If you went to elementary school in Japan, you know the yellow cardboard box with the sailing ship and red rose: Sakura Craypas’ classic 16-color Cray-pas set. For generations, it was viewed as children's art room gear, the waxy, chunky oil pastels you used until the paper sleeves tore and your fingers turned purple.

Sakura Cray-Pas 16-color crayon set in a yellow box featuring colorful illustrations of animals and flowers.

Yes, Sakura still sells these on their official online shop with the original design and everything (Source: Sakura Cray-pas Shop)

Then Japanese social media discovered that if you actually know what you're doing, Cray-pas produces pretty good artwork that looks like high-end food editorial illustration.

The movement exploded in May 2024 when illustrator and designer momo published Delicious! Illustration Lessons: Drawn with Cray-pas (おいしい！イラストレッスン クレパスで描きました) through Nagaoka Shoten. It wasn't a book you'd find in a university for the arts; it was just a book that broke down how to draw bakery croissants, pudding cups, and shaved ice in 3-to-5-minute.

An instructional art book by momo featuring colorful illustrations of various delicious foods drawn with oil pastels.

The result was an online runaway success. The hashtag #クレパスで描きました (#DrawnWithCraypas) flooded X (Twitter) and Instagram with side-by-side photos of first-graders and forty-somethings proudly showing off identical glossy custard desserts. The book crossed 100,000 copies sold and stayed cemented near the top of Japanese Amazon craft charts well into late 2026.

Now, the follow-up is official: Nagaoka Shoten will publish the sequel, Delicious! Illustration Lessons: Drawn MORE with Cray-pas (おいしい！イラストレッスン もっと！クレパスで描きました), hitting shelves nationwide on November 10, 2026.

An instructional art book by momo featuring colorful crayon illustrations of fruit, animals, and penguins.

The Recipe for Going Viral: Breaking Oil Pastels into Formulaic Steps

Oil pastels are notoriously tactile: you lay down pigment, blend it directly on the paper with your fingers or a blender, and smudge highlights over heavy base tones. Most beginner drawing guides overcomplicate this with complicated color theory, dense anatomy, or perspective geometry.

Momo’s viral approach treated illustration like a visual recipe card:

Instructional page showing various colorful lollipop illustrations created by blending two different colored markers.

Real-Size References: Pages print the final result at a 1:1 scale, allowing novices to gauge mark size and scale directly on the page.

Timed Micro-Sessions: Prompts display an estimated duration (3 to 10 minutes) and pre-select the exact sticks required from standard 16-color sets.

Layering Breakdowns: Step-by-step visual grids show when to lay down undertones, when to smear, and when to drop white highlights for reflective gloss on cherry stems, candy sticks, and roasted sweet potatoes.

An instructional graphic for a mikan orange motif featuring watercolor textures and step-by-step drawing instructions.
Instructional diagram on grid paper demonstrating step-by-step techniques for drawing realistic mandarin orange slices.

For the sequel, the repertoire expands beyond pastries and cafe treats to include seasonal regional produce (like peeled Ehime mikan oranges and Hokkaido salmon roe ikura gunkan sushi) as well as heavily requested wildlife: fluffy snow fairies (Shima-enaga / long-tailed tits), sleeping cats, and Shiba Inu. To make the book universally accessible across ages, the sequel also adds full furigana phonetic readings to all Japanese text.

Instructional graphic for drawing long-tailed tits featuring watercolor color swatches and step-by-step shape guides.

Sakura Craypas Leans In: "Oekaki Hiroba Fall 2026"

Rather than watching the trend unfold from the sidelines, Sakura Color Products Corp. has partnered directly with the launch, running an official participatory SNS campaign titled "Oekaki Hiroba 2026 Autumn Connected by Cray-pas" (クレパスでつながるおえかきひろば2026秋).

Promotional graphic for Sakura Cray-Pas featuring colorful illustrations of fruit and vibrant oil pastels.

Running from October 19 through October 25, 2026, the campaign serves as an advance teaser by publishing sample drawing motifs across social feeds.

How to Participate: Follow Sakura Craypas on X (@1921_SAKURA) or Instagram (@sakura_craypas), draw a piece using Cray-pas, and post photos tagging both #クレパスで描きました and #クレパスでつながるおえかきひろば2026秋.

Community Features: Selected submissions receive direct comments from author momo, with community artwork curated for the official Sakura Craypas corporate site.

Giveaway: Five participants selected by lottery win an advance copy of the new book alongside a vintage-styled tin of New Cray-pas Square-Form 16-Color sets.

Product Specifications & Japanese Retail Availability

Book Title: Delicious! Illustration Lessons: Drawn MORE with Cray-pas (おいしい！イラストレッスン もっと！クレパスで描きました)

Author: momo (Illustrator / Designer; Graduate of Kyoto University of Education Fine Arts Department)

Publisher: Nagaoka Shoten Co., Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan)

Release Date: November 10, 2026

Price: ¥1,738 (tax included / ¥1,580 before tax)

Base Drawing Supply: Designed for use with standard 16-color Sakura Cray-pas sets (サクラクレパス クレパス太巻16色 / ニュークレパス16色)

Where to Buy: Japanese bookstores nationwide (Kinokuniya, Maruzen Junkudo, Tsutaya), lifestyle stationery retailers, and online via Amazon Japan and Rakuten Books.