Thursday 28 January 2016

Week 17. Roman glass and other glass fragments

The piece of curved blue-green glass is Roman - amazing! The bluey-green was a beautiful colour and there was a tiny hint of rainbow-like iridescence on the surface which I tried to capture in paint.
The fluted greeney-brown bottle neck is 18th century.
I'm not sure how old the other coloured fragments are, I enjoyed trying to mix the perfect match of blues, browns and greens. The glass pieces each have a reference number written on them but I ignored that.
Roman and C18th century glass. watercolour and pencil

Thursday 21 January 2016

Week 16. Stone axe hammer heads

These axe hammers found in Nofolk may be Neolithic so could be over 4,000 years old (from the late Stone Age or early Bronze Age?). They're very heavy so whoever wielded them was super strong. I enjoyed drawing the shapes - like a Barbara Hepworth sculpture - and looking for the subtle colours in the stone. I prefer the first drawing with more energetic marks which seem to reflect the movement of the axes when used all those millennia ago.
Watercolour, charcoal pencil, conte crayon, graphite and ink
Pastel, charcoal pencil, graphite and pencil
They remind me of two bird's heads!



Thursday 7 January 2016

Week 15. Oyster shells and jawbones

These were found at a dig in Great Bircham, Norfolk. The English didn't bother eating oysters unless they had no other seafood, but when the Romans came consumption of oysters increased rapidly - they loved them! So wherever a dig reveals clues to Roman life (or later, as in the Saxons here) you'll find lots of oyster shells.
The jaw bones are animal I think but I'm not sure what animal.
brown conté pencils and graphite

brown conté and 2B pencil