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

  • Cement, concrete, mortar
  • Cob
  • Glass
  • Metal
  • Stone, brick
  • Wood

    Carpentry

  • Adhesives
  • Wood

    Ceramics

  • Bone china
  • Clay
  • Glaze
  • Porcelain
  • Pottery
  • Terracotta
  • Tile

    Drawing

Common drawing materials

  • Acrylic paint
  • Chalk
  • Charcoal
  • Colored pencil
  • Conté
  • Crayon
  • Encaustic
  • Fresco
  • Glitter
  • Gouache
  • Graphite
  • Ink
  • Intaglio
  • Oil paint
  • Glass paint
  • Pastel
  • Pixel
  • Printmaking
  • Sketch
  • Tempera
  • Watercolor

    Common supports (surfaces) for drawing

  • Canvas
  • Card stock
  • Concrete
  • Fabric
  • Glass
  • Human body
  • Metal
  • Paper
  • Papyrus
  • Parchment
  • Plaster
  • Scratchboard
  • Stone
  • Vellum
  • Wood

    Common drawing tools and methods

  • Brush
  • Finger
  • Pen
  • Ballpoint pen
  • Eraser
  • Erasing shield
  • Fountain pen
  • Gel pen
  • Kneaded eraser
  • Technical pen
  • Marker
  • Pencil
  • Mechanical pencil
  • Colored pencil
  • Stylus
  • Charcoal

    Electronic

  • Graphic art software and 3D computer graphics
  • Word processors and desktop publishing software
  • Digital photography and digital cinematography
  • Specialized input devices
  • Digital printing
  • Programming languages
  • Video games

    Film

  • Animation
  • *Cel animation
  • *Computer animation
  • *Cutout animation
  • *Drawn-on-film animation
  • *Stop motion
  • Live action
  • *Puppet film
  • Video art
  • *Single-channel video
  • *Video installation
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

, Glass fusing, colouring and marking methods.

Installation

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

  • Digital word processor
  • Internet websites
  • Letterpress printing
  • Computer printers
  • Marker
  • Pen and ink or quill
  • Pencil

    Common bases for writing

  • Card stock
  • Paper, ruled paper
  • Vellum

    Natural world

  • Floral design
  • Rock
  • Soil
  • Vegetation
  • Water

    Painting

Common paint media

  • Acrylic paint
  • Blacklight paint
  • Encaustic paint
  • Fresco
  • Gesso
  • Glaze
  • Gouache
  • Ink
  • Latex paint
  • Oil paint
  • Primer
  • Ink wash
  • Tempera or poster paint
  • Vitreous enamel
  • Watercolor

    Uncommon paint media

  • Various bodily fluids and excrement including elephant dung
  • Solar energy
  • Garlic
  • Rust
  • Coffee
  • Onion
  • Coconut juice
  • Mud
  • Black palm
  • Tomato
  • Soy sauce
  • Staple wire
  • Ochre

    Supports for painting

  • Architectural structures
  • Canvas
  • Ceramics
  • Cloth
  • Glass
  • Human body
  • Metal
  • Paper
  • Paperboard
  • Vellum
  • Wall
  • Wood

    Common tools and methods

  • Action painting
  • Aerosol paint
  • Airbrush
  • Batik
  • Brush
  • Cloth
  • Paint roller or paint pad
  • Palette knife
  • Sponge
  • Pencil
  • Finger

    Mural techniques

ists use many of the same media as panel painters, but due to the scale of their works, use different techniques. Some such techniques include:
  • Aerosol paint
  • Digital painting
  • Fresco
  • Image projector
  • Marouflage
  • Mosaic
  • Pouncing

    Graphic narrative media

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:
In the art of printmaking, "media" tends to refer to the technique used to create a print. Common media include:
  • Aquatint
  • Collotype
  • Computer printing
  • *Dye-sublimation printer
  • *Inkjet printer
  • *Laser printer
  • *Solid ink printer
  • *Thermal printer
  • Embossing
  • Engraving
  • Etching
  • Intaglio
  • Letterpress
  • Linocut
  • Lithography
  • Mezzotint
  • Moku hanga
  • Monotype
  • Offset printing
  • Photographic printing
  • Planographic printing
  • Printing press
  • Relief printing
  • *Linocut
  • *Metalcut
  • *Relief etching
  • *Wood engraving
  • *Woodcut
  • Screen-printing
  • Woodblock printing

    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

  • Bone carving
  • Bronze
  • Gemstones
  • Glass
  • Granite
  • Ice
  • Ivory
  • Marble
  • Plaster
  • Stone
  • Wax
  • Wood

    Casting media

  • Cement
  • Ceramics
  • Metal
  • Plaster
  • Plastic
  • Synthetic resin
  • Wax

    Modeling media

  • Clay
  • Papier-mâché
  • Plaster
  • Polystyrene
  • Sand
  • Styrofoam

    Assembled media

  • Beads
  • Corrugated fiberboard
  • Edible material
  • Foil
  • Found objects
  • Glue and other adhesives
  • Paperboard
  • Textile
  • Wire
  • Wood

    Finishing materials

  • Acids to create a patina
  • Glaze
  • Polychrome
  • Wax

    Tools

  • Bristle brush
  • Chisel and hammer
  • Clamp or vise
  • Hammer or mallet
  • Kiln for heating ceramics and metals
  • Knife
  • Pliers
  • Potter's wheel
  • Power tools
  • Sandpaper
  • Saw
  • Scraper
  • Snips
  • Welding and cutting torch
  • Wirecutter

    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.