Types of Art and Media Used

• 2-Dimensional Art


  is any at that has length and width, but no depth.

  • Paintings, Drawings, Etchings, Scratchboard, Photography, Graphic Design work (ads etc.)
• Drawing


  Intimate form of art in that it is frequently the artist's private note-taking process.

  • Sketching, doodling, intricate drawing
  • Leonardo da Vinci created hundreds of sketches of paintings, sculptures, inventions, stories, mathematics, science, and more.
• Materials

  (Pigment)


  powdered color material.

  • is mixed with substances that enable it to adhere to the drawing surface.
  • Dry media and Liquid media are used in drawing.
• Dry Media

  • Pencil
  • Metalpoint
  • Charcoal
  • Chalk Pastels
  • Oil Pastels and Crayons
• Pencil


  Graphite Pencil

  • Cheap, readily available, easily erased.

  All art begins with an idea and a sketch.
• Metalpoint


  Not used a lot anymore (not forgiving in mistakes.)

  • Process: thin wire of metal (usually silver) in a holding device scratches lines onto a drawing surface specially coated with paint.
  • Much like scratchboard.
  • Use thin, delicate lines with hatching and cross-hatching.
• Charcoal


  Very dark, sometimes harsh value and time.

  • Made by burning sticks of wood.
  • Smear easily to produce subtle values.
• Chalk Pastels


  Pigment and nonfat binders.

  • Blend better and can be overlaid to produce shaded effects.
  • Very messy and often require a sealant when finished (fixative or varnish).
• Oil Pastels and Crayons

  Pigment and fatty or greasy binders.

  • Adhere better to the drawing paper.
  • Much more difficult to blend.
  • Wider variety of colors.
  • Crayons can be wax crayons (kids use) or crayon used to draw on lithography stone, or conte crayon (a little greasier than chalk coming in red, black, and brown colors)>
• Liquid Media

  1. Pen and Ink
  2. Brush and Ink
• Pen and Ink


  Can have a variety of line width depending on tip of pen.

  • Also used for writing.
  • Asian calligraphy artists.
  • Favored by and readily available to Rembrandt.
  • Made thousands of pen and ink sketches.
• Brush and Ink


  Often used in the East for writing purposes.

  • Broader, more intense lines than pen and ink.
• Digital Drawing

  (Computer based drawing)


  Faster, easier drawing( can be erased and reworked easier.)

  • Less realistic often times.
  • More colors, brush and pen sizes, and drawing "canvas" available.
  • Can be saved forever.
  • Paint program, Adobe Illustrator.
• Architecture and Engineering


  Uses programs to create building and structure plans.

  • Several different programs available.
• Painting


  Most commonly associated with "art"

  • Uses full spectrum of colors.
  • Framed to make them more exciting and give them an impression of being "precious"
  • Used in prehistoric days with cave paintings
  • Watercolor, tempera, acrylic, oil, gouache, impasto, fresco
• Materials

  Made of pigment like drawing tools


  is mixed with a vehicle (a liquid that holds the particles of pigment together without dissolving them)
• Vehicle


  works as a binder to keep pigment on paper or canvas.
• Support


  the canvas, paper, wood panel, wall, or other surface that is painted on
• Encaustic


  Pigment mixed with wax and resin.

  • Must be heated to paint on easily.
  • Paint hardens when cools.
  • Used mainly by Roman and Greek artists.
• Fresco


  Pigments mixed with water and applied to a plaster support (usually wet also)

  • Wall-painting technique often used for large scale murals
  • Works are guided by a full sized dot drawing called a cartoon.
  • When ready to paint, the artist simply connects the dots.
• Tempera


  Made with water and pigment

  • Bright colors that last longer than oil paint
  • Can be mixed with egg yolk to make it thicker and not crack.
  • is often used to paint on wood panels with a base of gesso.
• Gesso


  Base paint mixed with glue that helps paint stay on a support
• Oil Paint


  Pigment mixed with oil-usually linseed.

  • First used on wooden panels and then graduated to flexible canvas.
  • Used on large, bold projects.
  • Dries VERY slowly.
  • Colors can be blended subtly and areas can be reworked easily.
  • Sometimes takes weeks or months to dry.
  • Paint can become "muddy" from mixing colors and paint too much
• Oil Paint

  1. Alla Prima
  2. Impasto
• Alla Prima


  Spontaneous painting approach (Italian for "all on the go")
• Impasto 


  Thick, layered paint.

  • creates an interesting texture.
• Watercolor


  Pigment with water and gum arabic

  • Mostly used on paper
  • Mainly used for small, intimate works.
  • Transparency is the desired characteristic
  • White of the paper serves as the white color - white paint not really needed.
• Wash


  translucent, watered down paint spread across the support.
• Gouache


  Watercolor with white inert pigment added

  • Dries very quickly and uniformly
• Inert pigment


  pigment that becomes colorless in paint.

  • Allows colors to be completely opaque and will hide anything they are painted over.
  • Similar to poster paint
• Acrylic


  Synthetic artist color, also called polymer

  • Made of acrylic resin, polymerized through emulsions in water
  • Can mimic the effects of oil, watercolor, tempera, and gouache paints.
  • Dry quickly and permanently
  • Usually keep brush in water while painting so they do not dry out.
• Collage


  French word that means "pasting" or "gluing"

  • Attaching actual objects to the surface of a support.
  • Objects can be paper, cloth, or anything
  • Drawing or painting can be incorporated, also
• Henri Matisse


  Famous painter who was diagnosed with cancer at age 78.

  • couldn't paint anymore, so made collages.