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© Copyright 2000, Jim Loy
At the left, we
see (more or less) how I draw Egyptian hieroglyphics. This is the alphabet. I
suppose that Egyptologists do not use the artistic care that I do, as most
examples that I have seen have been quite a bit cruder than this. I drew these
with a paint program, so some of the lines are straighter than I normally draw.
I tell people that the drawing of hieroglyphics does not require a normal artistic talent, but rather requires the talent of a cartoonist. You don't draw birds and people, you draw a kind of simplified essence of birds and people. As you can see here, the Egyptian vulture (first sign) and the owl are nearly identical, except for the shapes of their heads. A falcon would be the same way. The horned viper (the first sign on the second line) is not an accurate snake, but the horns are greatly exaggerated to make the sign distinctive. The signs are somewhat simplified (no eyes on the birds, no wings on the chick) compared to hieroglyphics that you can see on monuments. I have practiced the birds and snakes (and the twisted rope at the end of the second line), as they were once difficult for me to draw.