GROUP 1
The Mediums of Art
Intended Learning Outcomes
By the end of this topic/chapter, you must be able to:
1. Familiarize with the different mediums in all forms of art:
2. Identify the mediums and technique used by artist in used by the artist in the artwork
present in their locality:
1. Make use of the available medium in one’s surrounding to create art.
Definition
Many widely diverse objects go under the name of art. A song, a sonata, a symphony, a
statute, a skyscraper, a tapestry, a tragedy, an epic, a dance, a novel, a lyric – all these and
more are classified as art. The song, symphony, sonata, an oratorio belong to the art of music;
the cathedral, palace, and skyscraper are examples of architecture; the poem, tragedy, epic and
lyric are literature. The bases for these classifications are, first of all, the way the artist has
communicated an idea to an audience – the medium. The word medium denotes the means by
which an artist communicates an idea. Art medium refers to the art materials or artist
supplies used to create a work of art. Basically, it's whatever artists use to make a mark
upon a surface. Medium is more essential to art than subject and function. There is art
without subject, and there is art without function, but there is no art without medium. A work
can only exist in some medium.
The Artist, Medium and Technique
An artist’s choice of the medium to employ is usually influence by such practical
consideration as:
a. The availability of material
b. The use to which the art object will be put
c. The idea to that he/ she wants to communicate and
d. The nature and special characteristics of the medium itself.
The Artist and the Technique
A good artist makes the medium for him/ her to produce effects that cannot be possibly
attained in any other means. Technique refers to the artist’s knowledge of the medium and the
skill in making it to achieve what he/ she wants to.
The Distinctive Character of Mediums
1. Each medium determines the way it can be worked and turned into a work of art.
2. The medium also determines what can be expressed through it.
3. Each medium has its own range of characteristics which determine the physical
appearance of the finished product.
4. Each medium has intellectual limitations as well as potentials.
Classification of arts According to Medium
The following are the classification of arts according to medium.
Painting and the Related Arts
Painting is the process of applying pigments on a smooth surface – paper, cloth, canvas,
wood or plaster – to secure an interesting arrangement of forms, lines and colors.
The following are the mediums in painting:
a. Encaustic – one of the earliest mediums is the application of a mixture of hot beeswax
resin and ground pigment to any porous surface, followed by application of heat to set
the colors and bind them to the ground.
b. Tempera – paints that are made of earth or material pigments mixed with egg yolk
and egg white.
c. Fresco – the application of earth pigments mixed water on plaster wall while the
plaster is still damp so the color sinks into the surface and becomes an integral part of
the wall.
d. Watercolor – tempered paint made of pure ground pigment bound with gum Arabic
Painters apply damp so that the color in thin, almost transparent films.
e. Oil – pigments ground on linseed oil is applied primed canvas.
f. Acrylic – synthetic paints using acrylic polymer emulsions as binder are the newest
mediums and the ones that are widely used by the painter today. It is a combination
of transparency and quick- drying characteristics of watercolor and the flexibility of
oil.
The following are related to painting:
a. Mosiac – are wall or floor decoration made of small cubes or regular cut pieces of
colored stones or glass called tesserae.
b. Stained Glass – is the use of translucent glass colored by mixing metallic oxides into
molten glass or by fixing them onto the surface of the clear glass.
c. Tapestry – are fabrics into which colored have been woven.
d. Drawings – most fundamental of all skills needed in the arts.
e. Printmaking – the process duplicating a graphic image to make many faithful copies of
it.
f. Relief Printing – this involves cutting away from a block of wood or linoleum the
portions of the design that the artist does not want to show, leaving the design to
stand out on the block.
g. Intaglio Printing – are exactly the opposite of those of the relief printing. The design is
scratched, engraved or etched on a metal plate.
h. Planographic Process – also called the surface printing is done from an almost smooth
surface which has been treated chemically or mechanically so that some areas will
print and the others will not.
i. Stencil Process – done by cutting designs out of special paper, cardboard, or metal
sheet in such a way that when ink is rubbed over it, the design is reproduced on the
surface beneath.
j. Photography – literary mean drawing or writing with light.
Sculpture
A work in sculpture is a three-dimensional form constructed to represent a natural or
imaginary shape. It can be free-standing, cared in relief or kinetic.
The following are the mediums in sculpture:
a. Stone – the media most commonly used for sculpture because of its durability,
resistance to the elements of fire, water and the other hazards.
b. Wood – it is lighter and the softer to work with than stone.
c. Ivory – come from tusks of elephants and wild boars but intrinsically beautiful and easy
to carve into intricate designs.
d. Metals – possesses 3 unique qualities: tensile strength, ductility and malleability.
e. Plaster – finely ground gypsum or burned limestone that when mixed with water forms
a solid material with new qualities of workability.
f. Clay – moistened to a putty-like plasticity, it is kneaded and coaxed into form by the
sculptor’s bare hands.
g. Glass – it can also be used to make beautiful but very fragile sculptures with the use of
glassblowing.
h. Plastics – one of the human’s most successful inventions in the search for new
materials to meet the construction and designing needs in plastics.
i. Luminal Sculpture – the newest materials for sculpture are electronic devices that
make the beams of light travel in patterns or just remain in place to subtly light up a
sculptural form.
