Blockbuster and NetFlix have a huge selection of DVD rentals online that you can browse through and choose from.  Sample the DVD rentals you are interested in purchasing before you buy them and make sure you really want to invest your money on certain DVDs.

Why spend all of your hard earned money on DVDs if you aren’t sure you are even going to enjoy it?  Don’t rely on what other people say about the DVDs you intend to purchase: just because one person enjoyed the DVD you are planning on buying it doesn’t mean you will.  Why fill up your DVD collection with unwanted DVDs?

Instead, visit an online provider’s website and start taking full advantage of the opportunity to see the DVDs before you purchase them by getting DVD rentals online.  This way, you can ensure that you are buying DVDs you really want to see again and again and you aren’t purchasing DVDs that will do nothing more than collect dust while they sit on your DVD rack.

Do you want to be able to get DVDs that both you and your significant other will enjoy?  DVD rentals online come in an assortment of genres—you’ll have no trouble finding DVD rentals to satisfy everyone’s entertainment needs. From horror to comedy, from drama to sports, there is no end to the type of DVD rentals online readily available for you to order.

You don’t have to worry about sending your spouse to the video store only to have them return with a DVD you really have no interest in!  Save tons of money when you get into DVD rentals online. Having trouble keeping the children entertained?  DVD rentals online can put an end to all of that—order DVD rentals online and have DVDs delivered directly to your home.

This ensures that you will have a new and interesting source of entertainment for the children all the time.  Plus, when you order DVD rentals online you can get DVDs that are suitable for children of all ages—even educational documentaries and movie classics!  Clearly, ordering DVD rentals online has myriad advantages for every member of your family; no matter how old they are and what kind of movie entertainment they enjoy!

DVD rentals online are easy to obtain once you become a member with one of the online DVD providers.  Choose from a number of convenient plans ranging from 10 to 18 dollars per month. Of course, the larger your membership the more DVD rentals online you can get at one time but many of the membership plans offer you unlimited DVD rentals all month long.  Such a fact promises you all of the DVD entertainment you can possibly watch and that is certainly a promise that you can’t fulfill by visiting the nearest local video store.  Finally, find all the DVDs you want while never having to leave your home—browse the online catalogues of DVD rentals online and get your hands on some great movies for the entire family.

Old Street London Underground station is a big round about that has high traffic flow from east to west and from north to south of the city. The tube station becomes a popular meeting spot, with a funky young crowd sighting the bars and clubs on the weekend. The east end of Old Street, from Hoxton Square to Shoreditch High Street and Liverpool Street, is home to countless bars, cafes, restaurants and clubs. The ambiance is young, edgy, funky, relaxed. There are often secret house parties and street parties happening, although with some tucked away pockets getting more posh and expensive, most of this area are still randomly covered with graffiti and spray paint in the streets. Some may find this east end suburb a little too hippie and grungy, whereas most youngsters embrace the edgy style and consider it as a rather fashionable culture.

The list of bars, pubs and clubs in Shoreditch is impressive. Lots of Londoners come to the east end to go out on Friday and Saturday night. All within five to ten minutes walking distance from each other, there is a huge array of different venues to choose from for different occasions. If you want to catch up with friends for drinks, Dragon Bar, Prague, Spread Eagle, Electricity Showroom are friendly bars with lots of people crowding around for drinks after work. StrongRoom, and lots of bars in Hoxton Square sometimes have live bands and outdoor seating area, perfect for summer evenings and smokers. Kick bar has an entertaining area downstairs with pool tables and football tables, good for socialising and a bit of laugh. If you would like to opt for something more classy or slightly posh, Great Eastern Dining Room, Hoxton Hotel, Hoxton Pony and Beach Blanket Babylon attract a fashionable or perhaps more grown up crowd.

Food may not be the strongest selling point here, but Kingsland Road is famous for its Vietnamese cuisine. Stretching about 200 meters long, this well known Vietnamese district features numerous restaurants serving authentic Vietnamese food. Open until midnight, these eateries are often packed with crowds for pre or post drinks.

Why not visit some of these places with your friends, partners or the gorgeous Old Street escorts who enjoy going out and having fun.

If you would like to visit Chingford why not book yourself a stunning Chingford escort to accompany you. Escorts in Chingford are beautiful ladies who live locally and are always happy to meet like-minded gentlemen. They will be able to accompany you to sight see, and to enjoy Chingford on a fuller scale. These professional and stunning girls will devote their time to you to enjoy the activities that take your fancy. Why not start the day exploring the various landmarks the town has to offer. The atmosphere of the area is calm and tranquil. You can relax your mind and soul strolling down the street with one of the beautiful escorts from Chingford. Sip on cafe latte and share some cakes during the day, escorts in Chingford can offer you the girlfriend experience without any strings attached. They are happy to spend the day or night with you whenever you want, wherever you want.

Megan was jetted to Italy for a promotional tour and her career as an Italian supermodel was launched. She recently told an Australian interviewer that she still cannot believe her meteoric rise to modeling fame.
At 5’10”, with lustrous dark hair and green eyes, Megan has the kind of curvy frame that still makes Italian hearts beat faster – but she also has the undeniable grace and slenderness of a top fashion model, with the height to carry her stunning proportions down the runways of the world in style.

Megan first entered the world of modeling in 1994, when she won an Australia-wide competition to find new faces. Five years later the Vodafone commercial made her a star in Italy.

As she later told the media, she arrived not knowing the language or the country, but her fame had arrived before her – “It was a lot to deal with,” she said.

Her meteoric rise to fame in Italy was matched by growing excitement about the stunning young model back home. Now Megan divides her time between Italy and Australia, enjoying the perks of fame, such as the chance to be a celebrity driver in the 2003 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.

But while she continues to grace the catwalk in clothes by famous Italian designers, she has also shown the compassionate side of her nature by launching a project to save abandoned dogs in Italy. With the support of the Mayor of Milan, Megan has appeared on TV and in print to draw attention to the plight of dogs abandoned to starve or die of thirst. Previously she was involved with a campaign to reduce graffiti in Milan.
Megan’s kindness as well as her beauty has endeared her to a broad spectrum of the community, both in Australia and Italy. Her ease in front of crowds and her fluency in the Italian language have ensured her hosting roles such as the San Remo music festival, and parts in Italian movies.

Will the model become a movie star? Only time will tell. She has signed a three movie deal with the De Laurentis Company, and debuted in Vacanze di Natale, playing herself. She starred with Cindy Crawford in Bodyguards, and played the lead in Stregati Dalla Luna. In 2004 she signed to join the cast of the US movie Stealth, filmed in Sydney.
Whatever direction Megan decides to take in the future, there seems little doubt that her charm and versatility will again take her to the top.

Small but efficient, and budget-priced, printmaking presses are designed to reside in very small spaces. Home from the office and dinner over, you head for your studio and your very own creative press…or this is your life work and home is where your press is.

Today’s creative press artisan still takes advantage of the processes employed by masters such as Rembrandt, Durer, Matisse, Picasso, Dali and Whistler, but now, digital transfer has been added to the mix. Plates of linoleum, plastics, and Plexiglas are used as well as zinc, copper, brass and other metals. Fabrics sometimes replace paper.

“Intaglio” is the most common form of printmaking, and “Engraving” is the most common technique of Intaglio (as well as the oldest). Etching, Drypoint, Mezzotint, Aquatint and Stipple are all Intaglio techniques.

Other popular methods of printmaking are Bas-Relief (Relief) and Planography, also known as Lithography.

Bas-Relief generally uses wood and linoleum cuts but a new form, known as Collography, is growing in popularity. Varied materials are placed on a rigid surface, such as cardboard or wood, in a collage-like manner. The raised surfaces are then inked and printed.

Planography or Lithography (“litho” meaning “stone”) uses a level surface. The image is drawn on a flat stone or metal plate with a greasy water-repellant substance. When the plate or stone is moistened, the ink is absorbed by the greasy substance, only.

Owning your own printmaking press has many advantages: The printmaker is no longer confined to borrowing, renting or joining a facility just for the use of a press, your investment may have desirable tax consequences and when an inspiration nudges, your press is right there. Prices range from $60.00 to $3,600.00.

However, if you are a true beginner to calligraphy, just beginning to learn the strokes, not even sure if this is really something you´re interested in pursuing, how much sense does it make to invest in expensive pens, inks, and paper?  None at all.  This article looks at sensible and cheap tools that will allow you to practice the basic strokes and learn enough calligraphy to decide whether this is something you want to pursue before you invest in the “proper” equipment.  Be aware that these tools won´t allow you to create elegant invitations and placecards.  For that, you do need the right tools.  But for practicing your strokes, these work just as well.

First, you need paper.  Ideally, it should be lined.  You can create lined paper on your computer in either Publisher or Excel.  Just make sure that all the lines are even.  Don´t use ruled notebook filler; it´s too thin.

Paper with calligraphy lines—two dark lines to mark the bottom and top of each line, and a fainter one to mark the middle—is always useful.  But it isn´t necessary.  You can always use a ruler and a pencil and pencil in the middle line yourself.  Remember, we want the cheapest, most basic equipment possible.

Next, let´s look at pens.  Calligraphy pens can be expensive.  Calligraphy ink can be even more expensive.  But all you really need for practicing the basic strokes of calligraphy is a chisel-tipped pen or marker.  That´s it.  You need to be able to draw a thick or thin line with the same pen.  But you don´t need an expensive calligraphy pen to do that.

Chisel-tipped pens or markers come in all different colors, so if you want, you can buy a four-pack and play around with different colors.  But even that isn´t necessary.  A plain black works just fine.  Almost all major brands offer chisel-tipped pens for under $5.  (Many sell them for under $3.)

You also need a book that can show you the basic strokes of calligraphy.  However, at this point, the basic strokes are all you need.  Don´t spend extra money on a book that will show you twenty different alphabets if you can find one that will teach you just the strokes.

Finally, unless you can print calligraphy paper from your computer, you need a ruler for marking that elusive middle line.  You can pick up a good wooden ruler for under a dollar in most office supply stores, superstores, or school supply stores.

Getting started in calligraphy need not cost an arm and a leg.  As you advance, you will, no doubt, want to invest in pens and inks and papers.  For now, however, those things simply aren´t necessary.  Especially if you have children who think they want to learn calligraphy, buy the cheap practice tools first.  If your child wants to learn calligraphy badly enough to practice page after page of a single stroke for weeks on end, then you should probably go ahead and invest in the more expensive tools.  But use the cheap ones to see if he or she will stick with it.

At heart, calligraphy is nothing more than a collection of particular strokes.  In order to get good at calligraphy, you must write page after page of a single stroke, then page after page of another, and so on.  It is a tedious and time consuming process, and most people give up after a few dozen practice pages.  Be smart.  Start cheap.  If you hang in there, you can buy the fancy equipment.  Otherwise, you would only be throwing money away.

Years ago, when Tony entered the business, if you wanted a tattoo you went to a tattoo parlor and searched through traditional pictures to find an image that best represented you.  Now there is a greater variety in the types of tattoos people are seeking.  Instead of choosing an image off the wall, people are far more likely to search the web or art books and commission a tattoo artist to reproduce an image of their choice.  Tattoo artists are also being chosen based on the uniqueness of their designs.

“The trends in imagery people seek tend to ebb and flow.  A couple of years ago Polynesian tribal tattoos, geometric shapes in solid black, were huge.  Lately people seem to be seeking a more artistic look, like oil paintings on skin,” says Tony.  Better ink quality and more sophisicated machinery have also resulted in better quality tattoos over the years.  Artists can create finer lines, more detail, and better depth of shade, which means just about anything within reason can be reproduced on the body.

One of the things that Tony has noticed over the years is that people have become so video and computer screen oriented that they can’t easily grasp the concept of size and scale.  “Somebody will come into the shop with a download of an oil painting he wants reproduced on his arm.  I have to say, ‘Dude, that’s a 10 foot by 20 foot fresco – it’ll never fit on your bicep!”

The areas of the body people choose to tattoo have changed over time as well.  It used to be mostly arm work.  Now for women it seems tattoos on the feet or lower back are popular while men choose between the shoulder blades as well as on the arms.  According to Tony, feet and hand tattoos are a bad idea.  “Those areas are high maintenance areas.  The skin takes a lot of abuse and rubbing. It’s a difficult area to heal and the tattoo eventually wears away.  The skin is constantly trying to get rid of it and the image is basically sloughed off.”

Tony says people have also become savvier about where they are willing to get their tattoos.  They know what questions to ask when they come in – How are you sterilizing your equipment?  Do you use disposable parts?  They’re less likely to turn to scratchers, people who are tattooing out of their basements and garages.  People want a clean, sophisticated-looking, professional, establishment and there are way more of them to turn to than there were fifteen or twenty years ago.  “The last thing you want to do is get your tattoo at a tattoo party in someone’s living room, with the equipment boiling on the stove.  Unless you use autoclave sterilization you aren’t killing off everything, like hepatitis.  Chances are good you’re going to get a lousy tattoo out of it as well.  If somebody can’t get work in a reputable place, then most likely he can’t give a quality tattoo.  He may be an amazing artist on paper, but that doesn’t mean he can tattoo.”

How can you be sure to get a high quality tattoo?  Tony says stick to reputable places.  Ask around to see what kind of a reputation they have. Before you choose an artist, look at the tattoos he’s done – in person.  Look for fine lines with smooth stops and starts.  Notice how the tiny details look.  Are they blurred or sharp?  Be realistic about what you want the artist to accomplish.  Work with him to design an image.  Don’t expect him to copy a highly pixilated image off the web.  In this industry, you get what you pay for.  Don’t choose the cheapest option for something you will have to live with for the rest of your life.”

Once you’ve chosen the artist and gotten the high quality tattoo, Tony says the most important thing you can do to make sure it remains high quality is to take care of it.  “People don’t think about tattoos as something you need to take care of, but it’s your skin.  You have to take care of your skin!  Follow the directions on the after-care sheet.  After it’s healed you still have to maintain it.  If you spend a lot of time in the sun, you have to put sun screen on your tattoos or the sun fades them.  If you don’t moisturize your skin, your tattoo won’t look its best.  If you’re spending a lot of money to put something on your body forever, make the effort to care for it!”

Another area of the tattoo industry that has changed and improved is the removal of tattoos.  Tony says people ask him all the time about removal.  He tells them, “it’s all done by laser now, but it still hurts a lot and it still costs a lot too.  If you are serious about removal, you need to talk to a plastic surgeon.”  According to Tony, a much easier solution to a bad tattoo is to have it covered up with a better one.  The other option is to cover it up with a high quality make-up made specifically for that purpose, like Dermablend.

A relatively new issue in the tattoo industry is copyright.  In the past decade, tattoo artists have attempted to protect their designs by paying a small fee for it to be copyrighted.  Tony says it’s a complete waste of time because you would drive yourself crazy trying to control it.  “All you can really do is control where you put your designs.  If you put up a website, make sure you pay to block downloads.  We don’t allow cameras or even camera phones in our shop.  We watch our books because people will try to steal the designs right out of them.  You can never control it completely, partly because of the nature of the art.  Every tattoo is different because the body is part of the artwork, and every body is different.”

There will always be the traditional tattoo client cut in the biker image that one envisions, and there will always be people seeking the traditional tattoos of skulls, flames, hearts, and roses.  There will also always be the traditional back-alley tattoo parlor, but the industry no longer ends there.  So what about the future of the tattoo industry?  Tattooing the human body has been popular since the earliest civilizations; it’s not going anywhere soon, and these days, the sky’s the limit!

History and Styles

Moroccan architecture is an eclectic, even cosmopolitan cultural blend that reflects its long and rich history. Morocco’s indigenous people are the Berbers, who farmed the land from at least 2000 BC. Subsequent rulers and invaders included Arabians, the Spanish, the Portuguese and, in recent, colonial times, French occupiers. (Morocco was declared a French protectorate in 1912, the same year as Matisse’s visit.) In the Moroccan cities, the medina, or old city, sits alongside the boulevards of the adjacent French-style towns, built by the colonisers as part of development efforts in the earlier twentieth century.

The oldest architecture in Morocco includes ancient fortified citadels (kasbahs) and villages (ksars), mostly located in and around the Atlas Mountains. These are of a style dubbed ‘Southern Kasbah’. Made of sun-dried brick, these towering forts, many later turned into palaces, boast simple lines. Despite their massiveness, they still seem to blend seamlessly with their environments. Though many are now ruined, some have found new life as film sets for Hollywood movies. The romance of the kasbah was immortalised in the famous 1942 film set in Morocco’s largest city: Casablanca.

Moroccan Islamic architecture, incorporating elements of African traditional buildings and materials, arose after Islam spread across North Africa in the later 7th century AD. The dominant Moroccan architectural style, Hispano-Moorish, dates to around the eleventh century AD, when the indigenous Berber peoples, who had adopted Islam after the Arab conquest, came to power. Berber dynasties would rule Morocco and large parts of Spain for the next four centuries.  The Hispano-Moorish architectural style originated in Spain (in Andalusia), and was taken across the Straits of Gibraltar to Morocco at the behest of the ruling Berber Almoravid dynasty. The Almoravids sent Spanish artisans to Morocco, where they introduced the graceful arches and lofty domes that, along with white walls and green stucco roofs, have become hallmarks of the Hispano-Moorish style.

From the 11th to 15th centuries, Moroccan art and architecture enjoyed a golden age, flourishing under successive Berber dynasties. Initially, buildings tended to sport simple, plain exteriors but were lavishly decorated inside with geometric designs, floral patterns and the like. By the fifteenth century, the style had evolved to include ornately embellished exteriors, on mosques, medersas (religious schools) and other public architecture. That these elaborate patterns were perfected as a high art form owes something to Islam’s prohibition of figural imagery, especially humans and animals, in religious art. (Such figures were not, however, forbidden in the home, as is often thought. Figurative images adorned items such as carpets, for example).  Morocco’s splendid mosques with their soaring minarets from where the muezzin calls the faithful to prayer, the medina’s ancient streets, the ornamented palaces, and the warrens of the kasbahs still enchant visitors. It is, however, the design and style of the traditional Moroccan house, or riad, that has especially captured the twenty-first century imagination.

Traditional Living: the Restoration of the Riads

Tucked into the spaces between older buildings in Morocco’s historic ancient cities, are scores of traditional houses, both large and small, that as recently as ten years ago were decaying and neglected, used for storage and as animal pens. Renovation of these once gracious homes has proceeded apace and they are now highly sought-after properties.

The basic riad floor plan is plain and geometrically precise, consisting of rooms surrounding a central open-air courtyard. If the design is reminiscent of Roman villas, that is because the origins of the riad floor plan are thought to date to Roman times. Roman remains at Volubilis , a Roman administrative centre in Morocco, are often cited as the riad’s architectural antecedent, later adapted for African conditions. The riad layout provides shade and shelter from the African heat and dust, the central courtyard a peaceful oasis, lush with plants and cooled by fountains and pools. The name ‘riad’ derives from the Arabic word for a garden.

With the rise of Islam, the riad design came in useful in another way, providing private family spaces, insulated from the bustle and commerce of the city beyond. The garden provides a contemplative, unspoilt and almost sacred space. The design, with its rows of arches around a rectangular garden, recalls that historically unrelated place, the convent cloister, where the devout could pursue their devotions without the distractions of the world outside.

Yet it is also a social space, the true heart of the home. All rooms in the traditional riad open onto this atrium, and it is where the visitor passing through the heavy, carved wooden door from the street would find himself on admittance. As with the Almoravid architecture of nearly a millennium ago, the plain face that a building presents to the public world gives way to an interior space that is intricately and lovingly decorated. Exterior windows in the riad are small, high or absent, minimising intrusions from the street. It is like passing from a wilderness outside to an inner sanctum that is a showcase for civilised taste, culture and learning. In the heyday of the Moroccan empire, that is precisely what the Islamic cities were famous for. In the earlier 2nd millennium AD Islamic cities across Africa (such as the legendary Timbuktu) were renowned centres of knowledge: in science, astronomy, mathematics, engineering and medicine. The riad seems to be a microcosm of the world in which it evolved.

The appeal of the riad’s inward-directed design for people today, and for contemporary lifestyles and tastes, is clear. Security with style, in a space that combines seclusion with sociability is a winning combination. The courtyard garden organically blurs the boundaries between indoors and outdoors. It is the ideal contemporary garden, a place designed for people as much as it is a place of nature.

The architectural details of the typical riad interior clearly reveal the powerful Islamic influence at work in the design. The elegant archways that flank the atrium echo the mihrab, the prayer alcove in a mosque’s qibla wall (a wall oriented towards Mecca). The arches’ form exemplifies the fusion of opposites in which Islamic architecture excels: straight lines softened by the sinuous curve; or solid, straight mosque walls, topped by domes that seem to rest above as lightly as a hat.

Islamic Art and Interior Design

The intricate decorative work that characterises Islamic art, from Africa across Europe to Asia, combines flowing lines with precision draughtsmanship and craftsmanship. Friezes in Arabic calligraphy that celebrate verses from the Qu’ran, or flower patterns and other motifs, form rich designs that offset the more rigid geometry of the floor plan. Every surface of the built environment invited decoration of some kind. One of the marvels of the Hispano-Moorish style is that attention to detail was applied with equal dedication and skilful effect to both small domestic dwellings and large town buildings.

Precision design and highly developed craftsmanship characterise many Moroccan arts and crafts, amongst them ceramic tiles made to adorn every surface: floors, walls, and ceilings, indoors and outdoors. Here again is mathematical skill, used to generate intricate and meticulously symmetrical geometric patterns. The patterns appear also in wood carving, with extraordinary workmanship displayed in the ornamentation of architectural wonders like Marrakech’s Bahia Palace. In the ceramic tiles, known as zellige, we can glimpse some of the glorious colour that would have struck Matisse a century ago and that now strikes a chord with contemporary designers.

Colour, glowing bright or warm and earthy, is a crucial dimension of the charm of Moroccan style. It is not something added on to Moroccan architecture, but integral to it. Interior walls are traditionally painted using natural earth pigments. Iron, cobalt and other minerals endow the paints with deep and subtle colour: red, orange, yellow and blue. Rugs in complementary bright, yet earthy, colours add richness and texture to floors. Warm indigenous woods, like cedar wood, frame the doors and alcoves. Forget the dull, rectangular doors that we’re accustomed to: Moroccan doors are finely sculpted or ornamented with ornate metalwork forged by master craftsmen. Great care and fine detailing was often lavished on the front door, which fitted snugly into a horseshoe-shaped arch.  These doors too might feature the traditional repeating patterns that adorn the mosques, schools and domestic interiors. Moroccan handmade lamps, in stained glass or in metal and leather, are renowned world-wide amongst designers and those in the know about cutting edge trends in interior décor and international style trends.

The visual effect is extraordinarily modern: a blend of cheerful and subtle tones, cosmopolitan style with an ethnic flavour, and all pervaded by an organic and eco-friendly ambience. It is little wonder that as well as designers, Morocco’s buildings have attracted architects. Especially in Marrakech and Essaouira, riads have been snapped up, often by foreigners. They are rescued from ruin, renovated and relaunched, catering for the tourists who are all-important to Morocco’s economy. Some riads have become restaurants; many offer accommodation, from humble bed and breakfast establishments to upmarket hotels. Some restorations have featured in prestigious architectural journals.

Neo-Moroccan Architecture

The revival of the riads is one way in which Morocco’s traditions persist. Marrakech in particular has a reputation as something of a landmark on the contemporary international style and design map and architects are creating new buildings by reinterpreting traditional architecture. The contemporary style known as Neo-Moroccan synthesises Morocco’s two principal architectural traditions: the ancient Southern Kasbah style and the Islamic Hispano-Moorish. From the former, architects take spaciousness, simplicity and concord between building and environment. From the latter, they borrow colour, complexity and luxury.

Contemporary architecture in Morocco includes the second largest mosque in the world, in the city of Casablanca, on the Mediterranean Sea. For visitors to Morocco, this is one of the few Moroccan mosques that allows non-Muslims access. Designed by the French architect Michel Pinseau, the Hassan II Mosque was constructed between 1986 and 1993. It boasts the worlds’ tallest minaret (210 metres). Built on a promontory, half the building juts out over the water, which is visible through a glass floor. It too can be called ‘Neo-Moroccan, since it draws on both kasbah architecture and Hispano-Moorish style. In such buildings, an architectural thread that dates back more than a millennium lives on.

Raster graphics

Also frequently referred to as bitmap graphics, raster images are the most common. They are formed by a series of tiny individual squares that together create a larger picture, kind of like a mosaic is made of a series of smaller tiles. If you were to look closely at any number of every day images you would see how these images work. Documents that come from a fax machine or printer are made up of a series of tiny dots. The text and graphics on your computer screen are made up of a number of small image elements called pixels. When you take a photo with a digital camera, the picture is saved in memory as a long series of bits of information representing tiny squares of colors in a grid. These are all raster-based graphics.

The main problem with using raster graphics is that they are size-dependent. Normally the dots or pixels involved are so small that they blend together and look like one continuous image. If you try to print them out at a size larger than what the file was intended for, at some point you’ll start seeing the individual pieces as blocks. Making the image smaller than it was created for can also have bad consequences. For example, a line that is printed two dots thick can disappear entirely if the graphic is printed at less than half its original size, because the printer can’t draw anything smaller than one dot.

Raster graphics are typically used for complex images formed from lots of different colors and shapes, most notably photos. These graphics can be saved in a variety of formats with file extensions like .TIF, .JPG, .GIF and .BMP.

Vector graphics

Vector-based images follow a very different method in generating an image. These kinds of graphics don’t break an image down into individual parts of the same shape. Instead, they keep track of the instructions on how to draw that image. An image of a triangle would be formed by drawing three lines of a certain thickness and length that join at their end points and then filling it with a specific color. A vector image doesn’t know how many dots a printer will need to print that triangle, it just knows the size, shape, angles, colors and so forth of the parts that make up the image.

Vector graphics usually resize much more gracefully than raster-based images, because the file can just tell the computer or printer to draw the image larger or smaller than normal. The lines in such images are always smooth and do not become blocky when magnified. Because it typically has less overall information to keep track of, a vector file usually takes up less memory than a raster one. The more complex an image is, however, the more difficult it is for it to be stored in a vector format; this is why all photos except for the most basic or stylized should be in raster format instead of vector.

Diagrams, logos, fonts and other graphics that have basic shapes and curves are the main uses of vector images. The font files that generate type are stored as vector-based information, and many logos are as well. The main file extensions used with vector-based graphics are .EPS and .SVG.

Raster versus vector

A desktop publisher choosing clip art to use in a project or ordering a custom image from a graphic designer should pick a format that will best suit the intended use. If it’s a photo, or an image for use on a website, you’ll definitely want one of the raster-based file formats. If the image will be used in a print-based product like a newsletter or book and it consists of line art, such as in logos or diagrams, you’ll probably want a vector image. Raster images can also work just fine in print projects as long as the graphic is the right size, but if you try to cut corners and print one bigger than the file can support you’ll end up with a blurry mess.
u8232 If you are a graphic designer creating work for other people or saving your own projects, you’ll want to create each image with its format in mind from the beginning. Paint and photo editing applications, such as Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Paint, create graphics as raster images even if you incorporate vector-based elements, such as fonts. If you save a graphic from one of these applications in .EPS format it won’t be automatically converted to a vector image. There are some software applications that can do that with varying degrees of success, but if you want a vector image you should create it from scratch in a drawing program like Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw or Inkscape. Vector images are relatively easy to convert to raster-based ones once you know what size you want them to be; the option to convert it is available in every major graphic design application, whether it’s a painting or drawing program.
u8232 Once you have experience with the two major types of graphics under your belt you’ll be able to choose the ones that work best for your purposes without a second thought.

While viewed by some as reactionary to World War I, Dada really involved creative intellectuals doubling as nihilistic revolutionaries. On a war-scarred continent, where else does one find the irresistible combination of culture, romance, anarchism, and intrigue?

In the translator’s introduction to Francis Picabia’s “I Am a Beautiful Monster: Poetry, Prose, and Provocation,” Marc Lowenthal explains: “Dada is the groundwork to abstract art and sound poetry, a starting point for performance art, a prelude to postmodernism, an influence on pop art, a celebration of anti-art to be later embraced for anarcho-political uses in the 1960s and the movement that lay the foundation for Surrealism.”

At first glance, this small movement could hardly have caused such waves in aesthetic expression. The Dada experience was profound enough for some intellectuals that it continued to influence their work for more than fifty years. With Europe at war, young artists and writers were in a ripe situation to express strong sentiments against modern art and social norms. Such a transformation usually occurs in chaotic times in order to produce something new and divergent.

During World War I, Zürich attracted artists and intellectuals from all over the European continent. It was at Cabaret Voltaire, a nightclub, where the artists in attendance created the Dada movement. The performances at the club included readings of written works, artwork on display, performance art, skits, debates, and music. Dada also included the publication of literary and art periodicals.

The Dadaists suggested a new form of expression, which was simultaneously anti-art, anti-establishment, and anarchist. It is not surprising that some Dadaists later became Communists, including Tristan Tzara, Paul Éluard, André Breton, and Louis Aragon.

In 1915, Hugo Ball created the Cabaret Voltaire with his partner, Emmy Hennings. Other early participants were Tristan Tzara, Marcel Janco, Richard Huelsenbeck, and Jean Arp. In this period, the intellectuals were killing time in Switzerland while the war was raging all over Europe.

Hugo Ball wrote “The Dada Manifesto” and read it for the first time on July 14, 1916. Dada was a random word, as Ball explains:

“Dada is a new tendency in art…Dada comes from the dictionary. It is terribly simple. In French it means ‘hobby horse.’ In German it means ‘good-bye,’ ‘Get off my back,’ ‘Be seeing you sometime.’ In Romanian: ‘Yes, indeed, you are right, that’s it. But of course, yes, definitely, right…’”

The nonsensical term, Dada, is a good example of how Dadaism aimed to break the norms of European society and the art world. As Lowenthal said, there were the beginnings of political revolution and anarchy in Dada expressions.

In “Manifesto,” Ball also expressed social dissatisfaction:

“How does one become famous? By saying dada. With a noble gesture and delicate propriety. Till one goes crazy. Till one loses consciousness. How can one get rid of everything that smacks of journalism, worms, everything nice and right, blinkered, moralistic, europeanised, enervated?”

In 1918, artists and writers began to return to Paris after the conclusion of the war. Dada was especially popular in 1919-1921. Together, Breton, Aragon, and Philippe Soupalt pioneered a magazine called “Littérature,” which included Dada writings. Here the writers tested automatic writing, or writing impulsively without filtering their thoughts. In 1919, Breton and Soupalt published the first automatic book, “The Magnetic Fields.”

In social venues, the French branch of Dada continued with speeches, debates, readings, art exhibits, and performance art to entertain the crowd. The association often collected admission from the audience. The subject matter of performances was frequently offensive, insulting, incendiary, anarchic, and/or vulgar. Sometimes, the audience even responded by throwing objects such as rotten fruit at the performers.

Some Paris gatherings of Dada were so popular that the Parisian social elite attended. These gatherings provided firsthand exposure to the latest intellectual debates and a chance to view works by emerging and established artists.

Between 1921 and 1924, the transition began towards Surrealism. In “History of the Surrealist Movement,” Gerard Durozoi explains:

“What was worrisome to the Littérature group, more than to Tzara or Picabia, was that Dada was beginning to be co-opted: word was spreading that Dada was the latest fashionable entertainment or the cutting edge of snobbishness.”

While Surrealism was not just an outcome of Dada but clearly claimed its roots there, Surrealism would become the more memorable of the two movements in history.

What does Surrealism really signify? Surrealism is more than just images like flattened clocks in Dali paintings. Merriam-Webster defines the ideology as “the principles, ideals, or practice of producing fantastic or incongruous imagery or effects in art, literature, film, or theater by means of unnatural or irrational juxtapositions and combinations.”

On October 11, 1924, a press release stated that the Bureau for Surrealist Research was located at 15 rue de Grenelle. This organization was open to everyone, including intellectuals, artists, students, and visitors. The official existence of the Surrealist association was complete.

On October 15, 1924, Breton outlined the movement in the “Surrealist Manifesto of 1924,” as “pure psychic automatism.” With this publication, Breton established himself as the Surrealist leader.

To understand Surrealism, it helps to trace artists, writers, and philosophers of the 1920s back to their Dada roots. Here are some brief notes about some of the Dadas. Interestingly, some individuals went on to participate in other movements in art, literature, music, and politics.

Tristan Tzara (1896-1963)

A founder of Dada, Tristan Tzara was a French poet born in Moinesti, Romania. Tzara penned the original Dada passages, “The First Heavenly Adventure of Mr. Antipyrine” in 1916 and “Twenty-Five Poems” in 1918. The Mr. Antipyrine work was performed many times at the Dada gatherings in Paris. Tzara also published the “Seven Dada Manifestos” in 1924.

Louis Aragon (1897-1982)

Born in Paris, Louis Aragon was a novelist and poet. He was the product of an affair between a married French senator, Louis Andrieux, and a mother thirty years younger. Aragon served for the French during World War I. After his involvement with Dada, Aragon went on to become prominent in Communist activism and in French literary journalism (as writer, editor, and publisher). He finally returned to his Dada origins over the last decade of his life, writing the novels “Henri Matisse Roman” and “Les Adieux.”

André Breton (1896-1966)

A Dadaist and founder of Surrealism, André Breton was born in Tinchebray, Normandy. One of Breton’s claims to fame during the 1920s was his writing of “The Surrealist Manifesto of 1924.” As noted, he founded “Littérature.” He was an author, poet, theorist, and Communist. In one great honor, the government of France chose him to represent the country at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1938.

Francis Picabia (1879-1953)

A founder of Dada, Francis-Marie Martinez Picabia was born in Paris. He was the son of a Frenchwoman and a father of Spanish-Cuban descent. Picabia’s father served as an attaché at the Cuban representation in Paris. Among the oldest of the Dada revolutionaries, Picabia is remembered for his painting and poetry. In 1916, Picabia founded his Dada journal, “391,” and included the earliest of his mechanical drawings in this publication.

Paul Éluard (1895-1952)

Born in Saint-Denis, near Paris, Paul Éluard was the nom de plume for Eugène Émile Paul Grindel. Éluard suffered from tuberculosis in his teens. While he was recovering in a Switzerland sanatorium, he met his wife, Gala, or Elena Ivanovna Diakonova. The couple married in 1917. Éluard and his wife had an affair with Max Ernst during the Dada period. Gala Éluard later left her husband for Salvador Dali.

In 1918, Paul Éluard was discovered by Jean Paulhan. Through this friendship, Éluard met Breton and Aragon and joined Dada.

Éluard was a poet who wrote over his entire lifetime. One of his noted contributions was the poetry in “The Capital of Pain,” the idea for the 1965 film by Jean-Luc Godard called “Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution.”

Max Ernst (1891-1976)

A native of Brühl, Germany, Max Ernst (1891-1976) was an artist whose works reflected the very depths of Dada. He also organized a Dada association in Cologne with Jean Arp and Alfred Grünwald.

Gerard Durozoi retells how Breton and Éluard took their wives on a trip from Paris to Vienna. On this trip, Breton visited with Sigmund Freud. When Paul and his wife met Max Ernst, there occurred a romantic entanglement between the good friends.

As an artist, Max Ernst worked with many art forms. He continued to be associated with Dada. In “Notes pour une biographie,” Max Ernst wrote, “the Dadas shared the desire to denounce mercilessly the infernal condition which idiotic patriotism, supported by human stupidity, had imposed upon the era in which they were condemned to live.”

The most obvious memento mori objects in paintings are skulls, skeletons or dead game, but there are also more subtle ways of displaying the reminders. Flowers at the end of their life wilt and drop their petals. Lighted candles flicker and die when they reach the end of their wick. Soap bubbles burst and disappear when they collide with something. Fruit becomes over ripe and then rotten. While clocks and other timepieces continually tick away our lives, a sandglass, or egg timer, trickles our time away.

The genre of the vanitas painting was a still life that incorporated some of these objects to show that all the pleasures of life are transitory, and therefore worthless, compared to the heavenly life to come if we walk the straight and narrow path on earth.

Not surprisingly, they first became popular in the Netherlands after independence from its Catholic Spanish rulers allowed puritanical Protestant Calvinism to become the national religion. Dutch artists in the genre in the 17th century include: Abraham van Beyeren, Jan Davidsz de Heem, Pieter Claesy, Willem Heda and Willem Kalf.

This was also the time of the colonization of America by puritan factions seeking a place where they could be free to worship in their own way. Their beliefs banned art that had no other use but to lift the spirits and make life more bearable. But they did allow portraits embellished with memento mori that would encourage people to lead the saintly lives that would lead to eternal salvation.

Most of the churches across Europe contain monuments to the dead, occasionally simple, often much more elaborate. Effigies of their patrons for these monuments were often a mainstay of the careers of sculptors and stone masons. These are not only public displays of the power and wealth of the families involved. They also remind us of the fleeting nature of this life.

And there must have been the personal aspect for people close to those in repose. The importance of having a place to visit and feel near to those no longer physically with us would have been equally so for our forebears. These days it is more likely to be somewhere other than in the heart of a church.

Burial ground and garden of remembrance memorials can also be grandly decorated, and often include the traditional sculpted symbols of memento mori. But even a simple verse on a gravestone can remind us that our turn will come and there is comfort for those believers who are sure of a future reunion.

Memorial seats are now so popular in the UK that you can come across them wherever you go. They can be found in parks, along promenades, anywhere there is a favorite place to sit and take in a view. Often they are in high places like a clifftop looking out to sea or the top of a hill beside a footpath overseeing a stupendous landscape. Usually they just have a metal plate with the names of the person or couple remembered and the reason the place was chosen. If you don’t know the people named you are still welcome to sit and rest, and perhaps to ponder about life and death.

But we don’t have to go out of our homes to find reminders of our mortality. It’s almost as inevitable as death itself that any book of fiction or poetry you might have to hand will make some kind of reference to death. It was a central theme in the work of war poets such as Siegfried Sasson and Vera Britain.

Even writers whose purpose is not to provide memento mori find it hard to avoid the theme because it is so inevitable that even fictional characters must have a brush with it at some time. All the classical writers, such as Alcott, the Brontes, Dickens, George Eliot, Henry James, Tolstoy, have written, or alluded to, famous death scenes.

Then there is the medium of film, seen in our homes on TV screens. And these days, the news films are as emotive as drama. Death is all around us. We no longer need the artists’ memento mori. But they can be comforting in showing us that we are all the same in the end, and in helping us remember those we have loved and hope to be reunited with in death.

There’s some question as to whether Hamlet actually crosses the line into insanity or not; that is, is he only acting irrationally, or did he actually lose his grip on reality? Integral to the plot is the theme of action (or lack of it); though Hamlet is convinced of the guilt of his mother and uncle, he is indecisive throughout most of the play, and delays acting on his beliefs until King Claudius attempts to kill him in the last act.

Throughout, he is dependant upon the aid of Horatio, his true and faithful friend. Other significant characters include Polonius, Claudius’ Lord Chamberlain; his son Laertes; and his daughter, Ophelia.

Given the significance of the theme of betrayal in Hamlet, the title character’s warm praise of Horatio in Act III, Scene ii is unsurprising. In Horatio, Hamlet has found someone he can trust, which is a relief to him because he cannot even trust his own family, who apparently murdered his father and (at least in King Claudius’ case) are conspiring to murder him as well. Horatio has never played him false, and is more than willing to aid in Hamlet’s investigation. The theme of action is played upon here as well. It is here that Hamlet reveals to Horatio his intention to have the players re-enact his father’s murder in that night’s play; Hamlet recruits him to assist him by observing the King’s response. He does so because he needs someone who is coolheaded to do so; as he puts it, “Give me that man/That is not passion’s slave, and I will wear him/In my heart’s core, ay, in my heart of heart,/As I do thee.”

In Act III, Scene i, Polonius makes an astute observation about how many people “sugar o’er” their real nature with pious action and false devotion, and would be willing to do so to “the devil himself.” Polonius was referring more to the false appearances people put on in social situations, but nonetheless his observation strikes a nerve in King Claudius, causing him to mutter to himself, “How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience!” This speaks directly to the theme of betrayal. The King’s conscious is obviously bothering him; he finds his own actions to be ugly, and the “burthen” of having murdered his brother (Hamlet’s father) a heavy one. This does not, however, prevent him from plotting further betrayal against Hamlet. In a lesser sense, this incident also invokes the theme of action, since it refers to the way many of our actions are somewhat covert and false in social situations.

In Act II, Scene ii, Hamlet asks the players to recite a passage exchanged between Aeneas and Dido, in which the murder of King Priam by Pyrrhus is described; indeed, he declaims the beginning of the passage himself, from memory. The players take it up thereafter. This particular passage once again points up the theme of betrayal, particularly in regard to Hamlet’s obsession with his father’s death (which also brings in the theme of madness). It is also a key part of Hamlet’s developing plan of action to reveal the complicity of the King in his father’s death.

Hamlet, a tragic tale of the consequences of a Danish prince’s decision to take the law into his own hands after the murder of his father, is one of Shakespeare’s masterpieces. As such, it is awash with themes, both obvious and subtle, that comment on the human condition. Perhaps the most obvious themes are those of betrayal, revenge and madness. A lesser theme is that of action (or lack of it, as expressed by Hamlet’s indecisiveness). Examples of the primary themes, particularly those of betrayal and revenge, are expounded upon throughout the text. Ultimately, however, it is perhaps that ultimate theme of nearly all art, and of life itself—death—that wins out in the end. By the time the curtain drops, all the major players, with the exception of Horatio, have been murdered.

Any company wanting to succeed in the world of graphic, multimedia, and Web design must know as much as it can about its customer. It pays to go the extra mile and develop a relationship with the customer’s relevant personnel so that communication flows freely and is always clear. This is especially important if a customer understands little about the process of graphic, multimedia, and Web design. He will look to your company to provide the solutions to a number of problems ranging from what’s the best color combination for a brochure, to what sort of promotional materials would best suit his company’s profile. And no one wants to have to deal with too many organizations or suppliers. You need to be able to provide a one-stop shop for all of your customer’s design and print needs. This not only makes it convenient for your customer, but ensures that all aspects of an order are met, and that nothing gets overlooked.

As well as being able to provide advice on design and print issues, you also need to keep up-to-date on the latest technological aspects of print and design. This will ensure that you are better able to solve any problems your customer has, as well as reassure him that you will be able to expertly handle any tricky design issues he might need to deal with in the future.

Keeping one step ahead of the customer and anticipating his request will not only impress him but make his task easier. You will then be the first one he calls when he next needs any help with a graphic, multimedia, or Web design project. Not only that, but he won’t even consider speaking to any other company before contacting you.

There are of course many places to shop for art supplies, from department stores and discount retailers to specialty stores and art shops. Some of the very best prices on art supplies, however, can be found on the internet. Thee are a number of excellent online sellers of art supplies, and these web only retailers can be excellent resources for all kinds of art supplies. Buying art supplies on the internet makes a lot of sense, and many budding artists buy all their art supplies online.

No matter where you buy your art supplies, and regardless of whether you buy your art supplies locally or online, quality is essential. Great works of art demand great art supplies, and it is important to purchase only the highest quality canvases, paint brushes, paints and other art supplies. You put a lot of time and effort into creating just the right work of art, and it is important that the art supplies you purchase are up to the task.

Finding the best possible deal on art supplies will take some time and some effort, but it is important to shop around carefully for the best prices and the best quality. There are many rewards to finding a great source of art supplies, including significant cost savings and better artistic results.

I shall sing of Zeus, the best and the greatest of gods,
far-seeing, mighty, fulfiller of designs who confides
his tight-knit schemes to Themis as she sits leaning upon him.
Have mercy, far-seeing Kronides, most glorious and great!

With his influence over the myths and legends, and his renowned authority, it is little wonder he was praised in poetry and art. In the latter of these, he was portrayed steadily through the evolving eras of Greek history in various forms. The Early Classical stage was no exception, with its bronze statues and statuettes of the ruler of the gods. The figure of Zeus found off the Cape of Artemesia was perhaps the most important depiction.

This over-life-sized figure of Zeus was found in an ancient shipwreck, thus giving us no indication to its original origin or placement–the clues having been lost over the centuries. The sculpture’s ambiguous history at first led art historians to believe it to be a statue of Poseidon, god of the sea. However, this theory was disregarded with closer consideration. The placement of the right hand and the angle in which he would have been holding the object being thrown could not have been the three-pronged trident–the symbol closely connected with Poseidon. This object would have obscured the face–something Greek artists would not have done. More likely, the figure is Zeus, hurling a bolt of lightening2 in bold demonstration of his power. The lightening bolt, also cast of bronze or another metal, might have been a stylized version of the actual phenomena and shorter than the trident would have been. Clues are given to support this in other versions of Zeus, these also hurling thunderbolts.

The bronze statues, like the “Artemesian Zeus” were made by the cire perdue, or lost-wax method. In this method, the figure is first modeled out of clay. Over this is applied a thin layer of wax, and then another layer of clay. When the whole model is fired, the clay hardens and the wax melts away, becoming a mold for molten bronze. Because of various factors concerning large figures, such as weight, cost, and the possibility of the bronze becoming disfigured when used in large amounts, it became necessary to cast the figures in sections, then weld the pieces together to form a whole. Then the eyes were inlaid with a different material to produce a life-like quality.3 This method was used in other statues, like the “Riace Warriors” and the “Charioteer.”

Standing 6 feet 10 inches, the figure sculpted in the severe style is impressive in his stance. However, there are problems in his position and proportions. Zeus seems to be teetering a bit, with the weight on his front foot and his right heel raised, and with the body seemingly rigid, arms outstretched. There is no curvature of the spine, no forward-leaning movement of the upper torso to make the weight shift seem plausible. Concerning the proportions, the right arm, outstretched in front of the figure, is a bit long. If there was a way to position the arm so that it hung vertically, parallel to the body, the fingers would reach closer to the knee than is physically normal in a person.4

One interesting aspect of the development of Greek sculpture this figure represents is its self-sufficiency. Until the Early Classical or Severe Style came about, figures were meant to be seen with a background behind them, not in the round. For example, the figures on the Temple of Aphaia were carved, almost in (as Janson states) a “super-relief,” figures separate from the architecture, seen only from the front. “Artemesian Zeus” was sculptured so as to give the viewer the opportunity to see the figure from all sides.5 This was certainly a development that prompted artists of later years to be more adventurous with their sculpture and break away from those conventions which had previously been the standards in Greek art.

The frontal positioning of “Artemesian Zeus” is significant as well. Through the transformation of Greek sculpture, the artists gradually evolved their work from stiff, unmoving figures to figures that turned and twisted upon their axis in contorted manners. The bronze Zeus is caught somewhere in between these two phases, showing a greater freedom than the “Kouros” from Attica or the “Kroisos” from Anavysos, both earlier Archaic sculptures of the male nude which stand upright, unmoving, and seemingly unwilling to shift from their timeless stances. On the other hand, it is less bold than Lysippos’s “Scraper,” a sculpture from the Late Classical Period, which extends its arms forward, breaking away from the boundaries of earlier times.6 The figure of Zeus stays completely behind an imaginary, invisible sort of wall–none of the limbs project out into the space in front of him. The result of this is a figure moving with the confines of a flat space, much like Myron’s “Diskobolos” from around the same time, 450 BC.

It is interesting to compare the figure of Zeus to some works from earlier times and other places. The “Palatte of Narmar” shows the Pharaoh in much the same position that Zeus has been sculptured. One arm is raised, ready to strike the head from the Egyptian subject in a gesture of authority, much like Zeus and the thunderbolt, the latter ready to be hurled from Olympus. The figure of the Pharaoh, though relatively stiff and formal, still seems to be in a posture that would anticipate a forward movement or weight shift.

Another comparison can be made with the figures on the Greek “Dipylon Vase” of around 750 BC Though they are still geometric and show no interest in articulating details of the human figure, their pose is very similar to “Artemesian Zeus.” Their bodies are frontal, the legs profile, and head profile as well. While the Zeus is not so strictly positioned, he does show this same head-to-toe profile-frontal-profile stance which was so popular in Egyptian and early Greek art.

Other bronze statues of Zeus, like the “Statuette from Dodone,” were made at the same time. These were smaller, less detailed, less impressive examples of both bronze work and the king of the gods. They give an indication to how his thunderbolt might have appeared–highly stylized, short and spiky, but the artists did not show the same interest in depicting the musculature, the ideal nude, athletic form, or the grandeur of Zeus.

“Artemesian Zeus” represents the Greek nude ideal in the form of the ruler of the gods. He has assumed the pose of an athlete, of a javelin-thrower, but his thrust of thunderbolt through the air has no direct aim. Rather, it becomes a gesture of power and authority, giving Zeus a quality of action–an action which can be applied only to the ruler of the gods with his electric bolt.7

The “Artemesian Zeus,” though problematic in some ways, is an exquisite example of Severe Style Greek art. Sculpted in the round, the free-standing form conveys power and presence. “The best and greatest” of all the gods has been represented in bronze to form an important stepping-stone in the progression of Greek art.

Bibliography

Athanassakis, Apostolos N., The Homeric Hymns, The Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore, 1976.

Hartt, Frederick, A History of Art: Patining, Sculpture, Architecture, Prentice Hall: Englewood Cliffs, 1985.

Janson, H.W. and Anthony F. Janson, History of Art, Prentice Hall: New York, 1997.

Pedly, John Griffiths, Greek Art and Archeology, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Publishers: New York, 1993.

Tansey, Richard, and Fred Kleiner, Gardner’s Art through the Ages, Harcourt Brace College Publishers: New York, 1996.

A scarecrow doesn’t have to be a boring figure in plain clothing. You can create scarecrows that wear the costumes of popular occupations: in most cases, it only takes a couple of main pieces of clothing and accessories to make it clear what the character is supposed to be. If you’re not sure, simply ask a young child to draw a nurse/soldier/policeman: they will instinctively find the identifying features.

You can make a similar type of scarecrow by using the traditional costume and accessories of a particular country. Easy examples would be a Frenchman (with striped shirt, beret and onions) or an Australian (with green and yellow clothes and a hat with corks).

The facial features of a scarecrow can be just as attractive as the costume. With a large scarecrow, a sack with a face drawn on it can work well. For smaller scarecrows, consider covering a balloon with papier mache, which can be painted as required.

Don’t forget, though, that if you are going to be displaying a scarecrow outdoors for more than a couple of ideas you will need to make sure it is either well-covered or uses waterproof materials. You should also make sure that you don’t use any material that is dangerous or toxic if it catches fire.

Of course, scarecrows don’t have to be human. If you make an animal scarecrow, you can use a frame and attach an appropriate material such as flannelette (for a horse) or pink cloth (for a pig). You can even make a solid straw model for a smaller animal such as a dog or cat. A neat trick for a quirky scarecrow is to make a traditional body of a human, then attach an animal’s head (in model form of course!)

If you’re feeling very ambitious, why not try a group of scarecrows? The characters from The Wizard Of Oz would be a good start: as well as the traditional Scarecrow, you can create Dorothy (a similar method but with more feminine features and clothing), the Tin Man (plastic piping sprayed with gray or silver paint, with a bucket or can for a head) and the Cowardly Lion and Toto (using a plastic or metal frame with an old fur or sheepskin-style coat from a thrift store). You can make scarecrows of characters from other children’s books and nursery rhymes. Most of these are very well-known and easy to identify.

Though it may be tempting to make a scarecrow of a well-known celebrity or public figure, be aware that you might be causing offence, particularly if you appear to be ridiculing the real person. Of course, if this is the intention, go for it!

Scarecrows can be much more striking and attractive if you mix the crafted parts with real life accessories or settings. For example, a postal worker scarecrow makes more of an impact next to a real-life mail box. Similarly, an otherwise plain scarecrow can be transformed by putting it in the uniform of a local sports team and adding accessories such as balls and bats.

If you are making a scarecrow for a particular season, try tying it in to the occasion. A Hallowe’en scarecrow only needs a pumpkin head to stand out and catch the eye. A Santa Claus scarecrow can come with a white beard and red hat (and a sackful of gifts if you really want to make friends.)

Of course, if you are really short on time and materials, there is a sneaky trick. Simply put up a wooden cross and attach a sign reading “Scarecrow at lunch – back soon”!