What a lovely face

Hello everyone! Lots of work and additional internet connection issues have kept me from posting for quite a while unfortunately. But now that i've sorted out the issues as well as finished up some of those projects, I can get some more stuff up here for you to see.

When I came to Egypt about 2 months ago I came packed with all of my essential painting materials. In fact it took up more space than most of my clothes. The one issue I have always had here however is painting medium. It is illegal to bring flammable materials such as Liquin on the plane at all. Past years I have experimented with many of the materials available in Cairo art stores, but have had little to no luck of finding a suitable substance that can give me what I am so accustomed to using with Liquin. So this year after much research I decided that I would order a small bottle of Walnut Alkyd Medium from the states. Since it is a nonflammable alternative to Liquin it can be legally shipped anywhere. Though I do not recommend this since it may well have turned out to be the most expensive 8 oz. bottle of walnut alkyd on the planet! but besides the huge taxes and crazy shipping fees, this stuff is really great. I am pleased to have found a suitable medium that I can travel with finally. 

So without furthur ado here's two small studies I did as tests of the alkyd before I went on to more important paintings. They also second as gifts for my good friends Chris and Michelle here who work in the bone magazine at our site and manage the burials. They always let me know when a good skull is out for taking photos. The paintings are of actual burials we have here, and yes, the first one does have hair like that.