Part of Hathor's Wig Done

Here I have worked a bit on the wig of Hathor. It is quite interesting to try to achieve the dull shine of stone. I think I am beginning to get there with the lappet I have worked on.

Palette

Here you can see my palette for Cleopatra and Caesarion. Brown, blue and white - a so called "limited palette". Hubby says I should frame this one too LOL

One of the advantages of a limited palette is that the color scheme remains harmonious. And as you can see, no black was needed. You can get pretty dark shades by simply mixing blue and brown. (Or if you really mix your colors completely yourself: first make orange by mixing red and yellow and then add blue until you get the shade of brown you like. The more blue you put into it, the darker it becomes. With the use of ultramarine blue you can get very deep dark browns.)

Done! Cleopatra and Caesarion

Here it is - finally all done. Cleopatra and Caesarion on the back wall of the Denderah temple.

40,5 cm x 50,5 cm. Painted on Ampersand museum-quality clayboard with VanGogh Oils. I have only used three colors: blue, brown and white, nothing else. All the shadows have been mixed from blue and brown - I believe it gives a more vivid and lively feeling than black would. Also that way the light reflected back to the relief from the ground up can be painted more realistically.

I would like to thank a few people here for sending me detailed reference photos:

Barry Burnett: I could not believe someone would take the trouble to actually travel to Denderah and take photos for me of the parts of the relief that were not showing properly on my own photos. Your detailed photos really were heaven sent. Thank you so much!

Hans Kontkanen: Your photo gave a very good, sharp overall view of the wall and I did refer to it many times when I was putting Barry's photos "in context".

Vincent from Talking Pyramids (see link on the left):
You gave me links to many good sharp photos so I could compare my painting to them. Also you have been kindly telling people of my painting process on your marvellous blog. Everyone: go read Talking Pyramids. If you are at all interested in ancient Egypt, you'll find yourself hooked for hours of interesting reading...

Closeup on Hathor's Crown

A closeup on Hathor's crown. All is done with a very sharp scalpel and some steel wool - but not normal steel wool. That would leave an oily residue. The steel wool in question is almost cotton soft, and especially made for scratchboard.

I hope I got the disc scape clearly visible. Also the photo lies a bit - the horns are slightly darker than in the photo.

Menkaure Triad: Hathor's Crown

Here is the what I managed to do on the first session. The crown of Hathor so far.

Here you can see how the white undercolor is revealed by scraping with a scalpel.

Menkaure Triad Started

I have to admit I could not resist - I got my scraping board and started working on the Menkaure triad already.
First the sketch: First it had to be drawn, then transferred to the scraper board (by coloring the back of the drawing with graphite and re-drawing with a sharp pen so that the drawing transferred to the board). And because graphite may wear off while I work on this, I had to use the scalpel to do tiny nicks along the lines.

Here's the drawing (a bit hard to take a photo that would show those faint faint lines)

Two hours of work

Here's what I painted today. Two hours of work - I am living in the hope of getting Cleopatra and Caesarion finished this weekend. I should - only one week left before our renovation starts and I cannot have this painting all wet when I transfer it to our rented apartment...