Mediums and Techniques of Art

Throughout art history, people have been using various materials to express
themselves. Artists have always chosen concepts and techniques that fit their
skills and artistic expression. This quest started with pigmented powder used
for drawing on Altamira cave walls and has come a long way to implementing
modern technology in creating art.
This ultimate guide on art mediums will inform you about various art materials
people have used over time. It will also point out what you should focus on
when determining a perfect medium of choice for your fine art. The following
article will help you choose the art medium that best suits you, whether you
are starting an art career, selecting an art school, or are wanting to reinvent
your artistic style.
Because of the wide variety of painting techniques and drawing styles, painting
mediums and drawing tools demand their own section in any comprehensive
guide on different art mediums. There are a multitude of surfaces to paint and
draw on.

Tempera
Tempera is a term that stands for paint mixed with cohesive materials, such as
egg yolk, and describes the painting style and the art medium. This material
makes tempera fast-drying and a long-lasting art medium, with evidence of
tempera artworks dating back to the 1st century A. D.

Oil Painting
This is a traditional art technique that started being recognized as an artistic
medium in 15th century Europe. Oil paints, as the name says, usually contain
linseed oil that makes them dry slower than others. The prolonged drying time
is the advantage of using oil painting as an art medium. It offers artists an
opportunity to change some segments of their work or paint a different scene
altogether by adding another layer of paint onto the canvas.

Acrylic painting
Regarding drying times, acrylic paints dry fast, as opposed to oil painting, and
once they dry, they become water-resistant. However, you can dissolve acrylic
paint with water before you apply it on canvas to achieve the effect of gouache
or watercolors. Painting with acrylic allows artists to add layers or textures to
their artwork, enhancing glossiness and giving it depth. Or they can add water
to achieve a matte effect in their paintings.

Watercolors
Using watercolor paint as an art medium can be challenging for beginners in
the art world. Many artists love watercolors because of their seemingly endless
color palette. Once you apply these on paper, there is little you can do to
change the result. However, watercolors add a translucent quality to paintings
and are ideal for capturing the change of light.

Charcoal
This is one of the oldest art mediums used for drawing. Charcoal sticks are
made of powdered organic material bound with wax or gum. You can use
charcoal to make either pale lines or strong, expressive ones. This artistic
material is easily erasable, so it is recommended to apply some fixatives on
charcoal drawings to ensure the artwork’s longevity.

Pastels
These art mediums consist of paint pigment similar to the ones in oil paints
and a binding material. Using pastels in drawing and painting became popular
in the 18th century. Artists can use a combination of different pastels
depending on the effect they want to achieve. For example, soft pastels are
great for blending, while you use hard pastels to create sharp outlines or
sketch the larger composition. There are also pan pastels, a modern version of
this art medium that is applied with a soft sponge. You can choose to work
with oil pastels that provide an intensity of colors, or water-soluble pastels if
you want thinner layers of semi-transparent colors that blend easily.

Chalk
Here is another organic material artists have been using for drawing since the
Paleolithic era. Artistic chalk usually comes in three versions, black, white, and
sanguine, depending on the material. Black chalks contain soft black stone,
whites are made from limestone, and sanguines contain red ochre. Chalks were
originally used for sketching but became an independent art medium during
the Renaissance.
Graphite pencils
These have been in use as an art medium since
can use graphite for sketching, outlining, or
pencils of varying hardness you can use in
convenient art medium because it allows you to
parts of a drawing or an entire work.
the 17th century France. You
shading. There are graphite
creating fine art. This is a
remake your work by erasing

Colored pencils
Everyone used colored pencils for drawing and coloring as a child, making your
first attempts to express yourself creatively. Colored pencils have come a long
way from being a child’s toy to becoming a professional art medium. They
gained considerable attention and respect in the modern art world because of
the numerous advantages they offer. Colored pencils’ artwork is expressive,
deep, and luminescent. At the same time, this art medium gives artists an
opportunity to make photographically realistic pieces of art.

Pen and ink

This is also a familiar art medium where you use a pen for outlining and
adding color in art forms like pen art or hand lettering and calligraphy. You
can choose between different types of pens, like graphic pens, fountain pens, or
drafting pens, depending on what you want to do with it. Ink is a powerful but
unforgiving art medium, so you really need to master ink drawing skills before
you start creating with it. What makes pen and ink artworks so expressive is
the ratio of the blank spaces and the ink-filled spaces on paper.

We are going to move on now and explore what other types of art mediums
artists have used throughout history to express their ideas and emotions.

The Evolution of Three-Dimensional Art

The most common definition of three-dimensional artwork is a piece of art that
can be observed in dimensions of height, width, and depth. Since the beginning
of time, people have been creating sculptures using various concepts,
techniques, and art materials. Installations, performance art, and decorative
art, also fall into this category along with sculpture, which is the epitome of
three-dimensional art.
The oldest piece of three-dimensional art is a sculpture of Venus of Berekhat
Ram. This stone-carved figure dates back to 230,000 years B.C. It represents a
symbol of female fertility and is one of the numerous similar figures scattered
around Europe. It is believed that these first examples of prehistoric sculptures
had significant roles in rituals and ceremonies.
Three standard sculpture types that the art world recognizes are:

 A free-standing sculpture that you can look at from any side or angle by
walking around it.
 Bas relief is when the shape is carved out so that it stands out slightly
against the background of the original material
 High relief forms are carved out to stand prominently against the
background.
The most traditional art mediums used to create three-dimensional artworks
were wood and stone. Nowadays, you can use contemporary materials, such as
glass, foam, and plastic, to transform them into a genuine art piece. Artists use
numerous techniques to create a three-dimensional interpretation of their
artistic vision.
Carving – cutting out pieces of material, usually wood or stone, until you
create the desired shape.
Casting – pouring a liquid art medium like iron into specially designed molds
to develop parts of a large sculpture.
Modeling – manipulating and transforming soft art materials, like clay or
plaster, and letting them harden into the desired shape. Contemporary artists
also use different modeling methods for creating fantastic glass art pieces.
Construction is a creative process in which artists assemble a sculpture by
combining various materials and using glue, wire, or welding to keep the
elements together.
Modern times brought contemporary variations of three-dimensional art. For
example, glass has become a significant art medium used in sculpting,
installation, and decorative art. Concepts and techniques used in creating
glass artwork determine their type. Many glass artforms involve the use of hot
glass techniques, such as blown glass, sculpted glass, and cast glass. As the
name indicates, artists work with hot glass, shaping it by blowing or casting it
into molds.
The warm glass creative process involves heating the glass in an oven or a kiln.
Two dominant techniques to reshape warm glass are slumping and fusing.
You can also work with cold glass to create pieces of art. You can grind, polish,
or engrave glass to get the desired effect. There is also an etching technique
you can apply in glass art to change the glass texture. You can achieve this by
sandblasting or acid etching.
Another of these contemporary versions is installation art, where artists
combine audiovisual effects and various materials to address significant issues
that concern them. Art installations may focus on politics, human rights, or
the environment, for example. The most common is light installation art, where
light and sculpture blend to create a magnificent artistic effect.
Artists involved in performance art use their bodies or bodies of other
participants as a perfect medium to express their core values and convey their
unique message to audiences.

Mixed Media Techniques and Unconventional Artistic

Expression
Art continues to evolve, bringing numerous avant-garde artistic movements to
the scene. Artists who want to differentiate themselves seek unconventional art
mediums that will express their aesthetic principles and defy deeply-rooted
definitions of fine art.
Mixed media art derives from the idea that you can use anything and
everything for creating an amazing piece of art. Picasso and Braque first used
various materials and everyday objects to created instinctive collages as
amazing examples of mixed media art.

 Collages are art pieces you make by combining various materials, like
paper, cloth, newspaper clippings, and everyday objects to create unique
artwork. You can even create a digital collage from art online.
 Assemblage is a three-dimensional version of mixed media art created by
arranging different objects and materials on a specific surface. Artists
like Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg adopted it as an anti-
aesthetic approach to making assemblage art which became widely used
in the 1950s and 1960s.
 Found objects are a mixed media form where artists use everyday
objects and transform them into art pieces by putting them into a
specific artistic concept.
  Altered books technique involves physically changing a book and using
it as a medium in an artistic process. You may cut out pages of a book to
change it, or you can use cut pages as material for separate artwork.
 Art journaling represents a way to enrich your record of different events,
memories, and thoughts by adding the artistic touch to it. You can use a
wide variety of art concepts and techniques in a mixed media art journal,
or you can step up your game and start with mixed media journaling,
also called junk journaling. This version of art journaling incorporates
different items, like postcards, concert tickets, washi tape, decorative
paper, or pictures from magazines. You can use various recycled items
as art journal prompts. You can start with digital art journaling if you
are an ardent fan of digital technologies and are exploring vast
possibilities of implementing technology in creating art.

Photography as an Art Medium

Ever since its invention, photography has had a significant impact on the way
people perceive history and everyday life. This powerful medium preserved
some captivating moments in time to mark periods of groundbreaking social
changes.
Technology development has provided people with numerous possibilities to
express their artistic principles through photography. Artists have an
opportunity to affect the final presentation by choosing different cameras,
lenses, or films and setting parameters for framing and timing before they take
a shot. The photography equipment and techniques used in the creative
process rely heavily on the subject matter, tone, and the original impression
the artist wants to achieve with their work. For example, portrait artists who
focus on capturing single subjects will opt for larger cameras with shallow
depth of field to keep the focus on the subject. Landscape photographers will
choose quite the opposite camera and technique.
The same goes for choosing to work with black and white rather than colors.
Black and white photography leaves a long-lasting impression by bringing
lines, texture, and tone into the limelight.

 Documentary photography aims to capture significant moments in

history or everyday life that will faithfully depict an era. This type of
photography is closely related to photojournalism and plays a significant
role in pointing out burning social issues.
 Landscape photography originated from landscape painting. Here,
photographers focus on the environment, taking pictures of natural and
 urban surroundings and using framing and cropping methods to create
extraordinary compositions.
 Portrait photography has been around since the invention of the
daguerreotype. This artistic photography style replaced portrait painting
as a much faster and affordable way of capturing someone’s image. The
technological progress enabled artistic photographers to go out and use
natural surroundings and light to create mesmerizing portraits.
 Nude photography dates back to the invention of this art medium, and
nude photographers originally wanted to evoke the classical ideal of
beauty by presenting their subjects as nymphs or ancient heroes. As
opposed to this, avant-garde nudes presented the human body as an
independent entity liberated from all art conventions.
 Digital photography has appeared with the rise of digital technology,
offering an array of new possibilities for creating fantastic art pieces. Now
photographers can create, edit, and retouch their work with the help of
advanced programs and apps.

Advanced Technology Provides Extraordinary Art

Mediums
These are times of unprecedented progress in digital technology. The idea of
using new computer technology in creating art appeared in the sixties with
the first examples of digital art. Later, some tech and art enthusiasts started
incorporating digital technology into their artistic installations. But the
groundbreaking event that has opened new worlds to digital artists is the
appearance and rise of the internet in the nineties. This enabled artists to
create their art and present it to global audiences using various social
media platforms.

Nowadays, the modern art scene is booming with artists that include digital
technology innovations into their art installations to express their concern
about significant issues. Some artists use lasers to create fantastic
multimedia projects that present the perfect combination of light and
sound. Others use 3D printers to embody their artistic visions and create
memorable art performances. Therefore, advanced technology is reinventing
the art scene by introducing extraordinary art mediums as a means of
artistic expression.