Egyptian Profiles

 

Egyptian ProfilesThese Egyptian profiles take a few days to complete, but they are worth it! Using silhouettes of their own head and neck, students create Egyptian wall paintings displaying headdresses and necklaces.

We do this project as part of our study of Ancient Egypt.

Materials

  • Acrylic or tempra paint
    Black Gold metallic White Red
    Yellow Burnt Umber Ochre Blue
    Green      
  • White butcher paper-- a 3'x3' piece for each student
  • Black permanent markers
  • Paint brushes

Egyptian Profile

Directions

1. Trace each student's profile onto a large piece of white butcher paper. Be sure the silhouette has a neck. I tape the butcher paper to the whiteboard and use the light from my overhead projector. Students have a tendency to sway, which makes it difficult to get a clear profile. To minimize swaying, have the student lean one shoulder against the wall. Unless you have lots of wall space to hang the finished projects, make sure that the profiles are not any larger than life-size.

I trace the individual sihouettes while the students are working on another activity.

2. Discuss Egyptian art and culture:

  • Egyptian artists had to follow rigid rules about certain things. Every example of Egyptian art from any time period strictly adheres to the same style. There is a code, or a set of rules for producing the artwork. The style is called frontalism. In reliefs or paintings, frontalism means that the head of the character is always drawn in profile.
  • In all Egyptian wall paintings, the eye faced out to the viewer. Egyptians painted all body parts in the most easily and quickly recognizable position. Although the face is drawn in profile, the eye is drawn from the front.
  • The uper body is seen from the front. The legs are turned to the same side as the head, with one foot placed in front of the other. It's interesting to have students try to assume this position--face to the side, shoulders to the front, hips and legs to the side. It's a position that's physically impossible to assume.
  • Every figure, in paintings or sculptures, stands or sits with a formal, stiff, and rigid posture. The stance of the body is severe, but the faces are calm and serene, and almost always tilted slightly towards the sky, as if the figures were basking in the warm sun.
  • In much Egyptian art, females were painted using an ocher (yellowish) color. Males were depicted in a reddish brown hue.
  • Most figures in Egyptian wall paintings who wear jewelry wear necklaces reflecting the society's worship of the sun. If taken off and laid flat, the beads and other decorations on these pieces radiate out from the central hole like rays of the sun.
  • The Egyptian artist had at his disposal six colors--red, yellow, blue, green, black and white. These colors were made largely from mineral compounds that retain their vibrancy over the millennia.

3. Demonstrate the project with a generic silhouette. Have students choose a point in the middle of their neck, below the chin. Put a dot at this point. This is the central point from which the necklace radiates. Place the end of a sharpened pencil through a hole at the end of a ruler, then place the pencil and ruler on the dot. Hold that pencil firmly in place, and put a second sharpened pencil through the hole at the other end of the ruler. Move only the second pencil to create an arc on the paper. This forms the bottom of the necklace. Keeping the first pencil in place, move the second pencil to a hole closer to the center dot. Make a second arc. Repeat this procedure for all of the holes in the ruler to create up to four bands on the necklace. Then use the ruler to draw a line at the front and back of the necklace. To divide the bands into sections, place dots equidistant around the circumference of the outer circle--maybe 1/2 to 1 inch apart. Then connect each dot with the center point to create radiating strands.

4. After students have penciled in the necklace, have them draw the facial features. To draw the lips, draw a line in the center of the two bumps for the lips on the silhouette. Then draw lines for the top and bottom lip. The eye goes in the "dent" where the forehead and nose meet, not up in the forehead. Both Egyptian men and women wore eye makeup to protect their eyes from the harsh desert sun, just like sports players wear black paint under their eyes today. Draw eyebrows and ears. The ear is in line with the eye, and is about the same size as the nose. Next, draw the hair straight across above the eyebrow, and then down around the ear.

5. Have students choose an appropriate headdress and draw it on their silhouette. You can find some examples of headdresses here.

6. Begin painting by filling in the skin tones on the face. Using the generic silhouette, demonstrate how to paint using an outline. Put a line of paint all the way around the outline of the space you are going to paint, including around the outside of the eye and the eyebrow. Then fill in the rest of the space. The outline of paint will help keep your paint inside the space you are painting. Boys should use a reddish brown color to paint, and the girls should use a yellowish brown.

7. After the skin tone has dried, use black to paint the hair, outline of the eye, and the eyebrow. Use the same outlining technique you used for the skin tones.

8. After the black paint has dried, paint the necklace using yellow, red, blue, green, and white. Metallic gold paint may be used in a few spaces as an accent. Each band of the necklace should be painted in a pattern, not random colors. Use the outlining technique to keep the colors separate. Have the students decide on the pattern they will use before they begin painting. They should paint all the spaces of one color before beginning another color.

7. After the necklace has dried, paint the headdress using yellow, blue, red, green, and white. Metallic gold paint may be used in a few spaces as an accent. Use the outlining technique to keep the colors separate. Also paint the white part of the eye.

8. When all of the paint has dried, use black permanent markers to outline between each color.