Chapter 2

The Artist’s Media

Medium and Technique

 Medium, which comes from the Latin word medium, denotes the means by which an artist
communicates his idea.
 These are the materials which are used by an artist to interpret his feelings or thoughts.
 Many mediums have been used in creating different works of art.
 The architect uses wood, bamboo, bricks, stone, concrete, and various building materials.
 The painter uses pigments on wood or canvas to recreate reality of nature.
 A sculptor uses steel, marble, bronze, metal, and wood.
 A musician uses sound and instruments to communicate its subject and a literary writer
uses words in literature.
 Thus, medium is very essential in arts.
 On the basis of medium, the arts are primarily classified as visual and
auditory. Visual arts are those whose mediums can be seen and which occupy
space. These are grouped into two classes.
o The first is the dimensional or two-dimensional arts which include painting,
drawing, printmaking, and photography. The three-dimensional arts include
sculpture, architecture, landscape, community planning, industrial designs, and
crafts like ceramics and furniture.
 The auditory arts are those whose mediums can be heard and which are expressed in time.
These are music and literature. The combined arts are those whose mediums can be both
seen and heard, and these exist in both space and time. These are the dance, the opera,
the drama, and the movies. Along with the music, these are also known as the performing
arts because each artwork grasps the meaning of a significant event or similar sequences
consisting chiefly of a series of continuous incidents.
 All arts convey meaning and these may be enjoyed through either the visual or the auditory
sense or both.
 Technique is the manner in which the artist controls his medium to achieve the desired
effect. It is the ability with which he fulfills the technical requirements of his particular work
of art. It has something to do with the way he manipulates his medium to express his ideas
in the artwork.

The Artist and His Medium

 The artist thinks, feels, and gives shape to his vision in terms of his medium.
 When an artist chooses his medium, he believes that this can best express the idea he
wants to convey.
 The matter of selecting the medium depends entirely on the artist himself since this is a
part of the artistic inspiration.
 The distinctive character of the medium determines the way it can be worked on and
turned into a work of art.
 Each medium has its own characteristics which determine the physical appearance of the
finished work of art.
 Wood can be carved in great detail according to the talent of the sculptor.
 The Artist and His Technique
 Apparently artists differ from one another in technique even if they use the same medium.
 A musician's technique is his ability to make music sound the way he wants it.
 On the other hand, a sculptor's technique is his way of handling chisel and hammer to
produce the desired effect.
 A pianist's technique is his way of handling the instrument and interpreting a musical
composition.
 Technique differs in the various arts.
 An artist’s technique in one medium will be quite different from the technique in another.

Mediums of the Visual Arts

 Visual arts are those arts that are perceived with our eyes. The most common visual arts
are painting, sculpture, and architecture. Their mediums are discussed as follows.

Painting
 Painting is that art of creating meaningful effects on a flat surface by the use of pigments.
 Different mediums are used in painting.
 The materials of the painter are pigments applied to wet plaster, canvas, wood, or paper.

Watercolor - is a medium is difficult to handle because it is difficult to produce warm and rich
tones but it invites brilliance and a variety of hues.
Fresco – this is painting on a moist plaster surface with color ground in water or a limewater
mixture. The colors dry into plaster, and the picture a part of the wall.
Tempera – are mineral pigments mixed with egg yolk or egg white and ore. They are often used
as binder due to its film forming properties and rapid drying rate and corrections are difficult to
make. Tempera painting is usually done in wooden panel that has been made very smooth with
plaster called “gesso” (chalk and gum).
Pastel - this is a stick of dried paste made of pigment round with chalk and compounded with
gum water, its colors are luminous, and it is a very flexible medium.
Encaustic - This is one of the early mediums used by the Egyptians for the painted portrait on
mummy cases. This is done by painting with wax colors fixed with heat. Painting with wax produces
luster and radiance in the subject making them appear at their best in portraits.
Oil - is one of the most expensive art activities today because of the prohibitive cost of
materials. It is the heaviest of painting media.
Acrylic - This medium is used popularly by contemporary painters because of the transparency
and quick-drying characteristics of watercolor and the flexibility of oil combined.
Mosaic - art is a picture or decoration made of small pieces of inlaid colored stones or glass
called “tesserae,” which most often are cut into squares glued on a surface with plaster or cement.
Stained Glass - an artwork is common in Gothic cathedrals and churches. This is made by
combining many small pieces of colored glass which are held together by bands of lead. It is also a
kind of patchwork.
Tapestry - This is a fabric consisting of a warp upon which colored threads are woven by hand
to produce a design, often pictorials, wall hangings and furniture covering.
Drawing - is usually done on paper using pencil, pen and ink or charcoal.
Bistre - is a brown pigment extracted from the soot of wood, and often used in pen and wash
drawings.
Crayons - are pigments bound by wax and compressed into painted sticks used for drawing
especially among children in the elementary grades.
Charcoal - These are carbonaceous materials obtained by heating wood or other organic
substances in the absence of oxygen. Charcoal is used in representing broad masses of light and
shadow.
Silverpoint – in this medium, the artist has a technique of drawing with silver stylus on
specially prepared paper to produce a thin grayish line that was popular during the Renaissance
period.
Printmaking - A print is anything printed on a surface that is a direct result from duplicating
process. Ordinarily, the painting or graphic image, is done in black ink on white paper and becomes
the artist’s plate. Today, printmaking maybe categorized as painting because it has long been
acknowledged as an independent art.

There are five major types of prints

 Woodcut. As the name implies, this is made from a piece of wood. The design stands as a
relief; the remaining surface of the block being cut away. A woodblock prints just as do the
letters of a typewriter. The lines of the design arc wood, so they are not very fine.
Woodcuts can be identified because of their firm, clear and black lines.
 Engraving. This is the art of forming designs by cutting, corrosion by acids. In engraving, the
lines of the design are cut into a metal plate with ink and transferred from the plate to the
paper. The lines of an engraving are cut by hand with an instrument called burin, a steel
tool with an oblique point and rounded handle for carving stone and engraving metal.
Etching is a development of engraving.
 Relief. Relief printing involves cutting away from a block of wood or linoleum the parts of
the design that the artist wants to be seen, leaving the portion of the third dimension.
 Intaglio. Intaglio is a printing process in which the design or the text is engraved into the
surface of the place and the ink is transferred to paper from the groover. The design is
engraved or etched into a metal plate.
 Stencil Printing. Stencil printing is a very common art activity done by high school students
these days as a part of their practical arts courses.

Sculpture
 In choosing a subject for sculpture, the most important thing to consider is the material.
The materials available for sculpture are limitless. Each these materials presents interesting
motivation to challenge the sculptor’s creativity.

Stone is the hard and brittle substance formed from mineral and earth material. This finished
product is granular and dull in appearance. These are normally used for gravestones in cemeteries)
o Stones include sandstone, granite, basalt, marble, and limestone.
o Granite is a granular igneous rock composed of feldspars and quartz.
o Marble is limestone in a more or less Crystalline state sufficiently close in texture
and capable of taking a high polish, occurring in many varieties.
o Brecciated marble composed of angular fragments while serpentine marble is
prized for its variegated patterns and is often used in large flat planes.
o Basalt is hard and black.
o Limestone has a fine and even texture. Its color range from light cream to buff, and
from light gray to a darker, bluish gray. It lends itself very well to carving.
 Jade is a fine, colorful stone, usually green, and used widely in ancient China. It is highly
esteemed as an ornamental stone for carving and fashion jewelry.
Ivory comes from the main parts of tusks of elephants, is the hard white substance used to
make carvings and billiards balls. In the home of some well-to-do families in the Philippines, faces
and hands of images of saints are made of ivory.
Metal includes any of a class of elementary substances such as gold, silver, or copper all of
which are crystalline when solid and many of which are characterized by capacity ductility
conductivity and peculiar luster when freshly fractured.
Bronze is one of the oldest alloys of metal composing chiefly of copper and tin with color and is
one of the most universally popular metals for sculpture. Bronze as a material is strong, durable
and resistant to any atmospheric corrosion.
Brass, an alloy of copper and zinc, is not popularly used by artists because of its limitations as a
medium. Although it has many practical uses, brass does not rust and it takes a brilliant polish.
Copper which has a peculiar brilliance, is used as a costing medium. This is basically shaped by
hammering.
Gold and silver are used as casting materials for small objects like medals coins, and pieces of
jewelry. Because they are quite expensive, they are used for either personal accessories or religious
adornments.
Lead. a bluish-gray metal, flexible and permanent material, is used for casting and forging.
With the help of a welding torch iron, it can be worked into a variety of unique and exciting forms.
Plaster is a composition of lime, sand, and water. Plaster is worked on an armature of metal
wires and rods in addition to various materials and fibers. This is applied on walls and ceilings and
allowed to harden and dry. The medium is used extensively for making manikins, models,
molds, architectural decorations, and other indoor sculpture.
Clay is a natural earthy material that has the nature of plasticity when wet, consisting
essentially of hydrated silicates of aluminum used for making bricks and ceramic.
Glass is a medium that is hard, brittle, non-crystalline, more or less transparent substances
produced by fusion, usually consisting of mutually dissolved silica and silicates and contains soda
and lime. This is used to make beautiful but fragile figurines.
Wood is a medium is perhaps easier to carve than any other medium available because it can
be intricately carved and subjected into a variety of treatment not possible with stone.
Terra cotta is the tenderest of sculptural materials. Most oriental sculpture deals in this
medium. This is used in vases, figurines, and in small thins.

Architecture
 Architecture is an art.
 In its strictest meaning, it is the art of designing a building and supervising its construction.
 It may also be regarded as the procedure assisted with the conception of an idea and its
realization in terms of building materials. In its broader meaning, architecture is shelter to
serve as protection of all activities of men — work, recreation, and sleep. One of the
primary purposes of architecture is to fulfill man’s needs that led to its t creation. These
man’s needs include:
1. Physical needs — shelter (for self-preservation and reproduction) These shelters
must have the necessities (kitchen, bedroom, bathroom) and comfort (heat,
ventilation, furnishing).
2. Emotional needs — endowed with rich beauty and interest.
3. Intellectual needs—a building for science, education, government etc.
4. Psychosocial needs:
a. for recognition, prestige, civic, and personal—man build palaces, skyscrapers,
cathedrals, public buildings, monuments etc.
b. for response—due to love, friendship, and sociability (fraternal buildings, city clubs,
banquet halls, ballrooms, living rooms)
c. for self-expression - theaters, museums, cultural centers, stadiums, gymnasiums,
bowling alleys, etc.

 To identify the style in architecture is a complex undertaking. The style

must accommodate and express the function of the structure. It must also address
the future, providing for adaptability and capacity to survive the loss of its original
function. It must also provide for functions which are unknown at the moment of
construction.