ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Artistic media

Imagine you have a big box of crayons and you want to draw a picture. You might use different colors to make things like the sky, the grass, and the people in your picture. Crayons are one kind of artistic media.

Media is just a fancy word that means the different materials artists use to create their artwork. There are many different kinds of artistic media, just like there are many different colors of crayons.

Some of the most common types of artistic media include:

- Paint: Just like crayons, you can use different colors of paint to create a picture. Some people paint with oils or watercolors, and others use acrylics or tempera.
- Drawing: This includes things like pencils, pens, and markers, which can be used to create pictures with lines and shapes. You can also use pastels or charcoal to make drawings that look a little different.
- Sculpture: This is when you create art that is 3-dimensional or has a shape you can touch or hold. People use things like clay, wood, metal, or even recycled materials to create sculptures.

There are many other kinds of artistic media too, like photography, printmaking, textiles, and more.

Each type of artistic media has its own strengths and challenges. For example, painting allows you to blend colors together easily, but it can also be messy and take a long time to dry. Drawing is easy to control and can be done quickly, but it can be difficult to get the shading and details just right. Sculpture can be very tactile and expressive, but it's typically harder to transport and display than 2-dimensional art.

So when you see a piece of artwork, think about what kind of media the artist used to create it. Maybe you'll even want to try using some different media yourself!