Various synthetic grades have different properties to the natural chalks. Precipitated chalk, as an example, is very soft and used in the manufacture of extra soft pastels.

2: Hard chalks in Earth colours such as red (also called ‘sanguine’) brown, ochre, greys, black and white are the classical drawing materials for figure drawing. They produce very beautiful results, especially on coloured papers. In old master days silver ‘holders’ would have a tip of sharpened hard chalk at each end much like a pencil for easy drawing.