Day 21: Pot

No not cannabis...old pottery.

Archaeology largely revolves around pottery...it is used to date features, in some cases to identify the purpose or nature of a deposit, feature or room. As a result I do a fair ammount of illustrations of it in various forms. Today I am only digitising drawings done in the 1970s for my Italian friends Phd...I have tried to train him to do them but I don't think that he is really interested...as he has now asked me to do them for him...hey ho I tried...I'm not really sure what I have let myself in for really...the number of pots that he needs drawing is undisclosed...am I a mug?...probably!

Pottery illustration, and archaeological finds illustration in general within the UK, has developed a very well defined idea of style and convention...which is nice it means from my perspective that I know exactly what it is a client is requiring from me...which makes a nice change! 
The left hand side shows a section through the body of the pot, the right hand side the outside of the pot. This will require some shading before it is finished but at the moment I am just digitising the main lines and features.

Day 2: Beech Leaf

I went for the first run of the year this morning...another new years resolution that I am going to try and stick to! On the way back I picked up this beech leaf...it is in colour almost uniformly mid-brown but when a light is used to put some of it into shadow it's shape is lovely.

Using points to describe shape and shadow is a technique that is often used to draw archaeological finds for publications. As a style of illustration it is very flexible in how it is used.