Body Painting - Intorduction

- Body Painting goes back to tribal traditions and it still widely used today as a form of art, advertising and in competition (world body painting competition)

- It can be done with the bodies natural shapes.

- It can be done with water based paints = aqua colour or oil based paints = super colour.

Carolyn Cowan does body painting tutorials on YouTube that we focused on during the lesson. First we practiced making strong, clean lines with aqua colours .

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I did this with a large brush and used lots of paint to build up an opaque colour . I tried to make the lines as straight and neat as possible.

Next we practiced blending the colour together using different methods. We dragged one colour to the next going in the same direction, we dragged the two colours downwards to soften them into eachother and we used a sponge to stipple the two colours together

My favourite method for blending was dragging the two colours together downwards along the line as I think this gave the most even blend and was the neatest. The others became a little muddy and messy. Dragging it down gave a good blend without going to far into the other colours.

The next thing we did was practise body painting with oil-based paints. We made four squares of colour with strong neat lines again.

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We also practiced blending oil paints from white to black with an even gradient.

Another technique we practiced was layering oil paints on top of water and vice versa. The two can be layered if the underneath colurs are set ( water dried and oil based paint set with powder)

Next we looked at mixing paints with fullers earth to create textures in the body paint.

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You can mix body paint, fullers earth and flour to create a smoother texture that cracks less or just fullers earth to get the cracked effect. We also looked at drawing patters in the paint when it's wet so they are fully in the paint when dry.

This is all the different textures that I experimented with using body paint and fullers earth.

This blue section is fullers earth and flour with blue painted on top and glitter sprinkled.

This section is an underpaint of orange body paint with fullers earth and flour on top. I then drew patters in the mixture which showed the orange colour underneath.

This section is just fullers earth straight on the skin with glitter sprinkled on top which stuck to it whilst wet. Unfortunately it took too long to dry so I didn't get a picture of it with all the fullers earth completely set.

 Evaluation

Overall I am happy with the experimentation I did for body painting. I had never done it before so I wanted to practice many techniques. I liked the straight lines I did for the water and oil based paints as I think they were very neat and looked good from afar. I was also pleased with the blend from white to black as although it was difficult to get it not to smudge and to get the full gradient of greys. Next time I would like the white to be more prominent and for the black to not smudge so far into it. The other experimentation with fullers earth and paints did not look so good but I got to practice a lot of techniques. I liked the drawing patters in the fullers earth and flour mixture and the painting over of the materials to make the colour pop more.

Ginger Snaps Viewing

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We viewed Ginger snaps in class and I made notes during the film through the lens of Gender/Sexuality as this interests me a lot and is along the lines of what I'd like to do for my project.

- 'Wrists are for girls' idea that an act can be feminine based on the fact that male acts are 'tough' or more difficult. Masculine is harder therefore better and they want to steer away from feminine things as they are associated with being weak - stereotyped gender roles

- We see the women playing sport from the male point of view. The first time the sisters come across as sexual is the camera being through the eyes of a male, idea that women's sexuality is based off men's desires.

- Girl called a 'bitch' because she rejects a boy. Negative connotations to girls who make own choices on sexuality.

- Can't talk about menstruating at dinner in front of man even though it's natural because society views it as a bad, taboo subject.

- Menstruating is a curse because it's a sign of women losing their innocence. Once a girl has her first period she is no longer pure and untouched. She is now 'dirty' and no longer innocent therefore something bad must happen to her. A punishment for the sin of womanhood (religious connotations in this - traditional values are still upheld)

- Man slays the beast whilst the girls run

- After she has her first period she wears tighter clothes, different hairstyles, sexuality begins to increase because her innocence is lost. All this is seen from the male perspective as she walks down the corridor in school.

- woman is overally sexual and the man sees it as uncomfortable and tells her to lie back. Society is uncomfortable with women being dominant sexually. 'who's the guy' = men should be dominant sexually and women should be submissive. The swapping of roles is uncomfortable and different. The werewolf could be seen as a metaphor for society being uncomfortable with women's owning their sexuality.

- Rape comment = women being overtly sexual, dressing in a certain way gives men the right and excuse to rape her? Another common view in society that girls 'asked for it'

- women are stereotyped as 'slut, bitch, tease or virgin next door'. We box in women's personalities to make them keep to what society thinks is best or make them feel guilty if they do otherwise.

- Very sinful act of killing is compared to masturbating  - something that society see's as sinful for a woman to do.

- Overly sexualised Halloween costume is again seen from the male perspective as she walks in the room.

- Younger sister takes positive action by the end - she's doing and he's encouraging. She's left as the last girl standing.

Alien - Film Viewing

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We viewed the 1979 film Alien in class. Again I viewed this film through the light of gender identities as this is what I will be focusing around for my project.

- Woman is asking to leave where they are exploring, men are persuading and making the decision to go on. Stereotypical gender roles of women as passive and men as aggressive and the decision makers.

- The least intelligent character is the first to die. Role of  'stupid' man to show the group what they're up against.

- Two clear women in film. One woman panicking and one woman being strong and giving instructions. Not much light and shade.

- Women viewed as sentimental when she goes back for the cat. Risks life for it - women are motherly and maternal and can't leave something helpless. Viewed as senseless and idiotic in the film.

- The man jumps infront of the woman to save her so he dies first - volunteer to die = brave

- The woman is clearly strong and capable against the alien but when she gets attacked by a man then other men have to save her.

 - She is the character that said the first man infected by the alien needed to be quarantined but no-one listened as she wasn't being compassionate and this was viewed as bad (especially as she is a woman) By then end we know that her decision would have been right all along. but it's not admitted by anyone.

- After she has first escaped she takes her clothes off which could be seen as belittling achievement as we see her sexually as a character after all she's done. When she first takled the alien she tied her hair up - a symbol of hiding her femininity to take on the masculine role of fighting. Once that's done we need to remember she's a woman so we see her in few clothes. Mirrors societies view that women can't just be clever/brave  without using their body as a tool. There is no need for her to be in her underwear as it doesn't add anything to storyline.

- When she needs to be empowered and take on a males role again she is in a spacesuit so her gender identity is more masculine again.

 - Afterwards she is back in skimpy clothing to reinforce her gender role - even though she's done something brave and strong to be a comfortable gender role as a woman she must then be seen as back in the place of nurturing the cat and being a 'woman'