Oil

Oil is one of the earliest paint used in western art. It's used as early as the Roman times. It is slow drying and is consisted of pigment particles suspended in drying oil. Oil is hard to get a hold of or to work with. It did not become popular until the 17th century. But it is added to tempera paints to increase the quality. Jan van Eyck, a famous Flemish artist, is the first to create a stable siccative oil mixture, and over the years famous artists have added to the recipe for further improvements. Today, oil is a mixture of sandmat, ironweed, bladder pod, and calendula plants.

There are several advantages to oil paint. It has a long drying time (several weeks). This allows artists to work on the painting longer. The paint can blend nicely or give a great contrast. Its surface translucency is similar to skin, which makes it perfect for portraits.

Watercolor

Watercolour is paint consisted of pigments suspended in water soluble vehicle. It is the predominant paint in East Asia, and has been in use(artistically) since 400 B.C. In Europe, however, the history of watercolour begins with the Renaissance. At first, it is generally used to paint sketches, and small design drawings. During the Renaissance, plants and wildlife paintings become more popular. Watercolour composed nature better than all other mediums. Even now, it is used for scientific paper illustrations of plants and animals. Many field guides paint with water colour.

Watercolour is made of four principal ingredients: colorant, binder, additives, and solvent. Colorant is just common pigment. Binder is something that holds the pigments suspended and keep it on paper. Additives are substances that change qualities of watercolour with different amounts, and solvent is used to thin the paint for drawing purposes.

The watercolour brush has a bundle of animal hairs or synthetic fibers tied together at the front. A metal sleeve surrounds it to provide support under pressure.

Acrylic

Acrylic is something that's new to the world compared to the other mediums. It often gets confused with oil. The biggest difference between the two is their drying time. Acrylic dries in a matter of minutes while oil dries in weeks and weeks. Oil also absorbs more pigment than acrylic, and they have different refractive indexes. Acrylic is more consistent than oil and is more consistent in its drying time. Acrylic is stable and way more permanent than oil, which turns yellow or cracked with age. Acrylic is very versatile. It can be mixed with many mediums.

It is first invented in the 1950s. So that's pretty recent. It's invented as a sort of versatile paint that is the next step in paints. It can adapt to many different surfaces is preferred by many modern painters.

Graphite

Graphite itself is discovered during the 16th century. After manufactured into pencils, graphite drawings are mostly sketches and architectural drawings. Many paintings started out as graphite doodles on the canvas. Pencil drawings are distinctive from paintings. Drawings usually convey shapes and shadows by means of line, and are usually only shades of gray. Paintings use colour and convey shapes by colour. Pencil drawings are used more nowadays for cartoons. However, there are many finished pencil drawings are independent on their own and outstandingly beautiful.