial era of wax crayons saw a number of companies and products competing for the lucrative education and artist markets. In addition to the giants such as Binney & Smith/Crayola and American Crayon/Dixon Ticonderoga, other companies popped up in the industry at various times from the late 19th century to the early 1910s.
  
  Section::::American crayon companies.:Crayola.
   The Joseph Dixon Crucible Co. was formed in March 1868 from the existing Joe Dixon and Company that Joseph Dixon ran. While the company primarily produced pencils, like many of their contemporaries (E. Faber and Eagle Pencil) they too expanded into a line of wax crayons for offer in 1887. The Dixon Solid Crayons were offered in as many as 15 colors by 1902. In addition to their initial Dixon brand they went on to produce the Educator, Gem and Prestite lines of crayons before the company merged with American Crayon to form the Dixon Ticonderoga Company in 1983. They continue to produce numerous brands of crayons to today.
   Crayon
  
  A crayon (or wax pastel) is a stick of colored wax, charcoal, chalk or other material used for writing or drawing. A crayon made of pigment with a dry binder is a pastel; when made of oiled chalk, it is called an oil pastel. A grease pencil or Chinese marker (UK chinagraph pencil) is made of colored hardened grease. There are also watercolor crayons, sometimes called water-soluble crayons.
   Section::::American crayon companies.:L. & C. Hardtmuth.
  
  There isn't a lot of clear data on L. & C. Hardtmuth, New York, NY except to know that they were pencil and crayon manufacturers starting with crayons at least as early as 1903; perhaps even earlier. What is interesting about this company at this time was their large selection of crayon colors for the time. A 1905 ad describes 48 different colors available for sale; the most variety of colors coming out of any crayon manufacturer at the time.
  
  Section::::American crayon companies.:New England Crayon Company.
   Colin Snedeker, a chemist for Binney & Smith (the then-parent company of Crayola), developed the first washable crayons in response to consumer complaints regarding stained fabrics and walls. A patent for the washable solid marking composition utilized in the washable crayons was awarded to Snedeker in 1990.
  
  Section::::History.
  
  The history of the crayon is not entirely clear. The word "crayon" dates to 1644, coming from the French word "craie" (chalk) and the Latin word "creta" (Earth).
   BULLET::::- The eight retired crayon colors are put into tins with a 64 count box for a limited time.
  
  BULLET::::- Crayola Washable crayons are introduced.
  
  BULLET::::- 1992:
  
  BULLET::::- Crayola introduces Model Magic, a modeling compound, into its long line of products.
  
  BULLET::::- Crayola releases the 8 pack of multicultural crayon colors.
   Electric Crayon
  
  Electric Crayon was a digital coloring company founded by Steve Buccellato, Marc Siry and Douglas Rosen in 1992. Based in Santa Monica, California, Electric Crayon mainly served the US comic book industry, providing digital color separations for many popular Marvel, DC, and Image titles, including Generation X, Astro City, and the one-shot Batman/Punisher crossover.
  
  Electric Crayon was notable for two reasons:
   The Portfolio Series is a line of water-soluble oil pastels, watercolors, drawing pencils, colored pencils, and acrylic paints marketed to artists and educators.
  
  Section::::Other products.:Other brands.:Liquitex.
  
  Binney & Smith acquired the Liquitex corporation, a producer of fine art supply products, in 1964, but sold it to the Colart company in 2000.
  
  Section::::Other products.:Other brands.:Staonal.
  
  Marketed as a general (non-coloring)-use crayon for industrial purposes, Staonal was developed in 1902 and still continues .
  
  Section::::Other products.:Licensing.
   Many other companies took to producing crayons as well. J. Pressman out of New York had a license for Disney's Snow White characters and produced Snow White crayons for a short time. Ullman Mfg Co., NY was another early crayon adopter featuring their Priscilla brand of crayons. Hundreds of companies entered the crayon market, but only a few exist today, with Crayola dominating the market in the United States.
  
  In all, there were over 300 documented crayon manufacturers in the United States and many more in other countries.
  
  Section::::American crayon companies.:Today.
   Known for their chalk crayons, the American Crayon Company in Sandusky, OH spread out to the wax crayon market in 1902. As the popularity of Bowley's crayons spread to schools, his ability to keep up with production forced him to partner with the American Crayon Company who increased his manufacturing output by adopting his crayons and offering a full blown catalog of crayons in 1902. These boxes included The American Crescent Drawing Crayons in 7 and 14 color packages, the American Special School and Drawing Crayons in 7 and 14 colors, the American Electric drawing crayons in 7 and 12 colors, the American Brownie crayons in 7, 12 and 28 colors along with a wooden canister containing 14 colors, the American Perfection crayons in a wooden canister of 7 colors, the American Banner containing six colors and a pencil sharpener.
  