EXPLORE

1. Advanced Readings/Research on the art and artisans: medium, technique,

and curation.
2. Presentation of the discussion of art and artisans; medium, technique, and
curation.
3. This module contains learning materials and activities for the students to
complete.

Concepts:
1. Medium refers to the materials used by an artist.
2. Technique is how the artist controls the medium to achieve the desired
effect.
3. Combined arts are those whose mediums can be seen and heard and exist
in space and time.
4. Painting is the art of creating meaningful effects on a flat surface by the use
of pigments.
5. Architecture is the art of designing and constructing a structure.
6. Sculpture is the construction of a figure by putting together module
segments of the material.

OBJECTIVES
1. Define the artist and or artisan’s medium and technique
2. Value the true meaning of Arts. Medium and Techniques.
3. Enumerate the mediums of visual arts, sculpture, and music.
4. To compare and contrast the different mediums in art production
5. To come up with a simple art presentation

The Artist and Artisan’s Medium and Technique

Comparing Artists to Artisans

Artists and Artisans fill different roles in the art sector. Artist work in the fine
arts includes painting, illustration, and sculpture while artisans are craftsmen
who work in textiles, pottery, glass, television, long and round tables, rooms,
doors, etc. Usually, these are manmade shapes (Ragans, 2005).

Responsibilities of Artist vs Artisans

Artists and Artisans articulate a vision through their art or craft. Fine artists
work with paint, watercolor, pen, ink, or illustrations, while artisans craft works
like jewelry, glasswork, pottery, or other functional products. Artists focus on
creating aesthetically pleasing works, while artisans’ work focuses on
accessing functionality more than aesthetics. The work of artists tends to be
shown in museums or galleries, while artisans are crafts displayed in fairs,
shops, and malls.
Artist

All fine artists first learn to sketch and begin with a pencil ad sketchpad to
work with an idea on paper. The artist transfers their visions to canvas or
other mediums, which may mean working in pencils, oil, watercolor, or
pastels. Sculptors take their sketches and create three-dimensional products
from clay, marble, or other material. Illustrators might work for a publishing or
animation company or create original comic books. All artists’ work aims to
create an overall reaction from a viewer.

The job responsibilities of an artist include:

● Developing ideas for a canvas or product;
● Selecting medium for a final work, including texture, size, or area;
● Collecting work for a portfolio and
● Applying for grants and financial support.

Artisan

Artisans are craftsmen who make practical artistic products, such as earrings,
urns, stained glass, and other accessories. Artisans gain their knowledge by
studying under master craftsmen and then practicing with continued study.
Artisans work to create something new, original at all times, and provocative.
They spend a good portion of their time selling and promoting their items in
various marketplaces.

The job responsibilities of an artisan include:

● Using and mixing mediums like paint, metal, glass, or fabric; Shaping,
gluing, sewing, testing, and producing products;
● Displaying work at various sites including auctions, crafts shows, or online
markets; and
● Estimating cost and material needs.

Definition of Medium

The word medium, which comes from the Latin word medium, denoted how
an artist communicates his idea. It is the stuff out of which he creates a work
of art. These are the materials that the artist uses to translate his feelings or
thoughts into a beautiful reality. This may be pigment in painting, stone, wood,
brick, concrete, various building materials in architecture, steel, marble,
bronze, and wood in sculpture, sound in music, and words in literature.

Based on medium, the arts are primarily classified as Visual and

Auditory.

Visual- The visual is the spaces. These mediums can be seen and occupy
space.

This group is into two classes:

a. 2-dimensional arts- which include painting, drawing, printmaking, and
photography.
b. 3-dimensional arts- Sculpture, architecture, landscape, community
planning, Industrial design, and the crafts like ceramics and furniture making.

Auditory- These are mediums that can be heard and which are expressed in
time. These are music and literature e.g., Dance, Opera, Drama, and movies.

The artist thinks, feels, and shapes his vision in terms of his mediums. When
an artist chooses his medium, he believes that he can best express the idea
he wants to convey. Most often an artist employs more than one medium to
give meaning to his creative production. Often, selecting a medium depends
entirely on the artist himself since this is a part of the artistic inspiration. The
medium's distinctive character determines how it can be worked on and
turned into a work of art. The nature of each medium determines how a work
of art may be realized.

Technique- This is an important aspect that distinguishes an art form craft.

Definition of Technique

The technique is how the artist controls his medium to achieve the desired
effect. It is the ability with which he fulfills the technical requirements of his
particular work of art. It has to do with the way he manipulates his medium to
express his ideas. Artists differ from one another in technique even if they use
the same medium.

Example: A sculptor’s techniques are his way of handling chisels and

hammers, likewise a painter holds his brush and flows his strokes applied on
the canvass.

The Medium of Visual Arts

a. Watercolor- As a medium is difficult to handle because it is difficult to
produce warm and rich tones. While changes may be made once the paint
has been applied such changes normally tend to make the color less
luminous. This defect however is rendered by watercolor artists through some
techniques.

An example is the method of gouache, an opaque watercolor painting the

major effects of which are caused by the white paper itself. The gouache is
done by mixing zinc white with regular watercolor paints to tone them down
giving the appearance of sobriety suitable for dramatic purposes.

B. Fresco- This is the painting on the moist plaster surface with colors ground
in water or a limewater mixture. The colors dry into plaster, and the picture
becomes a part of the wall. Fresco must be done quickly because it is an
exciting medium.

C. Tempera- Paints are mineral pigments mixed with egg yolk, egg white, and
ore. They are often used as a binder due to their film-forming properties and
rapid drying rate.
D. Pastel- This is a stick of dried paste made of pigments ground with chalk
and compounded with gum water. Its colors are luminous, and it is a very
flexible medium. Some artists use it as a fixing medium or a protecting surface
such as glass, but when the chalk rubs, the picture loses some of its
brilliance.

E. Encaustic- This is one of the early mediums used by the Egyptians for the
painted portrait on mummy cases. This is done by painting with wax colors
fixed with heat. Painting with wax; produces luster and radiance.

F. Oil- Painting is one of the most expensive art activities today because of
the prohibitive cost of materials. In oil painting, pigments are mixed with
linseed oil and applied to the canvas. One good quality of oil paint as a
medium is its flexibility. The artist may use a brush, palette knife, or even his
bare hands when applying paint to his canvas. In some cases, we do not even
notice the artist’s stroke because the paint is applied very smoothly. One
distinctive characteristic of oil paints, compared with other mediums, is that
they dry slowly and the painting may be changed and worked over a long
period. Painting done in oil is glossy and last long.

G. Acrylic- This medium is used popularly by contemporary painters because

of the transparency and quick drying characteristics of watercolor and the
flexibility of oil combined. This synthetic paint is mixed with acrylic emulsion
as a binder for coating the surface of the artwork. Acrylic paints do not break
easily, unlike oil paints which turn yellowish or darker over a long period

H. Mosaic- Art is a picture or decoration made of small pieces of inlaid

colored stones or glass called “tesserae” which most often are cut into
squares glued on a surface with plaster or cement. Mosaic is usually
classified as painting. Although the medium used is not strictly pigment.
Mosaic art is an important feature of Byzantine churches. A prominent
religious artwork in Manila done in the mosaic is found on the altar of Sta.
Cruz Church shows a wounded white lamb, symbolizing Christ, with a stream
that flows down directly to the tabernacle.

I. Stained Glass- As artwork is common in Gothic Cathedrals and churches.

This is made by combining many small pieces of colored glass which are held
together by bands of lead.

J. Tapestry- This is a fabric consisting of a warp upon which colored threads

are woven by hand to produce a design, often pictorial and for wall hangings
and furniture covering. During the Middle Ages, they were hung on the walls
of palaces and in Cathedrals on festive occasions to provide warmth.

K. Drawing- Usually done on paper, using pencil pen and ink or charcoal. It is
the most fundamental of all skills necessary in the arts. Drawing can be done
with different kinds of mediums and the most common is a pencil which
comes in different degrees of hardness or softness, with the pencil lead
(graphite) depending on the kind of drawing the artist will undertake. For line
work, hard pencil lead is applied. Ink, one of the oldest mediums still in use,
offers a great variety of qualities, depending on the tools. And techniques
used in applying the ink on the surface.

L. Bistre- is a brown pigment extracted from the soot of wood and often used
in pen and wash drawings.

M. Crayons- are pigments bound by wax and compressed into painted sticks
used for drawing especially among children in the elementary grade. They
adhere better to the paper surface.

N. Charcoal- these are carbonaceous materials obtained by heating wood or

other organic substances in the absence of air. Charcoal is used in
representing broad masses of light and shadow. Like drawing in a pencil, soft
charcoal produces the darkest value, while the darkest produces lightness
tone.

O. Silverpoint- In this medium, the artist has a technique of drawing with a

silver stylus on specially prepared paper to produce a thin grayish line that
was popular during the Renaissance Period.

P. Printmaking- A print is anything printed on a surface that is a direct result of

a duplicating process. Ordinarily, the painting or graphic image is done in
black ink on white paper and becomes the artist’s plate.

Five types of Prints

1. Woodcut- As the name implies, this is made from a piece of wood. The
design stands as a relief, the remaining surface of the block is being cut away/
a woodblock prints just as do the letters of a typewriter. The lines of the
design are wood, so they are very fine. Woodcuts can be identified because
of their firm, clear and black lines.

2. Engraving- this is the art of forming designs by cutting, and corrosion by

acids. In engraving, the lines of the design are cut into a metal plate with ink
and transferred from the plate to the number. The lines of an engraving are
cut by hand with an instrument called a burin, a steel tool with an oblique point
and rounded handle for carving stone and engraving.

3. Intaglio- This is a printing process in which the design or the text is

engraved into the surface of the place and the ink is transferred to paper from
the groover. The design is engraved and etched into a metal plate.

4. Stencil Printing- This is a very common art activity done by high school
students these days as a part of their practical art courses. It is a process that
involves the cutting of the design on special paper cardboard or metal sheet in
such a way that when ink is rubbed over it, the design is reproduced on the
surface.

5. Relief- Involves the cutting away from blocks of wood or linoleum of the
parts of the design that the artist wants to be seen. Leaving the portion of a
design to stand out wants to be seen, leaving the portion of a design to stand
out on a block or linoleum. The apparent projection of parts of the design
gives the appearance of the third dimension. Color prints are made by
preparing a separate block for each color to be used, only the parts to be
printed with precision must be in the proper area.

The Mediums of Sculpture

There are several materials available for a sculpture to work with according to
the artist’s interest in the subject- stone, marble, jade, and granite, to name a
few. Each of them presents an interesting motivation to challenge the
sculptor’s creativity.
A. Stone- A hard substance formed from mineral and earth material. The
finish is granular and dull in appearance. These are normally used for
gravestones in cemeteries.

B. Granite- This is a granular igneous rock composed of feldspar and quartz,

usually combined with other minerals, and is quite difficult to chisel. This is
good for large works with only a few designs.

C. Marble- is limestone in a more or less crystalline state and is capable of

taking a high polish, occurring in many varieties. It is easier to carve than
granite.

D. Jade- is a fine colorful stone usually green, and used widely in Ancient
China. It is highly esteemed as an ornamental stone for carving and
fashioning jewelry.

E. Ivory- Which comes from the main part of the tasks of elephants is the hard
white substance used to make carvings and billiards balls. In the home of
some well-to-do families in the Philippines, the faces and hands of Images of
saints are made of Ivory. The bodies are made of wood, carved, and painted.

F. Metals- Include any of a class of elementary substances such as gold,

silver, or copper all of which are characterized by capacity, ductility,
conductivity, and peculiar luster when freshly fractured. Traditionally, the
metals that have been the medium for sculpture are copper, brass, bronze,
gold, silver, and lead. Aluminum is a recent addition to the list Bronze is
another by-product of metal consisting of copper and tin with color and is one
of the most universally popular metals for sculpture. Bronze as a material is
strong, durable, and resistant to any atmospheric corrosion.

G. Brass- an alloy of copper and zinc is not popularly used by artists because
of its limitations as a medium. Although it has many practical uses. Brass
does not rust and it takes a brilliant polish.

H. Copper- which has peculiar brilliance is used as a costing medium. This is

shaped by hammering. It can be in relief forms,

I. Gold and Silver- are used for casting and forging. With the help of a welding
torch iron, it can be worked into a variety of unique and exciting forms.
J. Lead- a bluish-gray metal is used for casting and forging. With the help of a
welding torch iron, it can be worked into a variety of unique and exciting
forms.

K. Plaster- a composition of lime, sand, and water. Plaster is worked on an

armature of metal wires and rods in addition to various materials and fibers.
This is applied on walls and ceilings and allowed to harden and dry. The
medium is used extensively to make manikins, models, mold architectural
decorations, and other indoor sculptures.

The Medium of Architecture Architecture

- is the art of designing a building and supervising its construction. It
fulfills man’s need which leads to its creation.

Man’s needs:
1. Physical needs- shelter
2. Emotional needs- endowed with rich beauty and interest
3. Intellectual needs- the purpose of occupation
4. Psychosocial needs- recognition, response, and self-expression

Factors in the choice and use of Architectural Materials

1. Structural property- workability with tools when used as construction
materials.
a. Comprehensive strength
b. Tensile
c. Porosity
d. Lightness
e. Durability
f. Rigidity
g. Gracefulness
h. Flexibility of use

2. Physical Property- aesthetic use of the material for beauty

a. Texture
b. b. Tonal quality
c. Color

3. Weakness of the materials

a. Rotting
b. Corrosion due to moisture
c. Susceptibility to infection
d. Discoloration
e. Solar radiation
f. Fungus growth

4. Longevity of materials- the lifespan of material

a. 10 years to 20 years
b. Half a century
c. More than a century
5. Other inherent properties
a. Weight
b. water resistance
c. heat resistance
d. acoustic values

6. others (non-inherent properties)

a. Availability
b. Economy

Production Process

Why does art Production and Why does it matter? Answer:

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______________________________________________________________
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Production is a word with many meanings. It can refer to making something,

or a final product, like a theatrical performance. It can be a process of bringing
a song or musical work to life or honing that work to perfection.

Why does it have to do with art? Answer:

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______________________________________________________________
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Production is the heart of making art. Artists and theories have long
acknowledged their importance both as artistic action and an idea to be
explored. As the role of production has shifted in our lives, so have how artists
have responded to it. While some contemporary artist foreground production
as a tool, others use their work to explore ideas around production we might
otherwise overlook (Tate Exchange, 2020)

Production process- the process of creating artwork does not necessarily

follow a linear progression. It is because artwork requires creativity, which
does not always adhere to conventions that artists usually used to. However,
this does not mean there is no guiding principle governing the art production
process.
The process is essentially tripartite; 1. Preproduction, 2. Production and 3.
Post-production. The artist always begins with an idea that he or she wants to
express or communicate to an audience.

Preproduction is the process of anticipating the production of art

masterpieces, which includes logistics human resources, and workshops or
trials. Some artist, however, conceives their ideas when material manipulation
is already underway. This is when preproduction sometimes seeps into the
production stage. Production is the actual execution and creation of art.
Sometimes preproduction and production can go together, to save resources.
Postproduction is exhibiting the masterpieces in the gallery, the launching of a
book, the preview of a movie, a dance rehearsal, and the like. In
postproduction, art products are ready for distribution and exhibition in
different venues. The artist has the final say on whether his/her artwork is for
public or private viewing only. We Can expect multiple reactions from those
who can view the masterpiece; usually, it can be divided into two; positive and
negative reactions. Conflicting reactions are the result of different
interpretations of those who have observed them.

Performing arts

A. MUSIC Vocal Music- is the oldest and most natural form of music.

Classification of Vocal Music:

(under long vocal form)
1. Opera
2. Cantata
3. Oratorio
4. Moro-Moro
5. Zarzuela

(Under the short vocal form)

1. Folksongs
2. Art songs
3. Kundiman
4. Balitaw
5. Donza-habanera
6. Anthem
7. Motet
8. Madrigal
9. Ballad
10. Chorale
11. Round/cannon 1
12. Aria

Voice Classification
Voice differs considerably according to timbre quality and range. As to timbre,
they are classified into two:

A. Women’s voices
1. Soprano- tone is lighter in character, less somber and frequently
more flexible, and classified into:
1.1 coloratura soprano
1.2 mezzo-soprano
1.3 lyric-soprano

2. Alto or contralto- tone is richer and fuller.

B. Men’s voices
1. Tenor- the highest type in men’s voices
 2. Baritone- the voice between tenor and bass
3. Bass-lowest and deepest voice quality
The Instrumental Music

Musical Instruments are the second medium in music. Forms of Instrumental

music are classified to:
1. Sonata- long composition for solo instruments, consisting of large
sections called movements. These movements are the allegro, andante, and
rondo.
2. Suite- a series of music pieces that tells a story.
3. Symphony- a sonata for the orchestra.
4. Concerto- a sonata for solo and orchestra designed to show off the
virtuosity of the soloist.
5. Chamber music- rhythm for two solo instruments The different

Musical Instruments String Instruments

a. Violin
b. Viola
c. Violoncello
d. String bass

Woodwinds
a. Piccolo
b. Flute
c. Clarinet
d. Oboe
e. English horn
f. Bass clarinet
g. Bassoon
h. Contrabassoon

Brasses
a. Trumpet
b. French horn
c. Trombone
d. Tuba

Percussion Instruments
a. Snare drum
b. Bass drum
c. Cymbals
d. Triangle

Properties of Musical Sound

1. Pitch- the highness or lowness of a tone in the musical scale
2. Duration- property of sound depends on the length of time over
which vibration is maintained.
3. Volume- the force or percussive effects as a result of which the tone
strikes us being loud or soft.
 4. Timbre- tone color- the individual quality of the sound produced by
the other instruments.