Tempera paint is washable. Tempera paints come opaque and think feeling, but sometimes may not dry solid. Best used on paper, wood and cardboard surfaces. Tempera paint usually dries with a matt finish. Comes in liquid, and can sometimes be found in powder form. Tempera does not have the sticking power to stay on surfaces long-term. Generally, tempera colors are not designed to blend together. Tempera paint is a much better choice if you are looking for paint that is washable, and not permanent.

Tempera is also a term that stands for paint mixed with cohesive materials, such as egg yolk, and describes the painting style and the art medium. This material makes tempera fast-drying and a long-lasting art medium, with evidence of tempera artworks dating back to the 1st century A. D.

Tempera Paint Techniques

This is a traditional art technique that started being recognized as an artistic medium in 15th century Europe. Oil paints, as the name says, usually contain linseed oil that makes them dry slower than others. The prolonged drying time is the advantage of using oil painting as an art medium. It offers artists an opportunity to change some segments of their work or paint a different scene altogether by adding another layer of paint onto the canvas.

Oil Painting Techniques

Regarding drying times, acrylic paints dry fast, as opposed to oil painting, and once they dry, they become water-resistant. However, you can dissolve acrylic paint with water before you apply it on canvas to achieve the effect of gouache or watercolors. Painting with acrylic allows artists to add layers or textures to their artwork, enhancing glossiness and giving it depth. Or they can add water to achieve a matte effect in their paintings.

Techniques

Using watercolor paint as an art medium can be challenging for beginners in the art world. Many artists love watercolors because of their seemingly endless color palette. Once you apply these on paper, there is little you can do to change the result. However, watercolors add a translucent quality to paintings and are ideal for capturing the change of light.

Techniques

This is one of the oldest art mediums used for drawing. Charcoal sticks are made of powdered organic material bound with wax or gum. You can use charcoal to make either pale lines or strong, expressive ones. This artistic material is easily erasable, so it is recommended to apply some fixatives on charcoal drawings to ensure the artwork’s longevity.

Techniques

These art mediums consist of paint pigment similar to the ones in oil paints and a binding material. Using pastels in drawing and painting became popular in the 18th century. Artists can use a combination of different pastels depending on the effect they want to achieve. For example, soft pastels are great for blending, while you use hard pastels to create sharp outlines or sketch the larger composition. There are also pan pastels, a modern version of this art medium that is applied with a soft sponge. You can choose to work with oil pastels that provide an intensity of colors, or water-soluble pastels if you want thinner layers of semi-transparent colors that blend easily.

Techniques

Here is another organic material artists have been using for drawing since the Paleolithic era. Artistic chalk usually comes in three versions, black, white, and sanguine, depending on the material. Black chalks contain soft black stone, whites are made from limestone, and sanguines contain red ochre. Chalks were originally used for sketching but became an independent art medium during the Renaissance.

Techniques

These have been in use as an art medium since the 17th century France. You can use graphite for sketching, outlining, or shading. There are graphite pencils of varying hardness you can use in creating fine art. This is a convenient art medium because it allows you to remake your work by erasing parts of a drawing or an entire work.

Techniques

Everyone used colored pencils for drawing and coloring as a child, making your first attempts to express yourself creatively. Colored pencils have come a long way from being a child’s toy to becoming a professional art medium. They gained considerable attention and respect in the modern art world because of the numerous advantages they offer. Colored pencils’ artwork is expressive, deep, and luminescent. At the same time, this art medium gives artists an opportunity to make photographically realistic pieces of art.

Techniques

This is also a familiar art medium where you use a pen for outlining and adding color in art forms like pen art or hand lettering and calligraphy. You can choose between different types of pens, like graphic pens, fountain pens, or drafting pens, depending on what you want to do with it. Ink is a powerful but unforgiving art medium, so you really need to master ink drawing skills before you start creating with it. What makes pen and ink artworks so expressive is the ratio of the blank spaces and the ink-filled spaces on paper.

Techniques