Medium the means by which an artist communicates an idea. It is the stuff out of which the work of art is created.
àechnique àhe manner in which an artist uses the medium chosen for a specific work. àhe artist͛s technique expresses his or her individuality and helps enhance the sensual qualities of medium.
Music, Literature, Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture Metalwork, Weaving, Ceramics, Glass, Furniture, Photography, Lettering, Bookmaking, etc.
© Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, àapestry, Glassware, etc. Music & Literature © àheater, Opera, and Film
Sculpture It is a three-dimensional form constructed to represent a natural or imaginary shape.
àechniques used in Sculpture Carving ± It involves removing unwanted portions of the raw material to reveal the form that the artist has visualized.
Stone carver carving stone, at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, New York, 1909.
àechniques used in Sculpture Modeling ± It builds the form using highly plastic material such as clay or wax.
àechniques used in Sculpture Fabrication ± It employs any method of joining or fastening, such as nailing, stapling, soldering, and welding.
àechniques used in Sculpture Casting ± It can faithfully reproduce in bronze or other metals the spontaneity achieved in the modeling process.
Mediums in Sculpture Stone ʹ it is durable; it resists weather, fire, and all ordinary hazards. On the other hand, it is heavy and expensive and breaks easily.
Marble Of the stones, marble is the most beautiful. It takes a high polish and is almost translucent.
Praxiteles, Hermes and Dionysus.
Limestone Limestone is soft, but it does not polish well.
Granite Granite is coarse, but hard and is suitable for bold effects.
Augustus Saint-Gaudens,à à ^often called )
î traditionally, bronze is the most commonly used of the metals. In small statues, the bronze is solid, but in large ones, solid metal would be too heavy and too expensive. Most bronze statues are hollow.
it is cheap, readily available, and easy to cut. It can be painted or gilded. It is not brittle and permits the sculptor to work in thin, extended forms. It is capable of fine detail and polishes well.
Wood Bodhisattva, Jin Dynasty ^1115-1234 AD)
m it is used for small pieces, like crosses, chess pieces, etc., in which very delicate carving is needed because it is expensive and securing large pieces is difficult. àhe color of ivory is a rich, creamy yellow.
A piece of carved ivory from the Pushkin Museum representing Christ blessing Emperor Constantine VII. Dated back to 945, the piece passed from the treasury at Echmiadzin to the collection of Count Sergey Uvarov in the mid-19th century.
à © the term means ͞baked earth.͟ It is made by firing clay. It is usually painted and covered with a heavy glaze. It is very cheap, and brilliant colors are made possible by the glazing. However, like all pottery, terra cotta is easily broken and chipped.
àerra Cotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shi Huang the First Emperor of China. àhe terracotta figures, dating from 210 BC, were discovered in 1974
Painting It is the process of applying pigment on a smooth surfaceͶpaper, cloth, canvas, wood, or plasterͶto secure an interesting arrangement of forms, lines, and colors.
Pigments Its the part of the paint which supplies the color. It may come from natural or artificial sources.
Vehicle àhe substance that is mixed with the pigment that allows the powder to be spread over a flat surface.
ʹthis is the most widely used medium for painting. Oil can be applied so thinly that canvas shows through or so thickly as to produce a textured surface.
Paul Gauguin"× " ^"By the Sea")
Vincent Van Gogh, Self-Portrait,Summer 1887
is a synthetic medium for pigments. It is the most adaptable of mediums for painting; depending on the amount of water, it can be used as paint or watercolor.
Natalja Picugina,Acrylic On Artist Canvas
the pigments are mixed with water and when applied to a good-quality paper, it is pale and light in color.
àhomas Girtin , , 1798-99 ^watercolor on paper)
àhe Blue Boat ^1892) by Winslow Homer
À it is an opaque watercolour. It differs from dominantly brilliant quality of translucent watercolour painting.
Friedrich Schwinge, Self Portrait in Garden ^1888),Gouache
× Fresco painting is the application of earth pigments mixed with water on a plaster wall while the plaster is damp. Color then sinks into the surface and becomes an integral part of the wall.
Detail of mural by José Clemente Orozco at Baker Library, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire.
it is usually done on a wooden panel that has been made very smooth with a coating of plaster. Because of its great luminosity of tone, the colors are clear and beautiful.
Madonna and Child by Duccio, tempera and gold on wood, 1284
Wax was used by the Egyptians for portraits painted on mummy cases. àhere were several ways of preparing the wax, but in general the color was mixed with warm wax and burned in.
Painted mummy cover of a young boy, dating to the Roman Period, 2nd century A.D., made of encaustic on wood. On display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
A 6th-century encaustic icon from Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai.
àhey are pigments in the form of powders are compressed lightly into sticks. Its colors are brilliant, and it is a very flexible medium, one in which very rich and varied effects may be produced.
Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin. Self Portrait in pastel 1771
Drawing Art or technique of producing images on a surface, usually paper, by means of marks in graphite, ink, chalk, charcoal, or crayon. It is often a preliminary stage to work in other media.
Male nude by Annibale Carracci, 16th century
Printmaking Art form consisting of the production of images, usually on paper but occasionally on fabric, parchment, plastic, or other support, by various techniques of multiplication, under the direct supervision of or by the hand of the artist.
Woodcut àhe technique of printing designs from planks of wood incised parallel to the vertical axis of the wood͛s grain. It is one of the oldest methods of making prints from a relief surface, having been used in China to decorate textiles since the 5th century ad.
Utagawa Kuniyoshi ^1798-1861) 1845-46 ^late Edo)mulberry paper, pigments. General àaira no àomomori
Engraving àhe technique of making prints from metal plates into which a design has been incised with a cutting tool called a burin.
Modern reproduction of Rembrandt's 1639 self portrait
Etching a method of making prints from a metal plate, usually copper, into which the design has been incised by acid.
Christ Preaching, known as àhe Hundred Guilder print; etching c1648 by Rembrandt.
Lithography In the lithographic process, ink is applied to a grease-treated image on the flat printing surface; nonimage ^blank) areas, which hold moisture, repel the lithographic ink. àhis inked surface is then printedͶeither directly on paper, by means of a special press ^as in most fine-art printmaking), or onto a rubber cylinder ^as in commercial printing).
Charles Marion Russell's àhe Custer Fight ^1903). Note the range of tones, fading out towards the edges.
Serigraphy A sophisticated stenciling technique for surface printing, in which a design is cut out of paper or another thin, strong material and then printed by rubbing, rolling, or spraying paint or ink through the cut out areas.
A silk screen design.
Photography is the art, science, and practice of creating pictures by recording radiation on a radiationsensitive medium, such as a photographic film, or electronic image sensors.
Ansel Adams' àhe àetons and the Snake River ^1942).
Illumination It is a handwritten book that has been decorated with gold or silver, brilliant colours, or elaborate designs or miniature pictures.
Illumination
Folio 4 verso of the Aberdeen Bestiary. àhe illumination shows the Christ in Majesty.
àhe illuminated letter P in the Malmesbury Bible. àhe script is blackletter, also known as Gothic script
Mosaic Surface decoration of small coloured componentsͶsuch as stone, glass, tile, or shellͶclosely set into an adhesive ground.
Mosaic
Casa del Poeta tragico a Pompei
Stained Glass Coloured glass used to make decorative windows and other objects through which light passes.
Stained Glass
Detail of a 13th-century window from Chartres Cathedral
àapestry Heavy, reversible, patterned or figured handwoven textile, usually in the form of a hanging or upholstery fabric. àhey are usually designed as single panels or as sets of panels related by subject and style and intended to be hung together.
àapestry
Boar and Bear Hunt, àhe Devonshire Hunting àapestries, late 1420s V&A Museum no. à.204-1957
