Media, or mediums, are the core types of material (or related other tools) used by an artist, composer, designer, etc. to create a work of art.^[1] For example, a visual artist may broadly use the media of painting or sculpting, which themselves have more specific media within them, such as watercolor paints or marble.

The following is a list of artistic categories and the media used within each category:

• Cement, concrete, mortar
• Cob
• Glass
• Metal
• Stone, brick
• Wood

• Adhesives
• Wood (timber)

• Bone china
• Clay
• Glaze
• Porcelain
• Pottery
• Terracotta
• Tile

• Graphic art software and 3D computer graphics
• Word processors and desktop publishing software
• Digital photography and digital cinematography
• Specialized input devices (e.g. variable pressure sensing tablets and touchscreens)
• Digital printing
• Programming languages

• Animation
  • Cel animation
  • Computer animation
  • Cutout animation
  • Drawn-on-film animation
  • Stop motion
• Live action
  • Puppet film
• Video art
  • Single-channel video
  • Video installation

Film, as a form of mass communication, is itself also considered a medium in the sense used by fields such as sociology and communication theory (see also mass media). These two definitions of medium, while they often overlap, are different from one another: television, for example, utilizes the same types of artistic media as film, but may be considered a different medium from film within communication theory.^[2]

A chef's tools and equipment, including ovens, stoves, grills, and griddles. Specialty equipment may be used, including salamanders, French tops, woks, tandoors, and induction burners.

Glassblowing, Glass fusing, colouring and marking methods.

Installation art is a site-specific form of sculpture that can be created with any material. An installation can occupy a large amount of space, create an ambience, transform/disrupt the space, exist in the space. One way to distinguish an installation from a sculpture (this may not apply to every installation) is to try to imagine it in a different space. If the objects present difficulties in a different space than the original, it is probably an installation.

• Digital word processor
• Internet websites
• Letterpress printing
• Computer printers
• Marker
• Pen and ink or *quill
• Pencil

• Card stock
• Paper, perhaps ruled
• Vellum

• Floral design
• Rock
• Soil
• Vegetation
• Water

• Action painting
• Aerosol paint
• Airbrush
• Batik
• Brush
• Cloth
• Paint roller or paint pad
• Palette knife
• Sponge
• Pencil
• Finger

Muralists use many of the same media as panel painters, but due to the scale of their works, use different techniques. Some such techniques include:

• Aerosol paint
• Digital painting
• Fresco
• Image projector
• Marouflage
• Mosaic
• Pouncing

Comics creators use many of the same media as traditional painters.

The performing arts is a form of entertainment that is created by the artist's own body, face and presence as a medium. There are many skills and genres of performance; dance, theatre and re-enactment being examples. Performance art is a performance that may not present a conventional formal linear narrative.

In photography a photosensitive surface is used to capture an optical still image, usually utilizing a lens to focus light. Some media include:

• Digital image sensor
• Photographic film
• Potassium dichromate
• Potassium ferricyanide and ferric ammonium citrate
• Silver nitrate

In the art of printmaking, "media" tends to refer to the technique used to create a print. Common media include:

In sculpting, a solid structure and textured surface is shaped or combined using substances and components, to form a three-dimensional object. The size of a sculptured work can be built very big and could be considered as architecture, although more commonly a large statue or bust, and can be crafted very small and intricate as jewellery, ornaments and decorative reliefs.

• Cement
• Ceramics
• Metal
• Plaster
• Plastic
• Synthetic resin
• Wax

• Clay
• Papier-mâché
• Plaster
• polystyrene
• Sand
• Styrofoam

• Acids to create a patina (corrosive)
• Glaze
• Polychrome
• Wax

The art of sound can be singular or a combination of speech or objects and crafted instruments, to create sounds, rhythms and music for a range of sonic hearing purposes. See also music and sound art.

The use of technical products as an art medium is a merging of applied art and science, that may involve aesthetics, efficiency and ergonomics using various materials.

In the art of textiles a soft and flexible material of fibers or yarn is formed by spinning wool, flax, cotton, or other material on a spinning wheel and crocheting, knitting, macramé (knotting), weaving, or pressing fibres together (felt) to create a work.

• Media (artists' materials) — definition from the Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus.
• Artistic Medium, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy