MEDIUMS OF THE VISUAL ARTS

Refers to the material which is used by an artist. It is the means by which she communicates ideas. It is very essential to art.

It is the art of creating meaningful effects on a flat surface by the use of Pigments.
Different mediums are used in painting . Each medium exerts a pronounced effect on the finished product, is capable of varied treatment, and determined its stroke.

 Pigments

can come from many sources: minerals, vegetable matter, coal tars, and other chemical combinations. These are grounds by hand or machine then mixed with oil. Painters usually depend upon those pigments which do not change through the years.

In oil painting, the pigments are mixed in oil. The surface used is usually canvas although other surface like wood, paper, and metal may be used. The most familiar type of painting is done with oils canvas. This method has been used since 15th century.

The surface, to be suitable, must receive oil paint freely and yet not absorb it, can withstand temperature changes, and not crack the pigment on it. Pigments mixed with oil provide a medium that gives richness in the opacity of light and depth of shadow.

I.

Direct Method
The paints are opaque and are applied to the surface just as they are to look in the finished product.

II.

Indirect Method
The paint is applied in many thin layers of transparent color.

This medium is popular to painters because there is no limit to the ways of handling oil pigments. Oil color is the best method for a convincing representation where exact reproduction of a color tone is necessary. Its ease of handling, the easy blending of tones, and the possibility of painting over and covering any mistake are some of the reasons why oil painting is a very popular technique.

This is a mixture of ground pigments and an aluminous or colloidal vehicle, either egg, gum, or glue, used by Egyptian, Medieval, and Renaissance painters. The special characteristics of tempera is its being an emulsion. An emulsion is a watery, milk-like mixture of oily and watery consistency. Tempera notwithstanding its oil content, dries readily with the evaporation of water. This rapid drying is one of its advantages.

I.

Unvarnished or Gouache-like Tempera Varnished Tempera Tempera as an under painting for oil

II.

III.

Good watercolor paintings are not easy to make. They require a high degree of technical dexterity. In watercolor, the pigments are mixed with water and applied in very thin layers. In pure watercolor painting, all the light comes from the ground.

Opaque watercolor is called gouache. It is made by grinding opaque colors with water and mixing the product with a preparation of gum and adding Chinese white to transparent watercolors. Watercolors is a medium familiar to every school child.

Pastel color possesses only surfaces of light, gives no glazed effect, and most closely resembles dry pigment. The pigment is bound so as to form a crayon which is applied directly to the surface, usually paper. As far as the technique concerned, the painter is free to handle the material suit himself. It is a very flexible medium.

It is not a very popular medium because no one has yet discovered the way to preserve its original freshness. The chalk tends to rub off and the picture loses some of its brilliance.

In Italian, Fresco means fresh and is used to designate the process of painting in fresh wet plaster. The colors are mixed with water and applied to fresh plaster which absorbs the color. Since the pigment has been incorporated with plaster, it last until the wall Is destroyed. Fresco painting flourished during the 15th and 16th century, when Masaccio, Michelangelo, Raphael, Tintoretto, and others covered the walls of Italian churches with their masterpieces.

Generally, the process begins with preliminary sketches, later enlarged to full-size cartoons which are transferred to rough plaster. The coloring must be ready as soon as the plaster is put on the wall. It is prepared by mixing a pigment with water or with water and lime. When this is applied to the wet plaster, the lime binds the pigments to the plaster and makes the painting apart of the wall.

Since fresco must be done quickly, it is a very exacting medium. There is no changing once the design is begun. Only earth pigments are used because of the chemical actions of the plaster on the paint. These colors have uniformity of tine and no glaring contrasts. Fresco has two disadvantages; first it is almost impossible to move a fresco, and second the painting is subject to the disasters that may happen to the wall of which it has become a part.

These are synthetic paints using acrylic emulsion as binders. They combine the transparency and quick-drying qualities of watercolor and are flexible as oil. They are completely insoluble when dry and can be almost on any surface. They also do not tend to crack, and turn yellow with age.