Art Media, Techniques, and Processes
Materials and how they behave
Drawing media range from dry (graphite, charcoal, conté, pastel) to wet (ink, marker). Charcoal smudges and erases readily; graphite carries hardness grades (H harder, B softer). Painting media: watercolor is transparent and relies on the white of the paper; gouache is opaque and water-based; acrylic dries fast and adheres to many surfaces; oil dries slowly, allows blending, and requires solvents; egg tempera dries quickly with crisp edges; fresco is pigment in wet lime plaster (buon fresco) or applied to dry plaster (fresco secco); encaustic is pigment in hot wax.
Printmaking: ask where the ink is
Relief (woodcut, linocut): ink sits on the raised surface, and the artist cuts away non-image areas. Intaglio (engraving, drypoint, etching, mezzotint): ink sits in recessed lines and is pulled under pressure; engraving uses a burin, etching uses acid, drypoint uses a burred needle. Lithography is planographic - ink and water repel each other on a flat stone or plate. Screenprinting forces ink through a stencil. Monotype yields a single unique print.
Sculpture and ceramics
Processes include subtractive (carving), additive (modeling, assemblage), casting (lost wax), and construction. Relief is classified by projection from a background, from low relief to high relief. Clay work uses pinch, coil, slab, and wheel throwing; the sequence runs greenware to bone-dry to bisque to glaze firing, and glaze must fit the clay body.
Traps and a rule of thumb
Trap: calling etching a relief process, or assuming gouache behaves like transparent watercolor. Trap: assuming only the first pull is valuable - editions and artist's proofs matter. Rule of thumb: identify the physical mechanism (where the ink sits, how it transfers, how the medium dries or cures) before answering questions about visual effect or safety. Safety items usually target ventilation for solvents, silica dust, and lead in glazes.