Portrait of a Pharaoh • Ahkmenrah x Reader (NATM) ✔️

Chapter 1 | trespassing.

One of the keys to learning art was learning how to draw from real subjects, right in front of you. A reference on a screen or from a book was good practice as well, but you can measure them with a ruler fairly easy. With an object like a statue, a can, a lamppost, they're something you have to reference by sight and guessing your proportions correctly.

Which is why you see artists in art galleries and museums, sketchbook in hand and sitting on the nearest bench looking up at the exhibit in front of them to copy it.

You'd been making art as long as you could remember, and were currently in art school. One of the assignments was to fill up a whole sketchbook over the course of the year to document your progress in learning and evolving your style. And you'd decided to make your sketchbook as interesting as you could by drawing unusual subjects, ones you wouldn't see in day to day life.

That's what lead you to the museum for the past few days. You'd find an artefact with a peculiar shape or interesting background and sit in front of it, copying it into your sketchbook. It was a good test of your skills in shape and perspective.

It'd become a routine, you'd get up and do your daily routine, then head out to the museum, getting a snack on the way. Then sit in front of an artefact until the museum closed, drawing whatever you'd chosen that day. Today you'd found your way into the Egyptian exhibit, looking for something interesting to draw. The exhibit was by far the prettiest in the museum, the golden artefacts and hieroglyphs on the walls made it look like a mystical tomb from a fantasy story. You looked at all the artefacts, a kopshesh, the tablet, a golden headpieces, some scrolls with hieroglyphs on them... but you'd found yourself drawn to the centre of the exhibit.

The sarcophagus.

It was strange to think a 4000 year old mummy was in that thing, separated from the world by only the coffin it lay in and some glass. There was an actual dead body in there, not just any, a Pharaoh. But you still found it fascinating. This would be your next subject, the shape was elaborate, it was full of detailed carvings and paintwork, the light above it gave it shadows and shine.

You sat underneath the tablet, up against the wall and put some headphones on to listen to music as you drew. The place you sat shielded you form the vision of the people walking by, unless they came into the exhibit and looked behind the sarcophagus. It was a nice secluded area where no one bothered you.

You had your pencil case full of various types of pencils, paper stubs, erasers and sharpeners. You decided on a pencil that was easy to blend with for this piece to make sure you could get all the shadows correct in their darkness and the blend from dark to light. You had a habit of getting very focused, once you started you couldn't stop. It was a hyper fixation, you wouldn't stop until you'd gotten it perfect.

That took a while to do though, and thanks to the playlist you had going that went for almost ten hours, you'd completely lost track of the time. There were no windows in the exhibit to tell you when it was getting dark, you hadn't touched your phone since you started so you didn't see the time. You'd been sitting there so long trying to perfect your drawing you didn't even notice when a security guard looked into the exhibit to make sure no one was around. He completely missed you as you sat out of sight.

The sun had gone down, you'd managed to spend hours on the floor and your pencil was sharpened to half its original length. Your drawing was looking good, but still needed some details, prompting you to think to yourself 'I'll leave when I've done this part'.

Looking up at the sarcophagus, you gazed upon the head of it, noting the shine on the top from the light above it. Picking up your eraser, you took a little darkness off the top to add the shine. Looking back up to see where to add more shine, the sight you'd been looking up at for the whole afternoon had changed.