Egyptian Book Of The Dead (Art Nouveau)

What I want to do for my final Design4Media project is to create a set of three digital, art nouveau inspired posters. These posters would feature three Egyptian gods: Osiris, Anubis, and Thoth. I have picked these three gods because they are all part of the ancient Egyptian funerary texts, the ‘Book of the Dead’. To be more specific, it would be illustrating the ‘Weighing of the Heart’ ritual.

To describe this ritual, the ‘Weighing of the Heart’ is a final test the dead must go to, to move unto the fields of the afterlife. In this final judgment, the heart of the deceased is weighed against Maat, represented as a feather, which symbolizes truth and justice. If the heart balanced with on the scales, the deceased would continue into the afterlife. However, if they scales did not balance with Maat, the heart would be eaten by a beast called Ammit, or the Devourer.

'Weighing of the Heart' ritual.

If the heart was eaten, the deceased would not proceed. If their heart was not eaten, Anubis brought them to stand before Osiris, the God of the Dead.

Osiris, God of the Dead.

All through this ritual, Thoth, the God of Knowledge, would be writing the procedures on a scroll of papyrus (See Image 1).

Now that the story is told behind the 'Weighing of the Heart' ritual, we can get unto the project. As I've said before, I will be making three art nouveau inspired posters of Anubis, Thoth, and Osiris. These posters will be flat in color and have the gods represented symbols in the background.

If you're not sure exactly what the art nouveau style is, here are example of posters of one of my favorite artists, Alphonse Mucha:

Poster. Reverie, 1898. (codex99.com)

Posters. Moët; Chandon, 1899. (codex99.com)

Panel. Les Saisons, 1896 (codex99.com)

Target Dates:
Week 1-Nov. 12: Sketches of the three posters done. Put into Illustrator and the paths begins!

Week 2-Nov. 18: Continue working in Illustrator. Have color scheme thought out. Around 25% complete.

Week 3-Nov. 26: Continue working. Should be over 50% to 75% complete.

Week 4-Dec. 3: Get critique and then work from their. Should be ~90% complete.

Week 5-Dec. 10: Get another critique. ~100% complete but open to adjustments.

December 13th: Completed posters!