Visual art has been practiced for centuries all over the world, so it’s finally time to decide: which art mediums are the best? These are entirely based on my experiences using each material and are ranked from worst to best.

Crayons

In addition to having the worst mispronunciation known to humanity (CRAINS), crayons are a burden to all things holy and are incapable of creating actual quality work. Go back to Kindergarten.

Oil Pastel

Oil Pastels take each horrible aspect about crayons and amplify them tenfold. They’re waxy; they’re sticky; they’re weak; they crumble everywhere. The only reason they’re ranked higher than crayons is because it’s possible to create some fresh blends with them. These blends come at the cost of ruining at least two oil pastels and your sanity while making contact with these demonic devices. Good riddance.

Markers

“Markers” encompasses a lot of different levels of quality, but even then, I rank them this low. Why? If you’re using, per se, a Crayola marker, you might as well reconsider your life choices. If you’re using a higher-end marker like Copic, you can create some pretty amazing things, but at the cost of your kidneys. Useful quality markers are too expensive to be worth it.

Oil Paint

Oil Paint is like the oil pastel of painting. If that wasn’t redundant enough, oil paint is just as much of a nuisance to use as are their pastel brethren. The only upside is that you don’t have to make contact with the medium as you’ll be using a brush (hopefully). Even so, creating something with oil paint is a hassle in itself, as it takes literal centuries to dry before you can safely handle the canvas.

Gouache

A weird in-between of acrylic and watercolor, gouache is akin to that of a displaced immigrant, sad and lost. It’s not as opaque as acrylic, so you can’t delete your mistakes, but it’s not as thin as watercolor, which is the entire point of watercolor.

Colored Pencils

Of the three run-of-the-mill Crayola mediums, colored pencils are by far the best. Everyone and their mom uses colored pencils. They’re easy, last a decent while, and don’t make me want to rip out my eyeballs. However, it isn’t very easy to create something of quality without forking over a ton of money for Prismacolors. Overall though, the biggest downside to colored pencils is the evasiveness of the black. I can guarantee you that you’ve mistaken an indigo or violet for a black at least once in your life.

Acrylic Paint

Ah, acrylic. There isn’t much to say here, acrylic is your standard paint. If you make a mistake, you wait for it to dry and paint over it. The only downside I can think of is the anxiety of getting acrylic on your clothes because that stuff does not come out.

Ink/Pen

There’s a weird split between what is a marker and what is a pen. Ultimately, if it’s thinner than a regular Sharpie, it’s a pen. Anywho, pens are great for outlining over sketches and making really tiny details. I mean incredibly tiny. Micron pens can get so unbelievably small it’s not even funny. They also smell fresh, but I don’t think you should sniff them as much as I do.

Scratchboard

Have you ever wanted to make art with knives? Do you want to forget about the everlasting impressions you make on this universe by cutting away your problems? Then you need a scratchboard! It’s the edgiest and coolest way to make art hands down. You’re drawing in negative, and that’s epic enough to put scratchboard up this high on the list.

Graphite

“Without graphite, there would be no sketching. Ever.” – Me, like five seconds ago

Watercolor

You can’t go wrong with watercolor. Well, you actually can but get good or something, I don’t know. I will admit watercolor is one of the hardest mediums if not THE hardest to use. It takes little effort to overwork the paper, even if it is made for watercolor. Unlike Acrylic, there’s no going back, so you have to be very gradual and slow when layering, but also have to consider how much water you’re letting the paper soak up. Overall though, watercolor yields the best-looking result out of any medium, in my opinion. High skill, high risk, high reward.

Charcoal

Whoever invented charcoal was an absolute mad lad. They essentially made a professional form of graphite that somehow gets darker than even the softest types. It comes in different colors too! White charcoal is probably one of the best things humans have done on earth.

Digital

Technology has almost ruined art in the sense that you can create anything using any medium with none of the struggles involved in using the actual physical form of that medium. You don’t have to worry about damaging the paper and can infinitely destroy your mistakes with no consequences. There is a money barrier, and using a tablet that isn’t the screen is quite hard to adjust to, but digital art has taken over the world, and there’s no going back really.

Do you disagree with me? Then you’re wrong! In all honesty, beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder, so you’re bound to think differently than me.