I think I found a way to force myself to work every day and not loose interest...
First, I have several "open" projects that I work on, and when stuck or something or things are making me nervous, I simply switch project. Sometimes even that does not help, and then I start something new, and try to learn something new. This was such start - face structure is made from ball (from lowest level up) using Charlize Therone as a reference, but I was not going for the likeness, just used her face as a guide. Also tried to learn how to color the model. I will probably use this head in some future project, so work time is not wasted

Another day, another sketch...
This will be another likeness attempt... I have exact purpose for this one.
Yesterday's lesson about coloring helped, so I can sculpt the eyes flat and still have some sense where pupils are:

I have decided what to do with female head. It will be a Cleopatra


What is "historical" about this, You might ask
Well, not much, except I made her nose bigger as visible on several coins:



And I read about her "makeup":



It is interesting that there are indications that Egyptians actually at first painted their eyes (man and women) for protection against diseases, not because of aesthetics reasons.
Anyhow - that is origin of today makeup...

I started sketching her crown (not sure to which category it belongs according to this: https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-name-of-an-Egyptian-headdress-worn-by-Pharaohs).
It's a pretty much just my interpretation of this image I posted in prev. post:



and it gives me a lot to guess and interpret as we know that Egyptians did not know how to draw perspective

I do not have to tell that that necklace is a pain:

Edit:
Link https://www.truefacet.com/guide/jewelry-making-history/
is not opening, so here is the ref image...

That's it for the sketch, maybe I will finish it one day

and it gives me a lot to guess and interpret as we know that Egyptians did not know how to draw perspective

- you are correct, and this makes me thinking that the wings should be spread horizontally. Look at the way the bird's tale is shown in the Egyptian image you reproduced - it also seems to be located vertically, parallel to the wings. But the bird's anatomy suggests that the tale is almost certainly in a horizontal plane. And so are the wings, but the artist, as you said, did know how to show that. This would also explain why he depicted the ears, which would be perfectly visible under the wings located horizontally. Just a thought.

Good luck with your project,
Sergei

That makes sense, but I did tried to follow also some other references, for example this one:



and that is why i put the wing to point down.
Off course, this is just a "flat", not the full 3D sculpture, so You thinking might still be correct.
About the ears - my thinking was - the artist wanted to show earrings and had to hang them somewhere
Thanks for head up !

Interesting, thanks for the reference. As you said, the anatomy of the figure does reveal the artist's problems with representing three-dimensional images. And, as you figured out, I meant tail, not tale. Sorry, got distracted by Eurovision!

Sergei

Yes, my wife is watching the voting too

Still playing with the crown

There is no lotos symbol on the references, so I changed my mind and decided to stay closer to the original:

Working on the eagle's head...
And there is actual sculpt below all that paint

This is looking great, just be aware that it's a vulture on the headdress. Excellent work.
Scotty.

Thx, Scotty, You are right...
It's a bit stylized and not much detail, but in the end this is not live bird, so I think it will be good enough :



I liked the lotus symbol, so made earrings from it - the only reason is - I did not want to throw it away

Now to figure out what to do with those empty surfaces of the crown. There is feathers also on the ref image, but I think those should be softer.
Main feather groups all have it's purpose - to support the crown edge and to bring separate plates of the crown together.
The rest of them have no purpose, so I will probably give just a hint of a feathers...
Ideas ?

Nothing better did not came to my mind, so I just added couple of hundreds feathers
They are a bit smaller and differently shaped, but still just feathers.

I think you've done the right thing with the headdress, it looks great in my opinion.
Scotty.

Made for drybrushing
I experimented with some Egyptian symbols, but nothing looked right.
In the end on the ref image is also just feathers...
I am satisfied how the crown reassembles the bird with lowered wings - only thing that is bothering me is that it looks more like turkey than vulture