Project Pictures
Description
I visited the Ancient Egyptian Section of the Met Museum, incorporating designs from statues and hieroglyphs on display there. I knew I wanted to incorporate hieroglyphs into my core work—not just as decorations but as features within my subject. I ended up building around a bust of the pharaoh Tuthmosis III (1504-1450 BC) for the core of my project. I also traced hieroglyphs that had been painted on a wood box or casket of some sort.
I created a low poly rendering of the pharaohs head in after effects by using the “blur – average” tool on 3, 4, and 5 sided selections. I then used the pen & trace tools to create a vector based version of it in illustrator. I used my original sketch & pen tool tracing of the pharaohs head to create a simple 3 shade rendering of the pharaohs head-dress. I used the eye of horus I traced to make the subjects eyes, and the other hieroglyphs to decorate the edges of the image (and the slug in the center for the cool contrast.
I only technically used 2 colors (#000000 – black & #E1D1A0 – sand to me) but manipulated their opacity and object blending layer properties to create a much wider palette of colors. I think this piece works best as a flag, and would like to see a micronation adopt it one day!
Drawings
Pen Tool Tracings
Inspiration
