what is a medium when talking about painting?

Answer 1

Your medium is what you are using to paint with such as oils, acrylics, watercolors, etc.

Answer 2

The Substance which is used to create the work.
Eg: Oil paint (oil based) or Gouache (water based).
The medium (in some definitions) can also be type of canvas as well as the material which forms the image.
But it is important to remember that the term 'medium' in art is not limited to 2D paintings. But can bee used to describe things like the matter from which a sculpture is constructed, etc.

Answer 3

light to dark colour schemes. The term medium has various meanings. For starters, it's used for the substance that binds the pigment in paint. In acrylic paints, this is a synthetic substance. In oil paints, it's a natural oil such as poppy. In tempera, it's egg yolks.

A medium can also be something used to change the consistency of the paint. For example, a gel medium is used to thicken paint for impasto.

The term medium is also used to describe a category of painting, such as oil painting, acrylics, or watercolors.

Answer 4

The medium is the type of paint used. The various types available are: watercolors, acrylics, oils, magic markers, chalks, pencils, etc.
In the 1500 and 1600's eggs and other items were added to to oil as well as coloring agents to get and maintain the colors. Today the paints mostly come in tubes.

Answer 5

A medium is the material used for painting. Some examples of different mediums are acrylic, oil, watercolor, and pastel.

Answer 6

Brandon, "Medium" is what you use to make the painting such as watercolors, oils, acrylic, or ink, etc. Sometimes you'll see a painting that states "mixed medium", that means two or more mediums were used such as watercolor and ink.

Answer 7

A pretty good summary explaining some of the differences that are not always clearly expressed

From the Tate Art Terms Glossary:
http://www.tate.org.uk/collections/glossary/definition.jsp?entryId=161

Medium

In relation to art this term has two principal overlapping, even slightly confusing meanings. Painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, are all media of art in the sense of a type of art.

However, the term can also refer to the materials of the work.

For example a sculpture in the medium of bronze or marble; a painting in the medium of oil paint on canvas, tempera on panel, or watercolour on paper; a drawing in the medium of pencil or crayon; a print in the medium of etching or lithography.

In modern art new media in both senses have appeared. First of all, modern artists, from Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp on, have established that art can be made of absolutely any material, so the media of modern art, in that sense, have ranged from found or appropriated objects and materials of all kinds, to the artist’s own bodily excretions and the body itself. Many modern works are made from a variety of such things and the term mixed media has had to be coined to take account of this.

This expansion of media, in the sense of materials, has given rise to new media in the overarching sense of a type of art. For example, Assemblage, Installation and Performance are all three-dimensional art forms sufficiently distinct from traditional sculpture to become considered new media in themselves. In the case of the first two the medium from which they are usually made is a variety of materials, that is, mixed media. Performance art uses the artist’s own body as the material or medium.

Finally, in a third meaning, the term medium also refers to the liquid in which the pigment is suspended to make paint. So the medium of the medium of oil paint is linseed oil.

Answer 8

A medium is what you put onto the paper or the canvas. It can be water colors, or acrylics or oil paints.

Answer 9

the medium is the paint or coloration you're using. i.e. Watercolor, Oil paints, pencil, felt tip pen, all of these are mediums.

Answer 10

Its what type of paints you are using such as water colors, oils, etc