Planets and stars is a painting I started and completed during the holy month of Ramadan and it kept me sane when I was awake most of the night. I would spend few hours on it every night. It is a lovely feeling forming a relationship with the painting. This one took me about a month and it was mix of work on the painting, making paints from pigments and thinking about the colour placements and the shapes.

I named this work “Planets and Stars” because it reminds me of this Quranic verse:

“Behold, We have adorned the skies nearest to the earth with the beauty of stars” 37:6

The geometric design of this painting follows the classic tessellation of an eight-pointed and cross composition and the pattern inside each circle comes from an old manuscript I saw online, but it didn’t have further details.

I was conflicted about highlighting the eight pointed star versus highlighting the circle and it turned out as an experiment with shapes and colour.

If you look at the painting, you will notice that there are 12 illuminated circles in it. The symbolism of the number twelve is huge and it is spoken about in various cultures and religions, so you can see it as symbolic or you can see it as a factual part of the design. We have 12 months of the year, we have 12 hours in the day and 12 hours in the night, 12 imams and it is also one of the numbers mentioned in the Quran:

“And We divided them into twelve tribes, [or] communities. And when his people asked Moses for water, We inspired him, "Strike the rock with thy staff!" -whereupon twelve springs gushed forth from it, so that all the people knew whence to drink., And We caused the clouds to comfort them with their shade, and We sent down unto them manna and quails, [saying:] "Partake of the good things which We have provided for you as sustenance." And [by all their sinning] they did no harm unto Us-but [only] against their own selves did they sin.” 7:160

The first colour I applied was genuine 22ct gold and then followed it with white. White is not an easy colour to come by in nature, but there are two natural -nontoxic- pigment sources (that I know of) that give us nice whites: crushed egg shells and chalk.

I tried making them both, but my egg-shell needed more crushing and it was more transparent, so I decided to go with the white chalk, which is found in abundance in the cliffs of Dorset near the Jurassic Coast in England.

If you aren’t bothered if it’s toxic then lead white is the best white, but it doesn’t get delivered and I can’t go in person to get it during the corona times. If you aren’t bothered about natural, you can use titanium & that’s the most popular alternative. I mainly added gum Arabic to the crushed pigment and mulled it for a bit until I was happy with the consistency.

I then added the black paint within/around the eight pointed star. Black pigment come from ashes and burnt things. The most popular black pigment used to make black inks in Arabic calligraphy is “soot” meaning carbon black and it comes from the burning of oil lamps and it is still used today. Ashes from burnt trees and animal bones are also used as pigment and the pigment I am using here is the ivory black and it’s an organic pigment made from charred animal bones 🦴.

It came with the tester kit and it’s opaque enough for what I need. It’s a little grim painting with animal remains & I kept thinking of which animals were they. It’s good not to waste anything though.

The second dark colour I used in the circle was the indigo, which is a natural vegetable pigment derived from the plant Indigofera tinctoria. Making genuine natural indigo from powdered pigments was fun and unexpected. It really didn’t want water at all and wanted to roll as far away from it. It also smelled like moss or forest greens.

It was much darker than I expected. It’s almost as black and you can’t even tell the difference between the two unless you get so close or have a bright light pointed on it!

The geometric construction of eight pointed stars include other circles and I really wanted to show them in this painting. They are usually unseen forces of support, but I wanted to show their part and I painted them with brown earth from @clearwellcaves & it looks reddish wet but then turns to this chocolate colour.

The last touch I added to this painting was the red earth pigment, which looked even more vibrant against the dark colours around it.

Please not, this work is copy righted to Esra Alhamal and reusing these photos is a crime against the law and you can be sued for your unethical usage. Please respect my intellectual property.

If you love this painting and its story, you can now pre-order a copy. It is a limited series of 30 prints and 15 will be released for pre-order.

Pre-Order Print

Supplies & tools used for this painting:

Khadi Cotton Paper
Genuine Gold (22ct and 24ct) from Karin Sanat
All paints used is handmade watercolour from pigments
Winsor & Newton black ink
Brush size 00 Winsor & Newton and cloud brush from Vaishali
Some links above are affiliates - Other supplies recommendations.

I am sharing these specific supplies because I don’t mind sharing and I think it is interesting when artists share their process and what they use. Please avoid copying my work though and I mean the exact composition and the exact colours.

If you are interested in learning more about the painting progress and how to make your own gold, you can join the online course.