How Was That Fine Art Painting Created, Anyway?

People who are interested in adding fine art to the wall art of their home or office will generally choose a work of art that appeals to them visually, while complementing their decorative tastes.
It may be full of vibrant color or a black and white piece.
Its frame may be highly decorative or have a modern simple look.
The one consideration that is rarely considered is the type of media used to create that chosen artwork, especially if the person does not know the differences in the types of media that famous artists use to create paintings or prints.
Is the artwork you just hung on your wall an original or a reproduction? Is it an oil painting, a lithograph, giclee, serigraph, heliogravure, watercolor or a mixed media creation? You may have heard of some of these terms, but do not know what they mean or what the differences are.
Would knowing how it was created have made a difference as to whether or not you chose to purchase the artwork? Probably not.
If it works for you and you love the image, that's all that matters, however, wouldn't it be nice to know more about your lovely painting or print? To explain the meaning of each type of the most popular fine art media used by famous master artists, along with the pros and cons of using that particular medium would be far too much to include in one article.
Therefore, this article is an introduction into the different types of painting or print media with a very brief description of each.
Follow-up articles will take each one and devote that article to each medium.
The most common media types are:

• Oil Paint - Pigmented oils are put onto a canvas using various tools in layers allowing one layer to dry at a time to create original works of art.
  
• Watercolor - Water soluble paints that are generally applied to fine art paper using very small brushes.
  
• Lithography - A method of printing using stone or metal using litho pens, chalks and brushes which is transferred onto fine art paper.
  
• Giclee - Images are created using very high quality ink-jet printers to produce the artwork.
  
• Heliogravure - Created by carving or engraving a design into a metal or hard stone which is then transferred onto etching paper.
  
• Serigraph - Paints are pushed through a silk screen onto fine art paper or canvas using a special artist's tool.
  
• Acrylics - Fast drying acrylic paints are used on canvas or illustration boards to create original artwork.
  
• Mixed Media - The use of several different media are used to create the work of art.
  

As mentioned above, over the next several weeks, a series of articles will be written to describe each one of these media types in much greater detail with the advantages and disadvantages of each and why an artist may choose one over the other.
Decorating your home or office with paintings or prints that you are proud to own and that you enjoy looking at is most important, but knowing more about that appealing work of art only enhances owning the piece.
Look for the first article of the series on oil painting, coming soon.