Crest of the Royal Family

Now I am going to introduce you this manga, "Crest of the Royal Family".

In Chinese, 《尼罗河的女儿》. In Japanese, "王家の紋章".

I heard about this manga when I was small. And when I grew bigger, I started to read it online.

When one day I found this collection in a manga shop, I just used all my pocket money to buy it.

This is a manga about Ancient Egypt. That's why I love it.

But speaking about the story, it's not good when it went further. 

Here is some introduction from Wikipedia:

"The main character is Carol, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed American teenager from a wealthy family with an interest in Egyptology studying in Cairo. When her mentor discovers the tomb of a young pharaoh, a curse is put on the excavation team and Carol. The curse sends her back in time to ancient Egypt, where she becomes embroiled in the affairs of Egypt and other ancient countries such as Assyria and Babylonia. Carol meets Memphis, a handsome young pharaoh whose tomb she excavated in modern times. Despite his headstrong, at first violent nature, they fall deeply in love. This angers Memphis's half-sister, the Priestess Isis, who has longed to marry him. Carol, due to her exotic looks and curious ability to tell the future, becomes a major player in ancient history."

Although it's an old style manga, but I still love this very much.

I did read a lot of books about Ancient Egypt but still don't have any idea how to turn them into comic style drawing.

And this manga really helps me a lot.

The artist, Chieko Hosokawa really did a lot of research about Ancient Egypt and created her own style of the world.

I especially love her design of the cloths and jewelry.

And somehow her characters got some Ancient Egyptian's style XD

I mean the way of drawing characters' side view, it's almost same as the Ancient Egyptian drawing.

Well maybe it's just only me who feels that xD

Anyway, this is a really great manga, no matter from the background or story or character setting. She must be the first one who did something like this among those artists.

I wish some day, I can draw a story like this. 

Thank you, Chieko Hosokawa Sensei.

 

Architecture

Architecture of the Egyptians, are very famous since thousands years ago.
Most of their buildings were like carved on a giant stone or combined the stone mixture... e.t.c.
Each of them was built without nails and machines (of course, they didn't have at that time).

Pyramids, I'm not going to talk about them because they are too famous and the way to built them is still unknown.

When we think of Egyptian temples, one of the principle architectural elements that comes to mind is the column. In fact, it is difficult to imagine a temple such as Karnak without thinking of its columned halls, and what many visitors will take away with them is visions of pylons, obelisks, statues and columns. Column shafts were often decorated with colorful depictions in painted, carved relief, and remain some of the most interesting architectural elements in Egyptian structures.

Their columns can be differ into a few style. Osiride column, Open Papyrus column, Hathoric column... e.t.c.

Hathoric column, is using Hathor's head as the design which I just introduced in the last post.

So match at all...right?

This is a sample of Osiride Column.

This is a really good design. The columns already clearly show you that this is a temple.

And this is Open Papyrus Column.

There is too many knowledge about column. If you wish to see more, please visit this site: http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/columns.htm

Pattern Design

Ancient Egypt is very famous for their pattern design. They used it everywhere. Pillars, walls, vases, anything you could see.

I did a quick research and realised that they used the elements that could be seen everyday in their lives to do the pattern design, like flower, feather, cobra, cow... e.t.c.
Set match pattern and square repeat are the ways that widely used by them in the pattern design.

Hathor

Hathor, too is an element that was widely used in Ancient Egypt. You can always see it on the pillars.
(Hathor is an Ancient Egyptian goddess who personified the principles of love, beauty, music, motherhood and joy.She was one of the most important and popular deities throughout the history of Ancient Egypt. )

This is a pattern design using Hathor's image.

Scarab

Scarab is another element that widely used on wall paintings, jewelry... e.t.c.  It was a very popular amulet in Ancient Egypt and I guess this is why you can see it anyway. To protect the sons of Ra.

Scarab's pattern design.

Here are some pattern designs I've found.  Most of them are like using papyrus or other plants.

These designs are full of colours and all of the elements are wisely arranged. They don't look messy. If I have a house when I grown up, I'll probably use one of the design for my wall paper. :)

Every credits go to Richard Deurer :)

If you wish to see for, please visit here: http://egyptartsite.com/motifs.html

Jewelry Design of Ancient Egyptian

Jewellery was the symbol of wealth and power. It was also a marker then, of the social status of the Egyptians, for aesthetic adornment, and as protection from evil.

The first signs of established jewellery making in Ancient Egypt was around 3,000-5,000 years ago. The Egyptians preferred the luxury, rarity, and workability of gold over other metals. Predynastic Egypt had Jewellery in Egypt soon began to symbolise power and religious power in the community. Although it was worn by wealthy Egyptians in life, it was also worn by them in death, with jewellery commonly placed among grave goods.

In conjunction with gold jewellery, Egyptians used coloured glass, along with precious gems. The colour of the jewellery had significance. Green, for example, symbolised fertility. Although lapis lazuli and silver had to be imported from beyond the country’s borders, many other materials for jewellery were found in or near Egypt. Egyptian jewellery was predominantly made in large workshops.

Ancient Egyptian's jewelry including bracelets, buttons, ear rings and ear studs, finger rings, necklaces and collars.

From the pictures above, I realised that most of the design are full of colours.We see a deep concern on their behalf to create harmonious forms and color combinations. I can said that their skills of gem carvings (AKA glyptic art) were greater than now. Imagine that they worked under the area before machine was born and still can create such a great work.

I have to say again, they merged their life into it very skillfully. They wore jewelry not just only for showing their wealth (like people nowadays). The jewelry somehow have shown their desires, dreams, wishes (clearly) . It's a sign of their lives. I can hardly see all these things in present day. 

If you wish to see more pictures, you can google it :D

And if you want to know more about these, visit the links below:

Ancient Egypt: Personal Ornaments

Egyptian Jewelry

The History of Jewelry: Ancient Egyptian Jewellery Design