Tut's Throne - Pectoral above the table

I thought I could paint the pectoral in a day but it took two days. The ancient Egyptian showed the contents of a box or what was on a table by putting the object in question in the "air" above the furniture.

Tutankhamon's Throne - Tut's Sash

Today I spent a few hours on Tutankhamon's sash.

 And a little detail

Tut's Throne - collars

And here I have finished the collars of the royal couple...An amazing amount of details to be sure.
Next I shall work on Tut's belt, I think. That will take a full day of work at least.

Tut's Throne continued

Here I have painted both Tutankhamon's and Ankhesenamun's headdresses, wigs and face, and today I painted the king's body. That is one bright color and it sure took a while to get the right hue mixed...

Tutankhamon's Golden Mask - finished!

And here is the finished painting. Winsor & Newtom oils on finest hand-stretched linen canvas, 29 x 42 cm.

I wish to express my gratitude to the Werner Forman archive for their kind permission to use their photo (taken at the Egyptian Museum) as a reference to this painting. You can visit their website by clicking on the link on the blog.

Almost there with Tut's Mask...

After this there are only two "stripes" of beads left to paint and then painting the background into a uniform color. (It is black, but I mix that myself, no tube black).

Tut's Mask - False beard done and some of the collar

So here is where I am at the moment...

Tut's Mask - Left shoulder

It seems the flaps of the nemes are still too wet so I haven't started on the false beard. So I worked on the left shoulder (of the pharaoh), where the necklace starts.

And a little closeup...
 

Tut's Mask - the Nemes is Ready

Now the nemes headdress is more or less done. Next I'll work on the false beard and necklace.

Tut's Mask - One Flap Done

Ok, so one side of the nemes is now done. Will move to the other "flap" next.

Tut's Mask - Down the Left Side of Nemes

Decided to continue with the same side of the nemes anyway.

Tut's Mask - Headdress progressing...

This is where I managed to paint this today. I seem to get used to painting that gold in the shadows... Plenty on hair-thin different-colored scratches that blend into each other when seen from a distance...

Tut's Mask - Stripes, Stripes...

...and some more stripes...

Tut's Mask - More Stripes of the Nemes

And here is what I had time for today.

And a closeup...

Tut's Mask - More Work on the Nemes Headdress

And here is today's work...  I worked some more on the headdress - finished the golden band on the pharaoh's forehead and painted four stripes of the nemes-headdress.

Tut's Mask - Rest of the Cobra

Took me three and a half hours to paint the rest of the Cobra and those few stripes of nemes-headdress. The ancient artists sure had a liking to detail!!

Tut's Mask - Neck

And today I added the neck...

Tut's Mask - the Ear

Today I painted the ear. I may tweak it later, but this was all I had patience for today. Really - not the easiest thing to paint!

Tut's Mask - Left Cheek

Here I have now worked on the left cheek. You can see the stipes of the nemes-headdress reflected.

Tut's Mask - Left eye

I only had time to paint the left eye today, so I did that. It is so eerie to notice the eye in the mask has this reddish tone in the eyeball, just like in real life. I felt like Tut was looking at me with real human eyes...

Attached is also a pic of the brushes I have used in painting this.

Tut's Mask - Nose, Mouth and Chin

And this is what I had time to paint today. The nose, mouth and chin - and the area under the eyebrow of the left eye.

Tutankhamon's Golden Mask - Right Eye and Eyebrows

Today I worked on the right eye and the eyebrows. The brows and the "eye liner" are made of pieces of lapis lazuli, carefully fitted together so at a glance they look like one piece in real life. I wanted to bring out this puzzle effect.

I use a miniature brush and was wondering why it did not give color well. I finally checked the brush and noticed it had only one hair left! And I must have painted with that for at least half an hour LOL :D

Tutankhamon's Golden Mask - right cheek and forehead

I painted this much today. The right cheek is in bright light and this makes is almost colorless. It does have some yellowish hues but the photo does not bring those out. (Could not use flashlight on wet oil paint, the glare would have been too strong)

The left cheek will have much stronger yellow color and strong shadows. The surface of the mask has these very thin "scratch-marks" (for the lack of a better word) and I tried to show those also.

Tutankhamon's Golden Mask - the Cobra

Yesterday I painted the cobra (well, the tail is yet to be painted). It is 7,5 cm or 3 inches high and took me three hours. My miniature brush which had about three hairs when I bought it now seems to be down to two... Maybe it is time to buy a new one LOL :D. The detail photo is slightly blurry but I hope it shows some of the level of detail necessary for this painting.

Tut's Mask - Headdress

I painted this far today - it is summer and so hot my tiny study is like a sauna. I had planned on painting the cobra on the headdress today, but it was way too hot to continue.

 And a little detail...

Tut's Mask - Vulture on Headdress

Here is the first part painted: the vulture in Tutankhamon's headdress.

And a little closeup:

Tut's Mask - preliminary drawing

I am painting usually two paintings at the same time and once I had the horse portrait finished I was doing (check the links to my horse art blog) I started with Tut's Golden Mask.

Here is the preliminary drawing. I pre-stained the canvas and did this with yellow color pencil. Tomorrow I'll start with color. This will be traditional oils on very fine linen canvas.

Tut's Throne - background gold finished

And here is the background gold more or less finished - the pillar on the right is next, then I think I'll do the sunshade above the couple, and then the lower frieze. And then it is time to start with the couple. I am actually quite happy that I have managed  to achieve a certain level of reality with visible brushstrokes. Usually I blend blend blend... But now I decided not every stroke has to disappear. (Might explain the quicker process too...) :) Quite refreshing to see I have the courage to do that.

(Sorry the light does not reach the paintign evenly, so there are shadows and some variations to color)

Tut's Throne - central gold foil

And here I have painted the central part of the gold foil - it is rather strongly crumbled which explains the triangular areas of light.

Tut's Throne - the Aten

Here I have worked on the gold background between the Pharaoh and his Great Royal Wife. The Aten, those tiny hands and glyphs.

Here is a detail. As you can see I have painted with rather thick paint and looser strokes than I usually do - trying to achieve a painterly effect. After all this is a painting, not a photograph.

Tut's Throne - some more gold foil

Painted some more of that goild foil to the left and under the chair. It really surprises me how much grey there is in gold. Also it reflects any color around it, so there can be surprising patches of color, depending which way the crumbled gold foil is facing.

Tut's Throne - plunging in with color

Now the layering method is fine and delicate, but quite honestly it is now taking too much time. I have other paintings to finish too. So I just took the plunge and hopped in with color. Here I have begun with the left hand side.

Tut's Throne - the first layer of color on the way...

Here I have continued to add the first layer of color to the central parts of the painting. (The right side is a bit overexposed, it is of the same color as the left)

Tut's Throne: First Color

First spots of color... Actually a very very thin layer of oil paint spread out as thinly as possible and even after that rubbed with a tissue to get most of it off. That's the idea of layering - several amazinly thin layers of color on top of each other, each showing the layers beneath. 

This is about 70 cm x 70 cm, and if you look at all the yellowish (gold) color, I maybe used a paint daub the size of the end of a pin to create all of that (you know, those pins with a "ball" at the other end). I hope that gives you an idea how little paint was used.

Tut's underpainting - finally done!

Well, now the underpainting is finally done... The main creases have been painted in, and some metallic shine added to Tut's kilt and Ankhesenamun's dress. Once this is dry, finally come the color layers!

Tut's underpainting - all fields blocked

I just blocked the last fields of underpainting today and that sash sure took some work! Had to count each little speck of light that represented a jewl or golden bead. I still think I may have a few beads too many or too few - the reference photo didn't quite release its secrets...

But here is the painting now: background "wrinkles" (wrinkled gold foil) still not done, and the balancing of dark colors need to be done (Ankhesenamun, the table, the pectoral above the table, the details under the chair) once this is dry enough to touch. About 100 hours into this so far.

Then underpainting stage nearing its end

I have been horrified with the news of how people out of sheer ignorance have been destroying the cultural heritage of Egypt. Archaeological sites robbed, destroyed artifacts and tombs... Horrible...

Still, I felt the need to paint Tutankhamon's throne some more - as a friend said: painting this was alsos preserving our cultural heritage.

The underpainting stage nears its end, soon it is turn for color.

Tut's Throne - Ankhesenamun's dress

And here is Ankhesenamun again - I painted her hands, feet and the basic form of the dress. Will have to add details once the paint has dried. I think the ancient artists did a great job at showing the sheer transparent linen dress and I hope my painting shows the same effect.

Tut's Throne - closeup of Ankhesenamun

And here is a closeup of her:

Tut's Throne - Ankhesenamun

I've now done the underpainting of Ankhesenamun's crown, wig, face and collar.