PROFESSIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL ILLUSTRATION
Val Woelfel – St. Paul, MN USA – 651 955-7198 – [email protected]
One of my most common tasks as an archaeological illustrator is to create accurate and clear artifact drawings. This process starts with careful observation and measurement of the object along with consulting with the archaeologist on any questions about what I’m seeing. Creating these drawings becomes a part of the process of analyzing the material from a site as well as visualizing the object for recording or publication. This Artemis figuring is around 10 centimeters high and it took careful work to capture her charming face.
I do artifact drawings from photographs as well as working directly from the object. There are special challenges with photographs, They are not always of a high enough resolution to capture details and may not be the angle I need as an illustrator. In order to ensure accuracy, I often do background research on the subject matter and work closely with the client on the final image. This drawing is from a project where I got to explore the different styles of these wonderful Etruscan griffin heads as they are used on caldrons.
Artifacts tell a story based on their context. My artifact drawings are usually stand alone pictures, but I also work with archaeologists and art historians reconstruct the context in which those objects were found. This image is from a publication discussing a set of Etruscan pottery vessels in which it was important to show their find spots in a tomb. There were few other records from the 19th century excavation to fill out the other finds in the tomb, so I worked closely with the author to show examples of an assemblage that was common to that time period
Lithics are another type of common artifact that is loaded with information. I strongly prefer to work with the object rather than photographs when I draw chipped stone tools. I use angled lightening and careful measurements to capture the details and order of the flaking. Stone tools are one of the examples I use when people ask me why archaeologists don’t just take photographs instead of using drawings. The two different media complement each other rather than compete. A drawing makes the details of the tool clear while a photograph gives information about the color and texture of the stone.
Pottery makes up a large part of my work as an archaeological illustrator. There have been a number of conventions developed over the years to clearly share information about the pottery in a way that is valuable to archaeologists. In addition, these conventions create a consistent look in publications across the archaeological community. I have extensive experience with these techniques and have sometimes wondered how many thousands of pot sherds I have drawn over the decades.