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Student Essay Art is one of many ways of communication. Art is used to express feelings or to deliver a message to a viewer. It is also used to leave a record of things that happened during the time the artwork was created. Ancient artwork usually talks about religious practices, spiritual beliefs or even their dependence on nature for survival whereas 21st century street artwork are usually personal opinions on something such as politics, action done by someone or new law. It also contains the artist’s feeling of the time the artwork was created. Every street artists of the 21st century has different styles whereas ancient artists used similar (close to same) styles. Creative Purpose†¦. Fig. 1, Elderly Woman, Street Art London, 2011 Fig. 1, Elderly Woman, Street Art London, 2011 The ancient artworks, in this case, ancient Egyptian art, were used to keep record of achievements, spiritual beliefs and spiritual practices. Most of the spiritual practices were practices of mummifying dead bodies, believing that the soul from the dead body will go to either heaven or hell. Ancient Egyptians believed in afterlife quite heavily. Most of the ancient Egyptian kings (Pharaohs) were mummified due to this belief. Furthermore, many of the ancient Egyptian artworks have Gods in them. There are Gods for certain things such as God of the Sun and God of Death. However, the 21st century street art is more of expressing the artist’s feelings and commenting on certain things such as politics. For example, there is a famous street artist who lives in Paris, France, who has a nickname called ‘C215’ (real name is Christian Guemy). His artworks usually have people involved in them. However, his artworks are not just about normal people but people like beggars, elderly people, refugees and street kids because he is ‘obsessed’ with making an artwork of them, artwork of people who grew up in streets and lived in streets. He said, â€Å"I paint mostly tramps, refugees and street kids, people who really live the experience of the street and to whom the  street art  is almost never intended. † Visual Character†¦. Fig. 2, Ancient Egyptian Art, Tutt’ Art, 2011 Fig. 2, Ancient Egyptian Art, Tutt’ Art, 2011 Ancient Egyptian artworks often have people and Gods with appearances with human in them. The people in the ancient Egyptian artworks have their arms and shoulders positioned facing the front while their faces are facing the side, along with their legs and hips. The artworks of ancient Egypt are very symbolic. They have many meanings in the artwork, especially when it talks about spiritual practices and beliefs. Sometimes, they also have writings around or in the artwork. It probably could be understood by many other cultures except for those cultures wit completely different beliefs. However, street arts are understood by nearly everyone in the world as they have similar beliefs and religions. When it Fig. 3, Smiling Refugee, Street Art London, 2011 Fig. 3, Smiling Refugee, Street Art London, 2011 comes to personal comments on politics, it may be hard for some people to understand. The 21st century street artworks are very stylized, having different themes and styles for every street artists, except for those street artists who only leave their names or nicknames on walls. Theses can be seen as mess on the wall because it has no meaning in it. A street artist called ‘C215’ has very colourful style. This artist is told to be realistic but stylized. C215 describes the facial expressions of the main characters in his artworks very precisely to deliver a hidden message behind the art piece. As shown Fig. 4, Street Kid, Street Art London, 2011. Fig. 4, Street Kid, Street Art London, 2011. in figure one, three and four, he describes the facial expressions of elderly woman, refugee and a ‘street kid’ very precisely. Also, famous street artists often leave their special ‘logo’ somewhere in the artwork. For instance in figure four, a ‘logo’ for C215 can be seen next to the face. Medium and Technique†¦. Most of the common ancient Egyptian artworks were painted with paints made of mixed pigments with gum, which were the basic colours. Before papyrus leaves were used as papers, the paintings were often done on walls, which were sometimes carved in. These kinds of techniques were used in ancient Egyptian times because the actual paints and paintbrushes weren’t properly developed. Today, many kinds of tools and styles can be used. For example, C215 usually used stencils to paint on street walls. He makes a background on the wall either free hand or painted using stencils, and then puts his main character in the background. He either uses spray paints or paints and paintbrushes, but mostly, spray paints. It shows his personal style and it helps him to paint precise parts of painting such as facial expressions. Personal Response†¦. I think that every kind of art has one thing common in them; the artist’s feeling and expression of the time he/she created the artwork. If there is a slight difference between ancient Egyptian art and the 21st century street art, I have go to say that the artworks from ancient Egypt do not have sense of depth and they were all dull whereas 21st century street art has wide range of colours being used and vibrant. Most people will find street art more attractive than ancient Egyptian art as street art has different styles and they are very vibrant. Conclusion†¦. To sum up, ancient Egyptian art has many meanings for spiritual beliefs and practices. It was very symbolic as it represented human by its body parts, so the head is facing the side, shoulders and arms are facing the front and shoulders and arms are facing the side. It is mostly painted with basic colours that are made of mixed pigments and gum. On the other hand, graffiti is more like expressing a personal opinion on certain thing. It has many themes and styles along with many choices of colours. Almost everyone can understand street art. Furthermore there are many ways to paint for street art and one of many ways is stencils and paints.