Definition of Medium

• The word medium, which comes from the Latin word medium, denotes
the means by which an artist communicates his idea and by which he
creates a work of art.

• The term medium refers to the materials which are used by an artist to
create works of art to interpret his feelings or thoughts. Medium denotes how
an artist communicates his idea. The plural of medium is media. Many
materials have been used in creating different works of art thus, the medium
is very essential in the arts. Without a medium, there is no art. However,
each medium has certain advantages and limitations.

• On the basis of medium, the arts are classified as: Visual and Auditory.

Visual-the visual or spaces are those whose mediums can be seen,

and which occupy space

1. Dimensional or two-dimensional arts which include painting, drawing,

printmaking, and photography.

2. Three-dimensional arts which include the community planning, industrial

design and the crafts like ceramics and furniture making. Sculpture,
architecture, landscape, industrial designs, and crafts.

• Auditory or time arts

are those mediums that 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

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 he can best
express the idea he wants to convey. The distinctive character of the medium
determines the way it can be worked on and turned into a work of art.

• The medium an artist chooses for a given work has an important bearing
on how the work is going to look, and not all media lend themselves to the
same expressive ends.
Media Used in Painting, Sculpture, and AMediums of Visual Arts

In painting, media refers to both the type of paint used and the base or
ground to which it is applied.

• A paint’s medium refers to what carries a paint’s pigment, and is also

called a “vehicle” or a “base”.

• A painter can mix a medium with solvents, pigments, and other substances
in order to make paint and control consistency.

• The following are some examples of common paint media:

Acrylic paint

This medium is used popularly by contemporary painters because of the

transparency and quick drying characteristics of water color and the
flexibility of oil combined. This synthetic paint is mixed with acrylic emulsion
as binder for coating the surface of the artwork. Acrylic paints do not tend to
break easily, unlike oil paints which turn yellowish or darker over a long
period of time.

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 withwax produces luster and radiance in the subject making
them appear at their best in portraits.

Fresco

Painting on a moist plaster surface with colors ground in water or a limewater

mixture. The colors dry into plaster, and the picture becomes a part of the
wall. Fresco must be done quickly because it is an exacting medium.

Gouache

An opaque watercolor painting the major effects of which are caused by the
whitepaper itself. The gouache, is done by mixing zinc white with the regular
watercolor paints to tone them down giving the appearance of sobriety
suitable for dramatic purposes.

Oil paint
Painting is one of the most expensive art activities today because of the
prohibitive cost of materials. In oil painting, pigments are mixed with lindeed
oil and applied to the canvas. One good quality of oil paint as a medium is its
flexibility. The artist may use brush, palette knife or even his bare hands
when applying paint in his canvas. In some cases we do not even notice the
artist's strokes because the paint is applied very smoothly. One distinctive
characteristic of oil paints, compared with other mediums, is that they dry
slowly and the painting may be changed and worked over a long period of
time. Painting done in oil is glossy and lasts long.

Pastel

A stick of dried paste mage of pigments ground with chalk and compounded
with gum water. Its colors are luminous, and it is a very flexible medium.

Tempera

Paints are mineral pigments mixed with egg yolk or egg white and ore. They
are often used as a binder due to its film forming properties and rapid drying
rate.

Watercolor

Difficult to handle because it is difficult to produce warm and rich tones.

While changes may be made once the paint has been applied such changes
normally tend to make the color less luminous.

Mosaic

• Art is a picture or a decoration made of small pieces of inlaid colored

stones or glass called “tesserae” which most often are cut in into squares
glued on a surface with plaster or cement. Mosaic is usually classified as
painting. Although the medium used is not strictly pigment. Mosaic art is an
important feature of Byzantine churches. A prominent religious artwork in
Manila done in mosaic is found in the altar of Sta. Cruz Church showing a
wounded white lamb, symbolizing Christ, wit a stream that flows down
directly to the tabernacle.

Stained Glass

• As 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.

Tapestry
Usually done on paper, using pencil pen and ink, or charcoal. It is the most
fundamental of all skills necessary in the arts.

Drawing can be done with different kinds of mediums and the most common
is pencil which comes in different degrees of hardness or softness, with the
pencil lead (graphite) depending on the kind of drawings the artists will
undertake. For line work, hard pencil lead is applied. Ink, one of the oldest
medium still in use, offers a great variety of qualities, depending on the tools
and techniques used in applying the ink on the surface.

Drawing

Usually done on paper, using pencil pen and ink, or charcoal. It is the most
fundamental of all skills necessary in the arts. Drawing can be done with
different kinds of mediums and the most common is pencil which comes in
different degrees of hardness or softness, with the pencil lead (graphite)
depending on the kind of drawings the artists will undertake. For line work,
hard pencil lead is applied. Ink, one of the oldest medium still in use, offers a
great variety of qualities, depending on the tools and techniques used in
applying the ink on the surface.

Bistre

Brown pigment extracted from the soot of wood, and is often used in pen and
wash drawings.

Crayons

Pigments bound by wax and compressed into painted sticks used for drawing
especially among children in the elementary grade. They adhere better on
paper surface

Charcoal

• These are carbonaceous materials obtained by heating wood or other

organic Substances in the absence of air. Charcoal is used in representing
broad masses of light and shadow. Like drawing pencil, soft charcoal
produces the darkest value, while the darkest produces the lightest tone.

Silverpoint

In this medium, the artist has technique of drawing with a silver stylus on
especially prepared paper to produce a thin grayish line that was popular
during the Renaissance period.

Print-making
• A print is anything printed on a surface that is a direct result from a
duplicating process. Ordinarily, the painting or graphic image, is done in
black ink on white paper and becomes the artist’s plate.

Five Major Types of Prints

1) Woodcut

- 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 as do the
letters of a typewriter. The lines of the design are wood, so they are very
fine. Woodcuts can be identified because of their firm, clear and black lines.

• 2) Engraving

This is the art of forming designs by cutting, corrosion by acids. In engraving

the lines of the designs 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.

3) Intaglio

It is a printing process in which the design of the text is engraved into the
surface of the plate and the ink is transferred to paper from the grooves. The
design is engraved or etched into a metal plate.

• 4) Stencil Printing

It is a common art activity done by high school students these days as a part
of their practical arts course. It is a process which involves the cutting of the
design on special paper cardboard or metal sheet in such a way that when
ink is rubbed over it, the design is reproduced on the surface

5) Relief

- Involves the 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 a
design to stand out, wants to be seen, leaving the portion of the design
to stand out on a block or on the linoleum. The apparent projection of
parts of the design gives the appearance of the third dimension. Color
prints are made by preparing a separate block for each color to be
used. It is important that only the parts to be printed with precision are
on the proper area.
Mediums of Sculpture

In sculpture, sculptors use a variety of materials to create their art.

• A. Hard Materials

The most recognizable and most popular form of sculpture has been created
with hard materials. This is also the oldest form of sculpture. Statues, kinetic
sculpture, and environmental sculpture are all examples of sculptures that
use hard materials as a medium. Some materials used are concrete, bronze,
clay, stone, marble, granite, limestone, alabaster, sandstone, schist,
soapstone, wood, glass, stainless steel, aluminum, antimony, chrome,
copper, gold, iron, lead, nichrome, nickel, palladium, platinum, silver, tin,
titanium, zinc, diamond, jade, ivory, and ceramics.

• Some of the alternative mediums used by contemporary artists are ice,

sand, plastic, and found objects. These sculptures may often be
representational (Michaelangelo’s David), or may be created in abstract
forms as well (Henry Moore’s Interlocking).

a. Stone-hardest substance formed from mineral and earth material. The

finish is granular and dull in appearance. These are normally used for
gravestones in cemeteries.
b. Granite-granular igneous rock composed of feldopars and quartz,
usually combined with other minerals and is quite difficult to chisel.
This is good for large works with only a few designs.
c. Marble-limestone in a more or less crystalline state and is capable of
taking a high polish, occurring in many varieties. It is easier to carve
than granite.
d. Jade-fine, colorful stone usually green, and used widely in Ancient
China. It is highly esteemed as an ornamental stone for carving and
fashioning jewelry.
e. Ivory-comes from tusk of elephant (a hard white substance used to
make carvings, faces and hands of Saints, and billiard balls).
f. Metals-include any of a class of elementary substances as gold, silver,
or copper all of which are characterized by capacity, ductility,
conductivity and peculiar luster when freshly fractured.
g. Bronze-product of metal consisting consisting of copper and tin with
color and is one of the most universally popular metals for sculpture.
h. Plaster-composed of lime, sand, and water. It is usually used
extensively in making mannequins, molds, models, and other indoor
sculptures.
 i. Clay-possess little strength intentions, or compression and requires an
amateur for support.
j. Glass-medium that is hard, brittle, more or less transparent
substances produced by fusion.
k. Wood-easier to carve than any mediums available. They are lighter
and softer to carve despite of aving greater tensile strength.
l. Terra Cota-brownish red clay that has been baked and used in
making pots and small statues.

• B. Sound

Some experimental artists create sound sculptures, meaning the three-

dimensionl structures also produce sounds.

This art may also be known as a sound installation because the sulptures are
regularly installed in art galleries.

Some famous artists who are known for their sound sculptures are Alexander
Calder, Hugh Davies, and Nigel Heyler.

Sound sculptures differ from musical instruments in that they are not
manipulated by a human player to make sound; they simply make a sound
on their own due to their design.

This medium that makes this type of sculpture unique is the element of
sound

• C. Light

These are unique type of medium because they use a various form of light or
lighting to create an aesthetic effect.

The medium of light may use fractal manipulations or gaseous forms of light
(electricity) to produce an image.

Some light sculptures produce light due to the hard materials in a sculpture
while others are nothing but light.

The most famous light sculptors are Olafur Eliasson and Dan Flavin (the
creator of light sculptures made via fluorescent lights).

Mediums of Architecture

• An architect uses building materials as its media in the construction of

buildings and other physical structures.
Many naturally occurring substances, such as clay, rocks, sand, wood, twigs,
and leaves have been used to construct buildings

Apart from naturally occurring materials, many man- made products are in
use, some more and some less synthetic.

• A man-made material is a material that is manufactured through human

effort often using natural raw materials- glass, steel, and concrete cement.
They provide the make- up of habitats and structures including homes.

Techniques/Approaches in the Arts

• Definition of Technique

- The technique is the manner in which the artist controls the medium to
achieve the desired effect.
- It is the ability with which the artist fulfills the technical requirement of
his work of art.

It has something to do with the way he manipulates his medium to express

his idea on the artwork.

1. CARVING-involves cutting or chipping away a shape from a mass of

stone, wood or other hard materials
2. MODELING – built using an armature and then shaped to create a
form.
3. CASTING – reproducing the form from an original clay or wax model.
4. ASSEMBLING/FABRICATION- putting together of different materials
to create an assembled sculpture.

GENERAL MARIANA by Josephine Turalba (NCR) (plastic, brass,

copper, steel, gold)

Blowing. Tinkering

Etching. Splattering

Throwing.

Coloring

ENRICHMENT ACTIVITY

• Choose and execute one from the activities below. Have a

documentation of the process on the creation of your craft and paste it on
the space provided.
 a. ROCK IT! Art on Rocks or pebbles. Create a land art by designing and
arranging rocks.

• b. PAINTED CRAFT. Create a painting using available resources in the

environment (natural/artificial e.g. flower pigments, paint, oil, crayons,
etc.)

C. Clutter/Calming Collage. Using scraps/trash form your version of a

clutter collage or using anything that inspires you form a calming collage.

Organization in the Arts

For an organization in the arts to catch viewers attention, it must be

interesting and make sense

Organization and Elements of Arts

FORM the “how

SUBJECT the “what”

CONTENT the “why”

Combining to produce ORGANIC UNITY

. Organization refers to the order in a work of art. It refers to the ways

elements and other compositions are arranged, combined, and configured
to make a whole aesthetic craft.

• The how, why, and what components of a craft creates and highlights
the importance of organization in the world of arts.

ELEMENTS OF ARTS

• A. LINE

Lines and curves are marks that span a distance between two points (or the
path of a moving point).

As an element of visual art, line is the use of various marks, outlines, and
implied lines in artwork and design.

A line has a width, direction, and length. A line's width is sometimes called its
"thickness".

B. SHAPE
Shape can be defined in art as a line enclosing an area. Shapes could be
geometric, such as squares, circles, triangles etc. or organic and curvaceous.

In everyday usage, the word ‘shape’ is also used to talk about three
dimensional form

• We have an instinctive need for order that enables our minds to fill in the
parts that have been left out. This principle was first put forward by the
German Gestalt psychologists, during their exploration into human
perception in the early part of the twentieth century.

• Gestalt is the German word for "form."

C. VALUE

How light or dark an object or element is, independent of its color. Shading
uses value to depict light and shadow and show volume/form.

Anyone who studies art must consider the relationship of value to the other
elements of art form, all of which possess value

Regardless of the media, or technique used to create them, compositions

that use values from white to middle gray are referred to as high key, while
low-key images would include dark values – middle grays to black.

Small amounts of contrasting value are often necessary to make either low
or high key exciting.

D. TEXTURE

The tactile sensation or feel of a surface (rough, smooth, spiky, etc.) or how
something appears to feel.

E. COLOR

This is the visible spectrum of radiation reflected from an object. Three

properties of color are:

• Hue - The name of the color (red, green, etc.)

• Intensity or Saturation – The purity (brightness or dullness) of the

color. Pure red is bright; red mixed with a little green becomes less intense,
more neutral.
• Value or Brightness - The lightness or darkness of a color. How much
white or black shows through or is mixed in. Can be used to depict light and
shadow on a color and help show volume/form.

Tint-A hue with white added to it or applied thin enough so that a white
background material (paper, canvas, etc.) shows through.

• Shade-A hue with black added to it.

• Tone-A hue with gray added to it.

Color Temperature

Warm colors

Reds, oranges and yellows are said to be warm colors because of their visual
relationship to sources of heat and light. Objects or elements with these
colors will tend to appear energetic and exciting, as well as more forward in
space.

• Cool colors

Blues, greens and violets are said to be cool colors. Objects or elements with
these colors will tend to appear calming and soothing, as well as farther back
in space.

• Neutral colors

Blacks, grays, browns, tans, beiges, and whites. Browns, tans, and beiges are
slightly warm; blacks, grays, and whites can be slightly cool or warm

• i. Monochrome - Using only one color.

• ii. Analogous - Using colors next to each other on the color wheel.

• iii. Complementary - Using colors opposite each other on the color wheel.

PRINCIPLES OF ORGANIZATION

• A. BALANCE. The distribution of interest or visual weight in a work. If all

the visually interesting elements of a work are centered in one spot, the work
is off-balance and the viewer's gaze will be stuck in one place, ignoring the
rest of the piece.

Types of Balance: Symmetric, Asymmetric, and Radial

B. PROPORTION and SCALE

a. Proportion is the relationship of sizes between different parts of a

work.

Example: The width of a component compared to a component's height.

Some proportions, such as the golden ratio and the rule of thirds, are thought
to be more naturally pleasing.

• The golden ratio is a recurring relationship found in math, art, and nature,
and is thought by many to be inherently aesthetically pleasing

• Rule of Thirds

The guideline proposes that an image should be imagined as divided into

nine equal parts by two equally spaced horizontal lines and two equally
spaced vertical lines, and that important compositional elements should be
placed along these lines or their intersections.

Proponents of the technique claim that aligning a subject with these points
creates more tension, energy and interest in the composition than simply
centering the subject.

b. Scale is the size of something compared to the world in

general

C. DOMINANCE, EMPHASIS and FOCAL POINT

a. Emphasis is created by visually reinforcing something we want the

viewer to pay attention to.
b. Focal points are areas of interest the viewer’s eyes skip to.
c. The strongest focal point with the greatest visual weight is the
dominant element of the work.

Salient Points on Dominance:

i Isolation By separating the subject from other distracting elements and

placing it against a plain background, the viewer is left with nothing else to
focus on.

• ii. Leading Lines and Convergence - A line, arrow, or similar triangular

or elongated element can indicate a direction and point towards something,
leading the eye in that direction.
• iii. Contrast - The more strongly something contrasts with its
surroundings, the easier it is to see and the more energy it will seem to have.
Strong contrast in value, color, etc. can make elements "рор."

• iv. Anomaly - A single square in a repeating pattern of circles will stand

out - it is not like everything else, it doesn't blend in, it breaks the pattern.

• D. MOVEMENT. Using art elements to direct a viewer's eye along a path

through the artwork, and/or to show movement, action, and direction.

Also, giving some elements the ability to be moved or move on their own, via
internal or external power.

• E. ECONOMY. It has no rules but rather must be an outgrowth of the

artist's instincts. If something works with respect to the whole, it is kept; if
disruptive, it may be reworked or rejected.