Visual arts media is the material 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. Here is a list of types of art and the media used within those types.
acrylic
aluminium
appropriation
aquatint
assemblage
augmented reality
basalt
bas-relief
binder
board
brass
bronze
brush
burlap
cable
cameo
canvas
carbon fiber
card
cardboard
casein
cement
ceramics
chalk
charcoal
chisel
clay
cliché-verre
cloth
coal
collage
collotype
color varnish
colored pencils
concrete
copper
cotton
crayon
digital
drawing
drypoint
dust
elephant dung
embroidery
emulsion
enamel
encaustic
engraving
etching
fabric
fabric straps
fat
feather
felt
felt-tip pen
fiberboard
fiberglass
flashlight
fluorescent paint
fresco
frottage
gesso
glass
glitter
gloss
gold
gold leaf
gouache
granite
graphite
grisaille
gum arabic
hemp
hologram
indian ink
ink
intaglio
iron
iron plate
ivory
japanese paper
jute
lacquer
laid paper
lavis
leadpoint
leather
lemon
light box
light bulb
limestone
linen
linocut
linoleum
lithography
magna
mahogany panel
majolica
marble
masking tape
masonite
metal
metalpoint
mezzotint
mixed media
mixed technique
mosaïque
mural
music paper
nails
oak
objet trouve
obsidian
oil
oilcloth
onyx
paint
painted metal
panel
paper
papyrus
parchment
pastel
pebbles
pen
pencil
pergament
photogram
photographic paper
photography
photogravure
photomontage
photomosaic
piano
pigment
plaster
plastic
plexiglas
plug socket
plywood
polyester
polymer
polymer paint
polystyrene
poplar
porcelain
postcard
print
printed brochure
pyroxylin
ready-made
recorder with cassette
rubber
sand
sanguine
satin
scrapings
screen print
sepia
silk
silks creen
silverpoint
sponge
spray paint
stained glass
steel
stencil
stone
string
stump
tapestry
tar
tempera
terracotta
tin
travertine
tusche
twine
varnish
vellum
vitrage
wall
wash
watercolor
wax
white
whitewash
wire
wood
woodblock print
woodcut
wooden chair
wooden sled
wool
zinc
MEDIUM
Medium can refer to both to the type of art (e.g. painting, sculpture, printmaking), as well as the materials an artwork is made from
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 a work is made from
For example a sculpture in the medium of bronze or marble; a painting in the medium of oil paint on canvas, 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.
Source: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/m/medium
