Need a bit of help writing sentences

[Jessica]

Every chapter we have to write sentences for the vocab words given in our textbook, and this chapter (about art) we have to write in the preterit tense. I only got a few, because the others I can't think of what to write, let alone how to put it in the past. I used the translator and the majority translated into the imperfect.

First one,

fijarse en. in my book it says it means to pay attention to, but when I used the translator (in English) it uses something else. I need some hints on what to write with fijarse en

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

The translation as "to pay attention to" is alright.
If your topic is art, think about what you would pay attention to when watching a painting, a sculpture, etc... like colours, textures, shapes...

[Jessica]

Okay, now I need help with these last three

la figura, reflejado, and la época

With la figura, it says it means form or shape. How do I use that in the preterit?

Reflejado is in the past particle, "reflected" but I'm not sure how to use it in the preterit...

and la época. it means time or age but how will I use that? Using the translator I always get momento or tiempo :/

[JPablo]

Well, you could say something related to the shape of the sculptures of the Ancient Greece...

La figura de las primeras esculturas griegas era rígida y luego cobró más dinamismo...

Or you could say something about "la figura de las esculturas de Rodin no era refinada, pero tenía un gran impacto comunicativo, como en el caso de El Pensador..."

An example,
Los grandes artistas han reflejado sus ideas por escrito o por otros medios artísticos... Or you could say that the light of the moon "reflected" on the sea...

Época = epoch or age...

You can talk about the first epoch of the Greek sculpture... or anything else (I don't know why I am so fixed in sculpture today... maybe because I got stuck on my high school epoch, when I studied it... :)

[Jessica]

Thank you JPablo, but those sentences are in the imperfect, I need them in the preterit :) and also, I want it as simple as possible

also if I use "the light of the moon was reflected on the sea" that would use the imperfect of reflejar and not the past particle...and I don't know how to use that :/

[JPablo]

Oh, I see, you need just a simple past tense?

Like, "la figura de las estatuas fue perfeccionada a lo largo de las épocas"?

Or "la luz de la luna se reflejaba en el mar" (imperfect)
"La luz de la luna reflajada en el mar no sirvió para ver".

Just giving you examples, you can extrapolate...
Or "la luz de la luna se reflejó en el espejo"

Not sure why you cannot use "imperfect" in your exercise... but I hope the above gives you some inspiration. Otherwise, let us know...

[irmamar]

Usually imperfect is used for description, so you can't use the simple past to describe a picture, for instance. So you must approach to the topic from another angle, I mean, explain what happened or how it happened. For instance:

Who made pyramids? Which were the purposes they had for building that construction? Which were their materials and their tools? Did they use slaves? And so on.

I can show you an example using the past tense (nothing to do with art):

Aquel día decidió que haría pan. Pesó la harina y la colocó sobre el mármol. Añadió el agua y se puso a amasar la masa. Agregó la levadura y dejó que fermentara. Posteriormente, dio la forma al pan y lo metió en el horno el tiempo necesario.

I hope it helps. :)