MEDIUMS

OF VISUAL
ARTS
Preparad by:
Ms Ja
Mediu
m
- an agency or means of doing something.
- the intervening substance through which
impressions are conveyed to the senses or
a force acts on objects at a distance.
 PAINTINGS
A. Oil
The vehicle is oil and the surface is usually
canvas, though other various surfaces may
be used. The special advantage of oil is
that is stays moist for a long time. The
rough surface of a text is so thick that each
stroke shows clearly.
Vincent Van Gogh
Self-Portrait in a
Straw Hat
(1988-1989)
Oil on canvas, on
wood.
B. Water Color
In water color, the pigments are mixed with
water and applied in a fine, white paper.
The paper shines through the paint and
makes the color brilliant. It is difficult to
produce warm, rich tones in water color.
C. Fresco
In fresco painting a wall is prepared with
successive coats of plaster. Designs are
prepared in advance in a large sheets of
paper, each sheets accounting for a section
of the wall.
It is accordingly a medium of a broad, bold
outlines, usually with great simplification
of form.
Jose Clemente Orozco
Modern
Migration of the
Spirit
(1932-1934)
Fresco
 Portrait of a Boy
D. Encaustic Fayum, Lower Egypt
Encaustic on wood
Wax was used by the panel.
Egyptians for portraits
painted on
mummy cases.
There different
several were ways
of preparing the wax,
but in general the color
was mixed in
warm wax and burned
it.
 E. Pastel
In pastel, pigments in the
form of powders are
compressed lightly in a
sticks. color are
Its and it is a
brilliant,
very flexible medium,
one in which very rich
Edgar Degas and varied effects may
Ballet Scene (1907) be produced.
Pastel
F. Mosaic
Mosaic, stained glass, and tapestry are
usually classed with painting, though the
medium is not pigment. A picture im
mosaic is made by putting all together
small pieces of colored glass or stone,
called “tesserae”.
G. Stained Glass
Like the mosaic, the stained-glass window is
a kind of patchwork it is made by
combining many small pieces of colored
glass which are held together by bands of
lead.
In a large window, the lead is reinforced by
heavy iron bars that make very heavy
black lines in the picture.
Theodora and Her Attendants
(ca. A.D. 525)
Mosaic
G. Tapestry
Tapestries large
are fabrics which
in
design a is woven
hand. Being
by of very
firm texture, they
shut out the cold and
helped to
preserve
the heat from the fire The Hunt of the
place. Unicorn
French or Flemish
Tapestry
Stop! Let’s Review.
Identify what medium is used in the
following paintings.

Encaustic Oil
Fresco Pastel
 DRAWINGS
Drawings and prints are of special interest
to the student, both for their intrinsic
value and because they are comparatively
inexpensive.
In them, even the person of small means can
afford original works often by important
artists.
 Pencil
One of the most common because of its
general utility especially for making rapid
notes. The French artist Ingres made
many delicate and crisp pencil portraits as
one means of support while he was living
in Rome.
 Silverpoint
A drawing made with a gold or silver
wire on a specially prepared paper, is
often very pale in tone and has little
vitality but is very delicate and warmly
shadowy.
 Ink
Makes a clear, crisp, often sketchy and
spontaneous line; often ink is combines
with wash.

Bister
A brown pigment made by mixing the
soot from burning wood with a little
binder.
 Charcoal
One of the oldest mediums for drawing.
The charcoal is made by roasting wood
in a closed vessel. This medium is
capable of a great variety of tones from
the darkest to the very light.
 Chalk
Another medium that has been used
from the earliest It is found
times. white, black, in The red
and red. desired for figure sketches.
especially was
 Prints
A. Engraving
An engraving is in many ways the opposite
of a woodcut. In the woodcut, the parts
that are to be black are left standing, and
the remainder of the block is cut away.
In engraving, the lines of the dewsign are
cut into a metal plate; these lines are then
filled with ink andtransferred from the
plate to the paper.
Martin Schongauer
The Annunciation
Engraving
B. Etching
Etching differs in engraving in the way the
lines are made.
In etching, the plate is covered with a
coating of a thin, waxlike material called a
“ground”.
 Francisco Goya
Pobrecitas
Etching

Paul Klee
Why Does He Run?
Etching
C. Lithography
The lithography is the most recent of the
four common types of print. It
discovered just before was 1800,
whereasgo back
woodcuts, engraving and etchings
to the fifteenth and sixteenth century.
The design is drawn on a heavy greasy
crayon on a specially prepared stone, and
ink impressions are made from it.
George Bellows
Dempsey and
Firpo
(1924)
Lithograph
 SCULPTURE
A. Stone and Bronze
Stone is durable: it resist weather, fire,
and all ordinary hazards, it is heavy,
expensive and breaks easily.
Of the metals, the one most commonly
used traditionally was bronze
 King of Judah
(twelfth
century) Stone

Praxiteles
Hermes and
Dionysus
(ca. 350 B.C.)
Parian marble
B. Ivory
Usually carvings in ivory are
small, the reasons being
the great expense of ivory
and the difficulty of
securing it in large pieces.
The color of ivory is a rich,
creamy yellow. Like wood,
ivory cracks.
Snake Goddess
(Minoan, ca. 1500 B.C.)
Gold and ivory.
 C. Terra Cotta

The term terra cotta

means “baked earth”.
Terra cotta is made
by firing clay, as in
pottery. It is usually
painted and
Lohan covered with a heavy
Chinese, Liao Dynasty glaze.
Pottery