Canopic Jar - Part I

I don't know how I could've forgotten to post about this, but one of my major projects in my art class last semester was making an Egyptian canopic jar. The materials we got to use were mainly paper mache, with a bit of wire mesh. I'll detail the entire project through several posts, starting with this one.

I started trawling the web for actual historic canopic jars before starting my own. My teacher had given the class freedom over animal design for the canopic jar heads, but I wanted mine to look the part.

My searches were centred on the head of the god Horus, which was derived from the head of a falcon.

Our teacher had given us a standard jar size, which I felt was a bit on the large side. I started sketching the design for my chosen head below.

I was able to get my hands on some wire mesh, which was vital to making my head. However, despite all it's advantages over other mediums, I learned while cutting it that it was notoriously sharp around the edges and it would get stuck on my shirt and give me cuts.

Here's a comparison with my sketches.

After finishing the face, I moved on to completing the rest of the frame.