Mediums in Arts

Prof. Michael M. Isidoro, MA.Ed.

 Medium--the Materials
 Medium is the stuff or material out of which
the work of art is formed--the stuff you can
actually see or touch after the work of art is
made. In the visual arts, medium is such things
as canvas, paper, wood, cloth, glass, tile, and
video screen; and inks, pigments, chalk
markings, and points of light on a video
screen.
 A medium in art may refer to one of
two definitions. A medium may refer
to the type of material used to create
artwork. In this sense, no limits exist
on what defines an art medium.
 Another definition of medium in art refers
to substances added to different paints to
achieve a desired texture or effect. In
either case, many options exist which you
may wish to explore in creating your
original artworks.
 Paint Media
 Traditional paints create one category of
art medium. Within the paint medium,
several types of paint exist each with its
own qualities. Acrylic paints make an
excellent beginner medium. They mix,
thin and clean up with water while
requiring little drying time. 
 Other types of paint less common but
still a part of the art media category
include tole, airbrush and fabric
paints.
 Painting media
 Different types of paint are usually
identified by the medium that the pigment is
suspended or embedded in, which
determines the general working
characteristics of the paint, such as viscosity
, miscibility, solubility, drying time, etc
Watercolor
 Watercolor is a painting method in which the paints are
made of pigments suspended in a water soluble vehicle.
The traditional and most common support for
watercolor paintings is paper; other supports include 
papyrus, bark papers, plastics, vellum or leather, fabric
, wood, and canvas.
 In East Asia, watercolor painting with inks is referred
to as brush painting or scroll painting. In Chinese, 
Korean, and Japanese painting it has been the
dominant medium, often in monochrome black or
browns. India, Ethiopia and other countries also have
long traditions. Fingerpainting with watercolor paints
originated in China.
 Jedburgh Abbey from the River, by Thomas
Girtin 1798-99 (watercolor on paper).
The Blue Boat. by Winslow Homer
1892
Carl Larsson, The Christmas Eve,
watercolor, (1904-1905).
 Fresco
 Fresco is any of several related mural painting
types, done on plaster on walls or ceilings. The
word fresco comes from
the Italian word affresco [afˈfresːko] 
which derives from the Latin word for "fresh".
Frescoes were often made during the
Renaissance and other early time periods.
 Buon frescotechnique consists of painting in 
pigment mixed with water on a thin layer of
wet, fresh, lime mortar orplaster, for which the
Italian word for plaster, intonaco, is used. A
secco painting, in contrast, is done on dry
plaster (secco is "dry" in Italian). The
pigments thus require a binding medium, such
as egg(tempera), glue or oil to attach the
pigment to the wall.
Fresco by Dionisius representingSaint
Nicholas in a Ferapontov Monastery.
Fresco Sistine Chapel in the Vatican,
Rome, Italy.
 Tempera
 Tempera, also known as egg tempera, is a
permanent, fast-drying painting medium
consisting of colored pigment mixed with a
water-solublebinder medium (usually a
glutinous material such as egg yolk or some
other size). Tempera also refers to the
paintings done in this medium. Tempera
paintings are very long lasting, and examples
from the first centuries AD still exist.
 Egg tempera was a primary method of painting
until after 1500 when it was superseded by the
invention of oil painting. A paint which is
commonly called tempera (although it is not)
consisting of pigment and glue size is
commonly used and referred to by some
manufacturers in America as poster paint.
Madonna and Child by Duccio, tempera and
gold on wood, 1284, Siena
A 1367 tempera on wood by Niccolò
Semitecolo.
 Pastel
 Pastel is a painting medium in the form of a stick,
consisting of pure powdered pigment and a
binder. The pigments used in pastels are the same
as those used to produce all colored art media,
including oil paints; the binder is of a neutral hue
and low saturation. The color effect of pastels is
closer to the natural dry pigments than that of any
other process.
 Because the surface of a pastel painting is fragile
and easily smudged, its preservation requires
protective measures such as framing under glass;
it may also be sprayed with a fixative.
 Nonetheless, when made with permanent pigments
and properly cared for, a pastel painting may
endure unchanged for centuries. Pastels are not
susceptible, as are paintings made with a fluid
medium, to the cracking and discoloration that
result from changes in the color, opacity, or
dimensions of the medium as it dries.
Mary Cassatt Sleepy Baby 1910
Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin. Self
Portrait in pastel 1771, The Louvre.
 Hot wax
 Encaustic painting, also known as hot wax painting,
involves using heated beeswax to which colored 
pigments are added. The liquid/paste is then applied
to a surface—usually prepared wood, though canvas
 and other materials are often used. The simplest
encaustic mixture can be made from adding pigments
to beeswax, but there are several other recipes that
can be used—some containing other types of waxes, 
damar resin, linseed oil, or other ingredients. 
 Pure, powdered pigments can be purchased
and used, though some mixtures use oil paints
or other forms of pigment. Metal tools and
special brushes can be used to shape the paint
before it cools, or heated metal tools can be
used to manipulate the wax once it has cooled
onto the surface. Other materials can be
encased or collaged into the surface, or
layered, using the encaustic medium to adhere
it to the surface.
A 6th-century encaustic icon fromSaint
Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai.
 Oil
 Oil painting is the process of painting with 
pigments that are bound with a medium of
drying oil—especially in early modern Europe
, linseed oil. Often an oil such as linseed was
boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even 
frankincense; these were called 'varnishes' and
were prized for their body and gloss. 
 Oil paint eventually became the principal
medium used for creating artworks as its
advantages became widely known. The
transition began with Early Netherlandish
painting in northern Europe, and by the height
of the Renaissance oil painting techniques had
almost completely replaced tempera paints in
the majority of Europe.
Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci, c.
1503-06
Impression, Sunrise,Claude Monet
, 1872
 Acrylic
 Acrylic paint is fast drying paint containing
pigment suspension in acrylic polymer 
emulsion. Acrylic paints can be diluted with
water, but become water-resistant when dry.
Depending on how much the paint is diluted
(with water) or modified with acrylic gels,
media, or pastes, the finished acrylic painting
can resemble a watercolor or an oil painting,
or have its own unique characteristics not
attainable with other media.
 The main practical difference between most
acrylics and oil paints is the inherent drying
time. Oils allow for more time to blend colors
and apply even glazes over underpaintings.
This slow drying aspect of oil can be seen as
an advantage for certain techniques, but in
other regards it impedes the artist trying to
work quickly.
Fluorescent acrylic paints lit by UV
light.
 Drawing Media
 Drawing materials make up another
medium category. Traditional drawing
media for creating black and white drawings
include graphite pencil, charcoal pencils,
charcoal sticks and pens.
 A working knowledge of shading technique
is helpful in working with black and white
media so you can create depth.
 Colored drawing media include colored pencils, pastel
pencils, chalk pastels, oil pastels and various markers.
Colored media, such as pastels, offer the option of
blending, much like paint, to create various new
colors.

 A special kind of drawing is the so called paintbrush-

drawing, drawings only done with paintbrushes instead
of pencil or pen. This kind of drawing descends in the
origin from the Asian culture.
 Drawing is a form of visual expression and
is one of the major forms within the visual
arts. There are a number of subcategories
of drawing, including cartooning.
 Likewise tracing, drawing on a thin piece of
paper, sometimes designed for that purpose
(tracing paper), around the outline of
preexisting shapes that show through this
paper, is also not considered fine art,
although it may be part of the
draughtsman's preparation.
Madame Palmyre with Her Dog, 1897. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
Line drawing in sanguine byLeonardo da Vinci
 Sculpture Media
 Three-dimensional art offers an enormous
category of art media. Virtually any found
object might be used to create a sculpture.
Since art media includes any materials used
as part of the art creation, the list of art
media for sculptures particularly, is
infinite. 
 Traditional sculpture media however,
includes wood, paper maché, clay, wire,
metal, stone and found objects. This
media often receives other media, such as
paint, added to it in the making of
sculptures.
 Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork
created by shaping or combining hard
materials - typically stone - or marble,
metal, glass, or wood. Softer ("plastic")
materials can also be used, such as clay, 
textiles, plastics, polymers and softer
metals.
 Stone sculpture
 Stone sculpture is the result of forming
3-dimensional visually interesting objects
from stone.
 Carving stone into sculpture is an activity
older than civilization itself.
 Prehistoric sculptures were usually human forms,
such as the Venus of Willendorf and the faceless
statues of the Cycladic cultures of ancient Greece.
Later cultures devised animal, human-animal and
abstract forms in stone.
 The earliest cultures used abrasive techniques, and
modern technology employs pneumatic hammers and
other devices. But for most of human history,
sculptors used hammer and chisel as the basic tools
for carving stone.
Venus of Willendorf.
 Ivory
 Ivory is a term for dentine, which constitutes
the bulk of the teeth and tusks of animals,
when used as a material for art or
manufacturing. Ivory is little used today, but
has been important since ancient times for
making a range of items, from ivory
carvings to false teeth, fans, piano keys and
billiard balls.
 Elephant ivory has been the most important
source, but ivory from many species including
the hippopotamus, walrus, mammoth and narw
hal has been used. The word ultimately derives
from the Ancient Egyptian âb, âbu "elephant",
through the Latin ebor- or ebur.
 Ancient Greek ivory pyxis with griffins
attacking stags. Late 15th century BCE,Ancient
The Bull Leaper, an ivory figurine from the
palace of Knossos, Crete, 15th century BCE
 Each of these different mediums has its
emotional affect upon us.