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Symbolism of Green
What does green symbolise in art and storytelling?
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Three by the Sea by Mini Grey Picture Book Analysis
Three By The Sea is a 2010 picture book by British writer-illustrator Mini Grey. This storyteller comes from South Wales, which is somewhat evident in the setting. The most widely borrowed picture book from Mini Grey is the wonderfully metafictional Traction Man series. This one has metafictional elements also, and offers plenty of picture book…
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Resources For Teaching The Black Death
This list includes non-fiction, historical fiction (some based on true stories) as well as podcasts, TV shows and even a song. I’m including resources for all ages in this list. HOOKS Ring a Ring o Roses Nursery Rhyme Ring a Ring o Roses, or Ring Around the Rosie, may be about the 1665 Great Plague…
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Women Without A Voice: In Fiction And In Life
For some characters, self-reliance and a refusal to silence their inner voices strengthen their public voices. For others, art provides a metaphorical expression of voice. Often characters recognise the dialogic nature of voice: their voices exist only in dialogues with other people. … They recover their voices because they recognise the power of language. ……
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One Point Perspective Picture Book Houses
The one point perspective house is commonly when children draw when they first start drawing houses. Here’s an example from my own kid. I think they were about 8 years old when they drew this one.
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Large Shapes In Illustration And Graphic Design
Below is a motley collection of illustrations but I feel they share something in common: They seem to have started from an assemblage of large shapes of colour. On top of those shapes, some are rendered and shaded while others aren’t.
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Germans At Meat by Katherine Mansfield Short Story Analysis
“Germans At Meat” (1910) is a short story by Katherine Mansfield, and opens her first collection (a series of journalistic travelogues). The collection is called In A German Pension. Mansfield later regretted these stories and did not want to republish them in 1920, three years before she died. She considered them ‘immature’ and ‘a lie’.…
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Housework in Art and Illustration
Various illustrations of housework from the 1800s and through the 20th century.
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Open House on Haunted Hill by John Wiswell Short Story Analysis
“Open House on Haunted Hill” is a Nebula Award winning short (ghost?) story by John Wiswell, published in 2020. I’ve recently immersed myself in ghost stories from the 18- and 1900s. But how does one go about writing a contemporary ghost story? Listen to this story read by Levar Burton on the Levar Burton Reads…
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Movement Toward The Viewer in Illustration
Want to freak your audience out? How about a one point perspective illustration of something heading straight for them at speed?
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The Signal-man by Charles Dickens Short Story Analysis
“The Signal-man” (1866) is a ghost story by iconic English author Charles Dickens. If you’ve ever fantasised about leaving your open office or customer service job to work alone in a tiny box in the middle of nowhere, unbothered and free to get on with your straight-forward but very necessary job, this might be the…
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Tips For Men Writing Women
Can men write woman and femme-presenting characters? Men can, do and may. William Trevor did it well. Apart from an excess of crying, Larry McMurtry also did it well. Ian McEwan is also right up there. Content note: This is a gender binarist topic. Non-binary genders exist and continue to be invisibilised the vast majority…
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The Bus by Shirley Jackson
I once read an article about why so few commuters were inclined to take the bus. This would have eased congestion in my home city. New Zealanders are notoriously wedded to their cars (which have only gotten bigger and bigger since the aggressive marketing of double-cab utes). Sure, we like our cars. But there’s this…
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Pink in Illustration
In the last half century or so pink has increasingly become femme coded. This wasn’t the case before the second world war.
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Hunting And Trapping In Art And Illustration
Stalking Horse: a person or thing that is used to conceal someone’s real intentions. I heard this phrase used to describe a tactic used by Woolworths Australia, who installed a digital mirror at some self-serve check outs. They said that they were not retaining any images, and if customers don’t like it, customers were free to use the staffed…