Egyptian Swap Dolls



 
The original pastel colors on this statuette make me think of 1923 CE instead of 3000 BCE, but I really liked the form, so I brought one home for experimentation. Skin, collar and girdle are painted, but skirt and bodice are still pink.  Looks worse than the original (fashion note to ancient Egyptians:  don't wear pale pink). Finished piece.  The white gives great contrast to her darker skin.
For her skin, I mixed red oxide acrylic paint  with matte Mod Podge. 

This translucent mixture lets the original painting of her eyes and brows show through, and also collects in crevices between toes and fingers (and navel!)  to give dimensional shadowing.

An extra-heavy coat turned the bright pink girdle drape rusty red. 

Mixed with lots of water, the skin mixture turned the pale pink of her headdress peachy and emphasized its texture. 

Her girdle and collar are painted with a mix of deep blue and pearly turquoise acrylics--slightly watered down for the girdle, and with lots of water to accent the collar's fine detail lines.

Full-strength white acrylic on the skirt and bodice covered up skin splashover and blue paint slops and made the doll really come alive.

The base, flowers, hair, and much of the gold work are all that's left of the original colors.

Once the paint was dry, I added touches of gold with a metallic pen.

{--The all-gold spray paint version is kind of fun (and it was really easy, too!) 

A friend in my mini group suggested painting the hair and makeup in black and the collar in lapis lazuli blue.
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I mixed a bit of silver   --}
paint into black, trying for the fine crystalline effect of basalt.  It kind of flopped, so I dry-brushed silver to highlight the fine detailing.

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Copyright Lee Menconi-Steiger 2002

Egyptologists have visited this page since it was created May 17, 2002