List of art media

Arts media are the materials and tools used by an artist, composer or designer to create a work of art, for example, "pen and ink" where the pen is the tool and the ink is the material. The following lists types of art and the media each uses.

Architecture

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

Carpentry

 * Adhesives
 * Wood (timber)

Ceramics

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

Common drawing materials

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

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 (clutch, screw, and ratchet)
 * 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 (e.g. variable pressure sensing tablets and touchscreens)
 * Digital printing
 * Programming languages

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 (see also mass media). 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 (this may not apply to every installation) 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.

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, perhaps ruled
 * Vellum

Natural world

 * Floral design
 * Rock
 * Soil
 * Vegetation
 * Water

Common paint media

 * Acrylic paint
 * Blacklight paint
 * Encaustic paint
 * Fresco
 * Gesso
 * Glaze
 * Gouache
 * Ink
 * Latex paint
 * Oil paint
 * Primer
 * Ink wash (sumi-e)
 * Tempera or poster paint
 * Vinyl paint (toxic/poisonous)
 * 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 (Yellow, red, white or charcoal)

Supports for painting

 * Architectural structures
 * Canvas
 * Ceramics
 * Cloth
 * Glass
 * Human body (typically for tattoos)
 * 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
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:
 * Aerosol paint
 * Digital painting
 * Fresco
 * Image projector
 * Marouflage
 * Mosaic
 * Pouncing

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

Performing arts
The performing arts is a form of entertainment that is created by the artist's own body, face and presence as a medium. There are many skills and genres of performance; dance, theatre and re-enactment being 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 media include:
 * Digital image sensor
 * Photographic film
 * Potassium dichromate
 * Potassium ferricyanide and ferric ammonium citrate
 * Silver nitrate

Printmaking
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 (sometimes called giclée printing)
 * Laser printer
 * Solid ink printer
 * Thermal printer
 * Embossing
 * Engraving
 * Etching
 * Intaglio (printmaking)
 * Letterpress (literature)
 * 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.

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 (cardboard)
 * Edible material
 * Foil
 * Found objects
 * Glue and other adhesives
 * Paperboard
 * Textile
 * Wire
 * Wood

Finishing materials

 * Acids to create a patina (corrosive)
 * Glaze
 * Polychrome
 * Wax

Tools

 * Bristle brush
 * Chisel and hammer (modern pneumatic)
 * Clamp or vise
 * Hammer or mallet (modern pneumatic)
 * 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 (knotting), weaving, or pressing fibres together (felt) to create a work.