Post #694612 by tigertail777 on Wed, Sep 25, 2013 3:31 PM

Thanks so much for the compliments Wendy, if I wasn't blushing before I sure am now! :wink: Funny you should say that; my brother is an architect. The joke in my family goes that he draws the straight lines and I do the curved ones. :)

Well I am not entirely sure where I left off on my posting, so I will just have to go with my last session. I worked on the upper wall: adding more of the stripe/box design, and finally putting in those dreaded hieroglyphics that I have been putting off. Dreaded because of the tiny intricacy of the darn things, I thought I was going to have to get a magnifying glass a few times. I also added a bit more depth in the hi-lights of the pillar, and might add a bit more. I am probably going to have to lower that stage just a bit because I decided I am going to put the block under the pillar that I am sure was there originally from the floor impression I mentioned earlier.

First... yet more stripes, of a different type. See the pattern at the top edge of the wall that is like little red boxes made of stripes?

As I said before, I am learning all kinds of new things on this painting. I really should have painted all of the wall background color before I penciled in and painted the hieroglyphics. Trying to match the paint color between the details was very time consuming. After a while on some of it I gave up and did just that, essentially starting over. I did that on the scarab beetle with wings because it was just getting too frustrating painting between everything.

Next was all those boats with gods in them. I still am not entirely happy and may do some touch ups, but the overall image is there now. The papyrus flowers motif at the top of the dividers was the easy part.

Then came the other boat. I noticed there are only 3 gods making for a shorter boat. I am guessing this was done only on the far corner end walls, either because they ran out of room, or wanted to make the ending of the wall distinctive.

Finally, the last boat another 4 god one. And the half of the scarab beetle with wings motif.

And that ends where we are for now. Put your camels in their full upright position and thank you for flying scarab airlines.

I did after much searching found an approximate correct time period (1930's) postcard of the same type of pillar which has very little supporting top brick under the arch, and a block pedestal base supporting (HA HA) my theory of how the pillars were originally under the arch before the move.

So I am going to lower the stage just a bit and add the block pedestal. It is the only thing that explains the square impression on the current stage precisely where the original pillars are. I may also come up with some kind of hieroglyphics to add to the arch as I am convinced now more than ever that it was painted over due to a detail I found hidden away on one of the photos. Might be a bit hard to see at this size, but if you look at the following photo, closely look at the top of the arch just under the pillars. You can see bits of hieroglyphics very sloppily painted over, with the paint not even reaching into the far corners of the arch. It's almost like they figured no one would see behind the arch above the pillar and gave up painting that far. Also those weird block things on top that I mentioned before, would not fit under the arch and if you look close at some of the pillar photos I posted before you can see sloppy "paste up" of some kind that I am sure they used to attach those funky blocks to the tops of the pillars, possibly in an effort to conceal their sloppy paint job on the arch. I kept thinking with all the detail already on the walls, and knowing that the very essence of art deco design is to cram details everywhere, that the arch HAD to be painted with more details. I am almost sad to say I was correct because lord knows what kind of beautiful artistic details were painted over so sloppily especially since the arch is the focal point of the room.

That's all folks till next time!