Kahotep's Art Thread
I love to draw and have done so since the tender age of five (I'm 24 now, and mostly self-taught). My DeviantArt gallery can be visited here. What I usually do is draw and ink on paper and then color the picture in Photoshop or GIMP.
Come Back With Your Shield
Queen Gorgo of Sparta bids her husband Leonidas farewell by telling him, "Come back with your shield or on it".
Of course there's no evidence that Queen Gorgo was Black African or otherwise different in appearance from the Mediterranean Greek norm, but I do believe there was a black minority in ancient Greece and wanted to portray that. Besides, it can't be any more egregious an historical error than making half the Persian characters black people in certain Hollywood films.
Cleopatra VII of the Ptolemaic Kingdom
Cleopatra VII, the last matriarch of the Ptolemaic Dynasty and the most famous of them all, stands on a balcony within eyesight of the Pharos Lighthouse in Alexandria. I wanted the piece to evoke the warm and sunny Caribbean, since Ptolemaic Egypt was similar to the modern Caribbean insofar as it represented a crossroads between European and African cultures.
Gaius Julius Caesar
My portrait of one of the Roman Republic's last major statesman, Gaius Julius Caesar. He is perhaps best known for his vicious power struggles with other Roman politicians, his conquest of Gaul (a Celtic country located in what is now France), and his illicit relationship with the Ptolemaic Queen Cleopatra VII. However, I'll always remember him as the arch-villain from the good old Asterix comics.
I was actually a little unsure on the skin tone I wanted to give Caesar here. Roman sources do describe him as relatively fair in color, but then "fair" is a vague and relative term. On the other hand I wanted to convey that he and his Roman compatriots were predominantly of Mediterranean or Southern European heritage and thus would have looked darker than my Celtic and Anglo-Saxon ancestors. In the end I went with what I would describe as a light olive complexion.
Merneith the Fifth Pharaoh
Merneith is a little-known female Pharaoh from the first Egyptian dynasty founded by Narmer. That's right, female Pharaohs go back all the way to the dawn of Egyptian history. Merneith apparently started out a senior wife for a king named Djet, but took over after he died in his reign's 10th year. That mace she is carrying is based on the one Narmer yields in his famous palette as he is about to crush his enemies. Whether or not Merneith ever led any armies to battle herself remains unknown for the time being.
Memnon the Ally of Troy
In Greek mythology, Memnon was a king of “Aethiopia” (ancient Kush or Nubia in what is now Sudan) who allied with the Trojans in their Homeric conflict against the Greeks. Although a skilled warrior whom the Trojans hoped would be their savior, Memnon was characterized by a nobility which won him the favor of the Greek gods. In one episode an elderly Greek king named Nestor challenged Memnon to a fight to avenge his son, but Memnon turned him down out of respect for his age. Ironically this strength of character would lead to Memnon’s undoing, for the demigod Achilles ultimately slew him on Nestor’s behalf.
I based Memnon’s look here on a real king of Nubia named Nedjeh, who ruled between 1650 and 1550 BC. Artistic sources depict him as an archer with a bowling pin-shaped hedjet crown related to those worn by early Egyptian Pharaohs.
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Originally Posted by Joar
I'm always in awe of people with a talent for drawing and painting... I hope we can see more here!
