Study Skills - Essay Writing

Essay Structure
The best way to construct an essay is to follow your typical structure. The structure is quite easy to follow all things considered.
Here's a simple structure found on De Montfort Uni site:
Title
An essay title contains an explicit or implicit text. Therefore, after writing this, your essay should focus around this title.
Introduction
This should only be brief - the introduction should introduce briefly what is coming in the actual essay. What will your essay include and what will be your focus?
Main Body
Typically, you have 4-5 main topics in an essay. They should flow off of one another, you need to include your evidence, how does it fit into the title in question?
Conclusion
Remember, do not include any new material in this section. Summaries your ideas/argument, link back to the title and restate what you consider to be the main points. Some people like to make a rough conclusion before the actual conclusion.
REFERENCE LIST
- Publisher
- Page numbers
- In alphabetical order by surname

Alternative Miss World initial research

Alternative Miss World has been an on going 'beauty' pageant, challenging beauty ideals since 1972. Since 1972, it has changed a lot - it begun as a party-like event where people were free to do anything they wanted; including drugs and having sex wherever they'd like in the venue. However, since then it has kept it's chilled environment and it's excitement with the idea that anybody can take part and anybody can be whatever they'd like. The name "Alternative Miss World" was initially sued due to it's name being 'Miss World' - which referenced to Miss World and Barbie. However, they won the case with help from Tony Blaire. The show consists of a theme; a swimsuit, daytime and evening wear time - which the contestants are not allowed to rehearse prior to the show to keep the show complete raw. When AMW begun, it struggled to get going due to people not taking the concept seriously and they struggled to scrape enough money to start it, but the creator Andrew Logan kept it at his dream and it still stands today.

Andrew Logan

Logan was born in 1945 and studied at Oxford. He is a jewellery designer, a trained practitioner in Yoga (which in the Art Show of Yoga based in London, Logan presented the show.) Andrew Logan's family and friends are all very supportive and always have been, of Alternative Miss World - which as a consequence Logan's family and friends are regulars in the show and in the audience. Logans work has been shown in the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford and this man certainly is a man of many talents. 

Logan was said to have highly influenced Derek Jarman, which led Jarman to develop a film based documentary on the social scene surrounding Andrew Logan and his lifestyle - including his studio. The studio that Andrew Logan was once based in, was also once home to Vivienne Westwood.  Logan continues to host Alternative Miss World all around the world.

Bruegel Senior

Bruegel Senior was a Netherlandish Renaissance painter in 1559. He often painted, paintings which his father painted (around the same context, not paintings) and he was also a printmaker. Bruegel was born in 1525 and died roughly aged 44 in 1569. Bruegel showed complete interest in the Netherlandish Renaissance - often known for painting peasants with landscape elements and religious work and it was obvious that his interpretation was a vivid deception of life.
Netherlandish Proverbs is the name of the above paintings, although it was originally named 'The Blue Cloak.' The painting in itself has many, many meanings to the point of the very background of the painting having in-depth interpretation. This painting is classic Bruegel with his involvement of humans, objects, animals and the illustration of dutch language proverbs. The running theme for Bruegel is the continuous running absurdity and how he included again, the weirdness and foolishness of humans (which is obvious from the man with his bottom out in the window to the food on the roof.)
(Source: wiki)

Week 1 Life Drawing

The above paintings are during my first week of life drawing. I can remember first years life drawing class and very much enjoying it - but I don't remember the techniques fantastically therefore my first week back to life drawing wasn't overly ace. They're inaccurate (room for improvement) however, they do work and the use of paint is something I have missed. Acrylic paint worked well within these paintings, because you can quite simply catch light and dark very easily. My technique is the lighter the colour (yellow) is placed in the section where the skin is lit. The darker colour such as blue is where the dark areas are. The red is used for shadow and to show shape and form.

These are the sketches I produced in life drawing. They're not terrible and my accuracy isn't awful, but they aren't fantastic. Sketching is not my strong point - especially the body; however for a first attempt since 2014, I don't think it's awful. The breasts so far, is my favourite place to focus on. They always have a large surface area to try and grasp the shadows and where to place your lines. The mark making skills we used again this year are the thumb x pencil technique, which I used on these. The measuring of the thumb to chin, to see how many times it can fit into the human form is something interesting.

Finally, this is the paint on black paper. I really love the contrast of white on black paper - therefore the painting sits nicely. The back, I found very difficult to comprehensively paint; it has so many groves and angles and it's very hard to capture it well. However, for a first attempt I don't think this is awful. My painting style was quick and instantaneous and I tried not to focus on the actual style too much - rather the shape and form of the model.

Next week I want to try some different styles and go darker with pencil/charcole to show more shape and form on her body.

Visit to Manchester - William De Morgan (A&C Movement)

Due to De Morgan being a decretive artist that has designed many things from the pottery above to the tiles below. He was an art's and crafts movement designer and he typically painted in Persian colours. All the designs you see by him, were all hand painted and they usually ended up in Victorian homes.

The designs by De Morgan were particularly of interest to me because I'm a huge lover of botanics and the beauty of nature. He, much like myself, loved the idea of nature and usually painted designs that were repeated and decorative - which I personally find very aesthetically pleasing. These tiles (above) were painted in '1872-1900' and were often used in Victorian homes on their walls. Today we replicate the style (to a degree) with items you can buy in places such as Jon Lewis with a very similar feel to De Morgans style. 

Thursday - Print Makings

The utensils I use when lino cutting. The utensils are sharp and should be approached with caution as it's very easy to cut through the lino with them therefore it's definitely easy to go through your fingers with them. The sharp parts inside of the handle are detachable and you're able to detach and re-attach them so you don't have to have multiple handles with each little sharp part. The sharp parts are (I'm unable to find a technical name) all different shapes and sizes therefore making it very easy to create the shapes you want. The wooden block on the left is what you place on the table and snuggly fits onto the table, therefore you can trap the lino and it doesn't move when you're cutting it.

 This is my little design that I tested the lino with. I wanted something simple yet for it to fit nicely into the subject in hand; nature. Therefore, my decision was a hare (influenced by Keaton Hensons album "dear"). They worked well, but I figured you need a lot of paint on the shape for it to press well. The design isn't overly accurate, but it was just a tester. The smaller amount of spacings between the edges, traps the paint and can easily wreck the design; but it's not too much of a problem if you press it down very carefully. The other designs didn't really work - the mushrooms were printed with ink which I had to paint onto the lino.

This is the little mushy design I did initially. I didn't really think it through - I literally just went to town on this lino cutting. the design isn't necciserily terrible but wouldn't be one I'd repeat again. This is because the design doesn't allow a large section to be printed; only the bits that I paint, paint or ink on. The leaves are very automatic and the mushroom looks nice in the left but on the right it didnt imprint the detail (which is sad, really.) I don't think it particularly works if you don't use a rolled; however the roller isn't going to work very well if there isn't a boarder because it would've done the entire background which I didn't want (plus, I tried and rolling ink doesn't work out.)

This was my set up. I put the paint in a lid to make it easier for myself at the end of the day. The rolled couldn't fit that well, though so I had to use a much smaller version. In future I would definitely use a bit pallet and a lot more paint.

A brief over-view of Surrealism, Dali and Magritte.

Surrealism is a cultural movement which began in the early 1920's. Surrealism is well known for it;s dream-like imagery and writings. Artist's typically painted illogical, untheoretical imagery which allowed people to question what they're looking at. The movement was an extraction from the Dada movement.
Dali:
Dali is single-handedly the most recognisable artist by the surrealist movement. dali was a Spanish artist and is mainly well known for his melting clocks and dream like imagery.
Metamorphosis of Narcissus:

Dali is single-handedly the most recognisable artists by the surrealist movement. Dali was a Spanish artist and is mainly well known for his melting clocks and dream like imagery.

Magritte:
Magrittes most iconic (and probably the most iconic painting in the movement) is "The Son of Man."

The son of man was to be said, painted as a self-portrait with the hope of creating an important message about himself. In regards to the painting, Magitte stated that “Everything we see hides another thing. We always want to see what is hidden by what we see. There is an interest in that which is hidden and which the visible does not show us. This interest can take the form of a quite intense feeling, a sort of conflict, one might say, between the visible that is hidden and the visible that is present.”

Medieval etchings/engravings

1) An Etching by an unknown artist 2) A woodcut

 (Sources for this page: Wikipedia & instagram)
Etchings/engravings is the way in which people used to create art onto or for buildings or into stone for multiple purposes. They typically use flat surface by cutting grooves into a material which creates a perusable or engraved image.

They usually engraved into; stone, silver, wood, glass, or steel or create a printing plate out of copper or another material (typically metal.) Today, we can create a similar way or working with lino and a press. Engraving was historically, an important way to create imagery through artistic printmaking:- mapmaking, illustrations for books or magazines. 

We can see a lot of the same finish today in several ways and it's obvious that the unique finish of printmaking in previous years/centuries, has highly impact the way we see art. You can today, see tattoo's with a similar line making method that would be left on a print making image - This is @Mxmttt's work:

As you can see by these images, you can see that the lifework resembles that of an a medieval etching. The interesting way that it forms the shading is very popular in today's tattooing industry yet each person who adapts the style uses it in their own way and technique.

Sin eater's illustrations:

 I have made an entirely separate post on sin eater's illustrations; but due to relevance - here it is again. The way that sin eater uses linework and subtle cross hatching to create the style of an etching is ever so interesting. 

Diggingest Girl:

As you can see, printmaking is still a physical thing. This is a piece by an illustrator named "Diggingest Girl". She creates lino cuts and presses them onto paper and that leaves her with a pleasant result. These are typically used in books, or clothing or on accessories and are quite popular for designs at the moment.