Ancient Egyptian Art

I did wonder what to call this blog, but maybe it was too easy...

I have loved anything Egypt since I was a child. I dreamt of studying Egyptology but it was not possible here where I live.

I have a full time job and studying during the daytime hours was not possible. But then, one day, I realized that in this time and age there simply had to be possible to study online. I did some research and found the Manchester University's Certificate of Egyptology course. I applied - and to my never ending surprise and joy I got in!

I am now waiting for my first year of studies to start.

I´ve been to Egypt once, and took many photos in the Luxor area. Out of these I chose the Dendera Temple to do my first ancient Egyptian painting.

The scene in question is from the back wall of the Dendera temple: Cleopatra and her son Cesarion making offerings to Osiris, Isis and Harsiesis.

To get this far I have used many hours - painting those tiny hieroglyphs sure takes time! And to make the stone look like stone... Oh dear. This is an oil painting and oil paint is... well - oily!

And stone is not. Do the math.

Cleopatra's hair/wig nearly drove me to desperation. I must have been staring at my photo for fifteen minutes to finally see what was the idea, how the wig was made. And then to make those teeny tiny details...

This is a grisaille painting which means that I do the underpainting in grayish tones and then layer very thin layers of paint on top to find the final color.

Welcome to follow the process!