Important Notes: Art
Methods and Materials
Painting Methods & Media
Oil Paint: A slow-drying medium with a linseed oil
binder. Its slow drying time allows for excellent
blending and subtle color transitions. It dries to a
durable, luminous finish.
Acrylic Paint: A modern, fast-drying medium with a
synthetic polymer binder. It is water-soluble when
wet but dries to a durable, waterproof, and flexible
film.
Watercolor: A transparent medium with a gum
arabic binder. It is known for its light, luminous
washes.
Gouache: An opaque version of watercolor, also
using a gum arabic binder. It contains an inert white
pigment to make it more opaque.
Egg Tempera: A very fast-drying medium with an
egg yolk binder. It is known for its luminous, matte
finish and is permanent once dry.
Fresco: The technique of painting on wet plaster.
Buon fresco (true fresco) permanently binds the
pigment to the wall as the plaster dries, making it
highly durable.
Impasto: A technique where paint is applied very
thickly, often with a palette knife, to create a
textured surface.
Sgraffito: An Italian term meaning "scratched." This
technique involves scratching through a layer of wet
plaster or paint to reveal a different color
underneath.
Drawing Materials
Graphite: The material in pencils. Its hardness is
graded from H (hard, light) to B (soft, dark), with
HB being in the middle.
Charcoal: A deep black, carbon-based drawing
material. It smudges easily and requires a fixative
spray to prevent smearing.
Pastel: A drawing medium made of pure pigment
with a minimal binder. It is powdery, known for its
vibrant color, and also requires a fixative.
Conte Crayon: A drawing material made from
compressed charcoal or graphite mixed with clay. It
is harder and less smudgy than pastel.
Printmaking Techniques
Relief Printing: The artist carves away the parts of
the matrix that will not receive ink, leaving the image
raised.
o Woodcut: A relief print made from a block of
wood.
o Linocut: A relief print made from a block of
linoleum, which is softer and easier to carve
than wood.
Intaglio Printing: The artist incises lines into a
metal plate, and ink is held in these recessed areas.
o Etching: Uses acid to bite into the plate,
creating the lines.
o Engraving: Uses a sharp tool called a burin to
manually cut lines.
o Aquatint: An intaglio technique that uses a
granular ground and acid to create tonal areas
instead of lines.
Planographic Printing: The image is printed from a
flat surface.
o Lithography: A process based on the principle
that grease and water repel each other. An
image is drawn with a greasy crayon on a stone
or plate.
Monotype: A unique print that is created by painting
or drawing on a non-absorbent surface and then
transferring the image to paper. It produces only one
print.
Screen Printing: A stencil-based method where ink
is forced through a fine mesh screen onto the
printing surface.
Sculpture Methods
Subtractive Sculpture: The process of creating a
form by removing or carving away material from a
larger block (e.g., carving a statue from marble).
Additive Sculpture: The process of building up a
form by adding material to it.
o Modeling: A form of additive sculpture that
uses a malleable material like clay or wax.
o Assemblage: A form of additive sculpture
where the artist joins various found objects or
pre-existing forms together to create a new
work.
Casting: A method where liquid material is poured
into a mold and allowed to harden.
o Lost-Wax Casting: A classic, multi-step process
for creating hollow metal sculptures, most
commonly from bronze.