Jones 1

Media

I. The Importance of Materials

A. Materials are the physical embodiment of the idea. Nam June Paik’s video
installation refers to:
1. advertising
2. signage
3. televised imagery
B. Damien Hirst - known for shocking or controversial works, for example, For the
Love of God, a platinum cast of an 18th C. human skull covered with 8,601 diamonds
(1,106.18 carats) with original human teeth.
C. Vanitas The impermanence of temporal life.

II. Media in Two-Dimensional Art

A. Drawing- one of the oldest disciplines, using a wide range of materials. Light and
Value.
B. Dry Media – usually stick form:
1. pencil
2. sanguine
3. chalk
4. pastel
5. silverpoint
C. Charcoal is a carbon stick created from burnt wood
1. It is capable of producing rich, deep, dark areas and a range of lighter
tones as well.
D. Chalk & Pastels – colored materials held together by wax or glue and shaped into
sticks, almost pure pigment.
E. Pastel drawings have an intensity that surpasses most other media.
F. Silverpoint - produced by a stylus made of silver that leaves marks on paper or
wood coated with layers of gesso* as a ground.
1. Silverpoint drawings are known for delicacy and precise lines.
G. Wet Media - liquid form, ink the most common, used with either brush or pen.
1. Lines made by pen marks and washes by brush are visually fluid.
2. Ink is a versatile medium. It can be applied to paper with a pen for
controlled lines or with a brush for gray washes or bold, dramatic lines

III. New Technologies Experimental Drawing Media

A. Technology provides new ways to produce drawings.
B. Artists use computers to produce raster-based drawings, composed of millions of
dots of color.
 Jones 2
Media

C. The computer is a very helpful tool for creating images of things that do not yet
exist. Many artists use software that aids in design, animation, or drawing and painting.
D. Artists can choose just about any material as a medium in their artwork.
E. Printmaking - the process of making multiple impressions, using a printing plate,
woodblock, stone or stencil.
1. intaglio
2. relief
3. lithography
4. serigraphy
5. monotype (single impression)
F. Intaglio has: fine lines a high level of detail rich, dark tones.
1. Artists cut into a flat surface to make the image---“intaglio” from the
Italian meaning “to cut into.
2. Processes: drypoint engraving etching aquatint
G. Woodblock prints are examples of relief printmaking.
1. areas not to be printed are cut away
2. areas to be printed are left higher
3. ink is applied to the higher areas
4. the surface is sent through a press
H. Drypoint – scratched on a metal plate with a burin, ink is then rubbed into the
scratches, then the plate and paper are put through the press
I. Engraving - entails cutting or incising lines into a laminated woodblock or a
polished metal plate.
J. Etching - a metal plate is coated with a protective ground, the artist scratches a
design into the ground.
1. The plate is placed in an acid bath, eating away or etching the exposed
metal surface.
2. Etching produces a variety of line qualities, while gray tones are created
using aquatints.
K. Aquatint - process related to etching, a metal plate is covered with acid-resistant
powder resin.
1. The plate is heated, melting the resin, which adheres it to the plate surface.
2. The plate is placed in an acid bath, exposed areas are eaten away.
3. The plate is inked and printed the same way as other intaglio processes.
L. Lithography – an image is drawn with an oily pencil on a limestone slab, a water-
based liquid, is applied, the oily marks resist it.
1. The stone or plate is inked with an oilbased ink, which adheres to the
greasy marks.
2. The plate or stone is then put through the press.
 Jones 3
Media

3. Lithography is the printmaking process that produces results that most

resemble drawings.
M. Serigraphy - screen printing, a stencil is attached over a piece of finely woven
fabric stretched on a frame, ink is squeezed through the open areas of the stencil and
deposited on the surface below.
1. With silkscreen, it is possible to get broad areas of intense color.
N. Monotype - makes only one impression of an image, a drawing is rendered in oil
or water-soluble paint on a sheet of Plexiglas or metal.
1. Paper is placed on top of the rendering and hand rubbed or put through a
press.
2. Some artists produce a second ghost image from an inked monotype plate,
but usually the ghost image needs to be finished in some other medium
O. Painting media consists of two basic components:
1. Pigments - intense colors in powder form.
2. Binder - substance into which pigment is blended, holds the components
together when dry.
P. Paintings need some kind of support, usually stone, clay, plaster, wood panel,
paper, fabric, found objects.
1. Some of the oldest surviving paintings were made on clay vessels
2. The human body is and has been a surface for painting.
3. The Chinese opera performer in painting his face in preparation for his
character.
Q. Encaustic - one of the most ancient forms of painting media, pigments are mixed
into hot beeswax, and blended until cool.
R. Fresco- used for large murals painted directly on walls.
1. fresco secco - paint is applied to a dry plaster wall.
2. buon fresco - true fresco, the plaster is wet, pigment is suspended in water,
applied to and soaks into the surface, resulting in a very durable painting.
S. tempera - pigments mixed with egg yolk, the binder.
T. watercolors - pigments suspended in a gum arabic, a water-soluble glue binder.
U. gouache - watercolor with white chalk, creates opaque paint

IV. Oil and Acrylic Paint

A. Both oil and acrylic paints are notable for their wide range of intense colors. They
can be applied as:
1. glazes-transparent layers of paint
2. alla prima- a technique of painting, a direct style without layers
B. Oil paint - powdered pigments ground into a slow-drying oil (usually linseed),
soluble in turpentine or mineral spirits.
1. Oil paint in use since the 15th C.
 Jones 4
Media

C. Acrylic paint - pigment ground with a synthetic polymer liquid binder, dries
quickly into a flexible film, can be applied to almost any support.
1. Acrylic paint can produce large areas of flat color, similar to the effect of
latex wall paint.
2. Acrylics are water-soluble, artists can also pour acrylic paint, glaze
acrylics, and draw fine lines with it.
3. Acrylics can be poured, glazed, or painted alla prima. They can be thinned
and applied with a fine brush to produce lines.
D. Sprayed Paint
1. Airbrush - small spray gun the size of a pen. Compressed air is forced
through the airbrush, which atomizes the liquid paint, allowing it to be sprayed.
2. Aerosol cans – compressed air and quick-drying paint often used by
graffiti artists.
E. Fabrics, Needlework, and Weaving
1. Transitions from the 2-d art to 3-d works, covers a range of art objects:
tapestries quilts rugs embroidery other woven objects.
F. Embroidery - involves decorative stitch patterns on fabric.
1. The Summer Robe is decorated with intricate and detailed embroidery.
2. Silk fabric forms the support for the needlework, which contains complex
designs

V. METHODS AND MEDIA IN 3-D ART

1. traditional to new media
2. freestanding
3. relief sculpture
4. site-specific
5. kinetic
A. Freestanding sculptures - objects meant to be seen from all sides.
B. Relief sculpture - seen only from the front.
1. Relief sculptures are usually carved out of a single stone or wood block.
C. Site-specific sculpture is specifically designed for a particular place, the space becomes
part of the experience of the artwork
D. Kinetic works - actual movement is part of the piece.
E. Carving – technique for creating 3-d work, artists remove unwanted material from a
large block of stone or wood or a synthetic product.
F. Modeling - the pushing and pulling of a malleable substance, such as clay or wax.
G. Modeling is considered an additive process, because material is built up to create the
final form.
H. Clay is capable of extremely fine detail.
1. A high degree of control over the surface is possible with ceramic sculptures.
I. Functional ceramics are made with the additive process using clay.
 Jones 5
Media

1. Functional pieces are vessels, platters, cups, pitchers...these can be hand molded or
pinched, made out of coils or slabs of clay or thrown on a wheel
J. Modeled sculpture is cast in bronze or plaster.
1. For large bronze sculptures, artists use the cire perdue process* (lost wax casting
method)
2. This method produces hollow metal sculpture with thin walls.
K. Assembling Assembled works are made of various parts that are then put together.
1. Assemblyin its most fundamental form can be seen in this elaborate neck gear.
2. Assembly is the process used to create many works of art or personal adornment.
3. Assembled works are made of various parts that are put together.
4. Assembled artworks are mixed media - mixing up the methods and media.
5. Assembled artworks are often mixed media, which literally means mixing up the
methods and their various media in a work.
6. Assemblage uses found objects or ready-mades (already existing objects).
L. Fabricated sculpture uses industrial and commercial processes, such as welding or neon
lighting.
M. New Technologies
1. Sculptures can be made from computer-aided design files and then “printed” on 3-d
printers.
N. Installation- mixed-media artworks designed for a specific interior or exterior space.
O. Performance - a live-action event staged as an artwork. The human body is the prime
element in performance art – it is related to installation because it transforms the space..

VI. TECHNOLOGY-BASED MEDI

A. Photography – a light-sensitive surface is exposed through a lens and creates an
image on the surface.
B. Early photographic processes:
1. Daguerreotypes
2. platinum prints
3. silver prints
C. Cibachrome - a photographic color-printing technology with vivid, fade-resistant
colors, high detail, printed on a polyester base rather than paper.
D. Photomontage - a collage or combination of photographs that are manipulated and
altered to create a new image.
1. Artists often experiment with ways to alter or manipulate photographs.
2. A collage of photographic and drawn images can have an absurd quality
because of disjunctions in imagery and space.
E. The Moving Image, Film and Video - photographs shot in sequence, when
projected give the still images an illusion of movement.
F. The digital revolution has also transformed the moving image