General Reflection

(Images are cropped as scanner was not large enough)


In terms of essay writing, I regret not starting it sooner; I do feel I was a little lost for quite a long time on what I wanted to write about, I initially decided my essay would be "Erotic vs the Pornographic; Drawing as a limitless tool" but when researching I found next to no academic texts and only misinformed, opinion-based articles. I stumbled across Shunga while researching and decided to narrow my subject down to only focus on that singular topic. I would note that in the early stages, while I was still unsure about my topic, I revived no useful support from my tutor, even after discussions I left having not learned and nothing was clearer. I think this hindered my process a little also. I fear a little that my essay doesn't have enough quotes to get a decent grade. I think it is a okay essay, but maybe I strayed from the structure we were set too much? I really struggled to find relevant quotes so instead opted to make it essay more factual; it is difficult to use quotes when what you are writing is simply fact.

For my practical process, I feel I could have experimented much more. I am however pleased with the outcomes; despite not having a large volume of work, I have achieved all I set out to do and the images are successful in portraying what I desired (humour, surrealism, etc). For medium, I could have done more, cut outs maybe? I found that painting the line work for the larger images was very time consuming, which was frustrating as i was constantly aware that I needed to produce a larger volume of work. I am particularly pleased with two out of the three paintings on brown paper (excluding the 'mummy doggy' unfinished painting), I feel the use of brown paper was MUCH more successful than white and related nicely to the handscrolls Shunga was typically produced on. The first painting I did of the 'mummy doggy' was ruined by the acrylic flesh tone in my opinion, it looks too trashy and even though it is in keeping with the cartoon-esc style I was aiming for, does not appear professional enough; considering the style is faux-naive, the painting quality must be decent to get away with it.