Sketch:Discuss:Record

This week our words were illuminate, materials, idiom, and {commodity firmness and delight} We started using new techniques such as water color, and gesture drawings of people. The gesture drawings are a type of idiom in the sense that idiom can mean a distinct style or character in music or art according to dictionary.com. another definition that was mentioned in class was a "a characteristic mode of expression in music or art.

The gesture drawings show a sense of style and characteristic because when some examples were shown in class after doing the exercise all of them looked different and showed personality. It was interesting to see that some people made them really small and some people drew the figures larger.

Not only have we begun to draw human figures, but we started using new materials, mainly water color. Last week we drew illuminated artifacts, which ties into this week because one of our prompts is illuminated, when i think of the word illuminated i think of light. In drawing class we got into small groups and talked about some of the vignettes we did. we picked a few that expressed good light and good composition. One of mine was chosen as a good representation of good light. We talked about leaving white on your paper which adds to the overall composition. When we had to do vignettes of our classmates wearing their artifact i left the color out of Wes's face and i like the way it turned out. Only having a lot of color on the hair makes it look more illuminated.

Experimenting with the new materials like water color, colored pencil, and markers to see what gives the best effect relates to the materials that were used in Egypt. The more they experimented with the materials the better the architecture became. The Egyptians made a lot of decorative paintings in the tombs and temples. One of the materials that they used as a base for the decorative paintings was plaster. They used the materials that they had available to them. "The annual deposits of alluvial sol in the Nile Valley provided substantial amounts of raw material for plaster. (Blakemore 8). They also used gypsum plaster and whitening plaster as bases for the decorative paintings. "Beyond plaster, wood and stone each served as a ground for painting. (Blakemore 8) Lime stone and sand stone were the most popular stones in ancient Egypt for building.

The famous pyramids at Giza were made out of sand stone. The pyramids are a good representation of Wotton's three criteria, commodity, firmness and delight. The delight in the pyramids comes from not only the exterior, but also the interior. The pyramids were made in a large scale, the exterior was made white and shiny and the tip of the pyramid was made of gold which glared in the sun, blinding anyone who would look at it. The inside of the pyramids were decorated and filled with riches. The reason for this is because the pyramids were used as tombs. Ancient Egypt's greatest architectural remnants are buildings dedicated to funerary practices (Roth 188) The interiors had decorative paintings, hieroglyphics, and furniture. The afterlife was more important than human life, so they sent the dead away with all the goods and riches they would need in the afterlife.

The commodity of the buildings also tied in the the religion. The Egyptians were very religious people. "In practice, Egyptian religion was polytheistic. Gods were associated with different towns or regions." (Blakemore 2) Because the Gods were so important to them they built massive buildings that reached up towards the heavens. In Mesopotamia the Ziggurat, which is the prototype for the Egyptian Pyramids, the most important part of the building was the top center, which was the closest to the heavens. The pyramids also had different functions that were built into them. Because they wanted to protect the dead they built booby traps into them so that any intruders would be stopped. The decorative hieroglyphics also had a part to play. They told important stories, and also are a good example of firmness.

Not only are the pyramids still standing thousands of years later, but the hieroglyphics are still readable. Because the Egyptians believed that you live in the afterlife for eternity they wanted their buildings and scriptures to stand the test of time, which they did.

Another good example of commodity, firmness and delight would be the Hypostyle Hall, "A roofed chamber filled with columns and lit by clerestory windows (Roth 206) The hall is made of massive columns that are decorated with hieroglyphics and paintings. The fact that it is still standing today shows how good the structural integrity is, which is amazing considering the lack of technology and tools when it was built.

Pyramid image http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/time-zone/africa/egypt/images/giza-pyramids.jpg
Hieroglyphics image http://wwwdelivery.superstock.com/WI/223/2102/PreviewComp/SuperStock_2102-1012.jpg