A New Painting - the Egyptian Cat (oils on board)

I have always loved cats (I actually have a cat website http://www.cat-breeds-info.com), and decided to paint one. And of course the thought came up how to combine a cat with Egypt. Well, the first thing that came to my mind was the Gayer-Anderson cat - perhaps the most famous Egyptian cat statue, which is a permanent favorite of people visiting the British Museum.

Then I began to wonder what a live cat would look next to the statue, and decided to paint this. I have Abys myself, but this is not my own cat. Oleg Alexeev of the Abysphere cattery in Russia kindly gave me reference photos of this beautiful cat (Abysphere Runet Blogger). I did a drawing using three of his photos.

Here is the working sketch.

And then the first stage. I am inventing painting methods again as I go along... Trying to figure out how to make the Aby's agouti / ticking look reasonably "true". Each hair of the Aby has four bands of color - the lightest nearest the skin, then a darker band, then a lighter one, and the darkest is at the tip. The effect is like that of a brown hare. Could not find any artist advice about this, so I spent days thinking about how to do this, and today started according to plan. The effect is not ready yet, but here is the start.

This is an amazing stone statue, over 4500 years old... Do you not wonder the skills of the ancient artist... This is my attempt to do justice to this amazing piece. Scratchboard work on Ampersand board. I cannot begin to count those lines and nicks I made with a razor-sharp scalpel to do this artwork...


This work will be exhibited (and is for sale) at the Villa Royal "Egyptian Treasures" exhibition in Finland, opening at 18th February this year.

Tutankhamon's Throne finished

And here it is - finally finished. Tutankhamon's Throne - 70 x 70 cm oil painting on Ampersand Board. This took me 350 hours to finish.

So many people helped me finish this piece - I wish to mention late Bob Partridge of the Ancient Egypt Magazine as one. He kindly gave me permission to use his photo as reference, and I was able to make the detailed drawing for this painting based on his photo.

Another source deserving thanks is the Werner Forman Archives. I was able to finish the finer details of this painting using their photo, which they kindly gave me permission to use.

This painting is for sale at the Villa Royal's "Ancient Egypt" exhibition in Sastamala, Finland, from 18th February onwards.

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...