Hey everyone,
I wanted to share what I’ve been working on lately, an Egyptian Queen portrait that’s become both an artistic and technical R&D adventure.
The Story
Hatshepsut was a Queen in Egypt in the 14th century BCE. She was praised in her time for her brilliance as a ruler. She was a diplomat, trader, builder, and visionary who expanded Egypt’s wealth through the Punt expeditions and made life better across all classes.
She was so successful that later rulers, threatened by her accomplishments, attempted to erase her from history. Even her nephew, who inherited the throne - ordered her name and image chiseled off monuments to overcompensate for his own insecurities.
In an age where a female pharaoh was almost unthinkable, she proved that power and grace could coexist, and that leadership wasn’t confined by gender. This portrait reimagines her as the powerful, confident, and intelligent woman she was.
Technique
No AI was used.
The image has been lightly misted (using the other toolset I was working on) to protect my IP. It’s also scaled down for web sharing.
Tools and Workflow
- Krita - initial sketching, mood-boarding, and painting of base layers
- OCA-Krita - My customised version of this open-source exporter that preserves Krita’s full layer data
- OCA-Blender - My customised version of this importer that rebuilds the 2D layers into Blender for scene layout
- Blender - lighting, camera depth, shaders, and render layering
- Krita (again) - final paintover and texture unification after compositing
Everything starts and ends in Krita. Blender provided spatial control, light realism, and multi-pass exports that fed back into the painting.
Due to the painterly feel of Cycles render with denoise, It gives me the flexibility of 3D staging without ever losing the hand-painted touch.
Why This Matters for Krita Artists
Hopefully I’ve shown just what is possible just between Krita and Blender. I want to push that as far as it will go.
The layer system can become a full animation and compositing bridge to 3D; without relying on proprietary software. Every painted layer can be animated, shaded, and presented interactively, while staying 100% open-source.
What’s Next
- A cut-out animation sequence (arms and sceptres rising)
- A “royal wave” animation using 2.5D foreshortening
- Hosting an interactive version online using Armory (viewable in any browser)
- Background composition and lighting refinement
I hope this inspires other artists to push Krita beyond illustration - into hybrid 2D/3D animation, narrative portraiture, and experimental media.
Would love to hear from anyone experimenting with similar open workflows.
-Simon