Written by Travis Wilson
Painted by Travis Wilson at 1/6 scale.
Based on the famous depiction at the Tomb of Khnumhotep II at Beni Hassan Egypt showing a group of Aamu foriegners coming to Egypt, this woman stands out with her intricate woven dress and unique shoes.
I Love bringing things to life. You look this ancient tomb painting and it's hard for most people to really imagine them brought into reality. I've worked on films and museum exhibits for many years and it's a magical thing when you take a design or drawing and bring it to screen or make it physical for a guest to walk through. So being able to lift this image off the walls from a tomb is a joy.
Learning techniques from film make-up/effects I approached the paint job by adding subtle amounts of every color, creating a skin that begins to appear translucent. This is a technique used to paint prosthetics today, but as I understand, it was developed when artists were using foam-latex (which allows no light to pass through) and they had to paint these pieces to go right up against real skin. I learned about it first from a mentor of mine, Doug Henderson, but also from resources like Stan Winston School of Character Arts.
I also wanted to try some new ideas out to give more realism to the eyes. With using UV resins, I carefully built up the lens of the eyes on the concave iris to catch the light on the rim as it rakes across the face. It was tedious, but really gives life to the sculpture.
If interested in purchase, this piece is available:
- Travis Wilson, Creator of Ox Head Minis