List of art media


Media, or mediums, are the core types of material used by an artist, composer, designer, etc. to create a work of art. For example, a visual artist may broadly use the media of painting or sculpting, which themselves have more specific media within them, such as watercolor paints or marble.
The following is a list of artistic categories and the media used within each category:

Architecture

Carpentry

Ceramics

Drawing

Common drawing materials

Common supports (surfaces) for drawing

Common drawing tools and methods

Electronic

Film

Film, as a form of mass communication, is itself also considered a medium in the sense used by fields such as sociology and communication theory. These two definitions of medium, while they often overlap, are different from one another: television, for example, utilizes the same types of artistic media as film, but may be considered a different medium from film within communication theory.

Food

A chef's tools and equipment, including ovens, stoves, grills, and griddles. Specialty equipment may be used, including salamanders, French tops, woks, tandoors, and induction burners.

Glass

Glassblowing, Glass fusing, colouring and marking methods.

Installation

Installation art is a site-specific form of sculpture that can be created with any material. An installation can occupy a large amount of space, create an ambience, transform/disrupt the space, exist in the space. One way to distinguish an installation from a sculpture is to try to imagine it in a different space. If the objects present difficulties in a different space than the original, it is probably an installation.

Literature

Traditional writing media

Common bases for writing

Natural world

Painting

Common paint media

Uncommon paint media

Supports for painting

Common tools and methods

Mural techniques

Muralists use many of the same media as panel painters, but due to the scale of their works, use different techniques. Some such techniques include:

Graphic narrative media

Comics creators use many of the same media as traditional painters.

Performing arts

The performing arts are a form of entertainment that may be created by the artist's own body, face, and presence as a medium. There are many genres of performance; dance, theatre and re-enactment are a few examples. Performance art is a performance that may not present a conventional formal linear narrative.

Photography

In photography, a photosensitive surface is used to capture an optical still image, usually utilizing a lens to focus light. Some photographic media include:

Printmaking

In the art of printmaking, "media" tends to refer to the technique used to create a print. Common media include:

Sculpture

In sculpting, a solid structure and textured surface is shaped or combined using substances and components, to form a three-dimensional object. The size of a sculptured work can be built very big and could be considered as architecture, although more commonly a large statue or bust, and can be crafted very small and intricate as jewellery, ornaments and decorative reliefs.

Materials

Carving media

Casting media

Modeling media

Assembled media

Finishing materials

Tools

Sound

The art of sound can be singular or a combination of speech or objects and crafted instruments, to create sounds, rhythms and music for a range of sonic hearing purposes. See also music and sound art.

Technical products

The use of technical products as an art medium is a merging of applied art and science, that may involve aesthetics, efficiency and ergonomics using various materials.

Textiles

In the art of textiles a soft and flexible material of fibers or yarn is formed by spinning wool, flax, cotton, or other material on a spinning wheel and crocheting, knitting, macramé, weaving, or pressing fibres together to create a work.