1st February 2010, 12:09 PM
A computer and a camera can capture the image but a drawing sometimes elevates an artefact into something more. Some images I've seen lift the artefacts from finds to art, while still remaining true to the subject.
I spend a lot of time looking for images of beads (well, yeah...) and some of the older illustrations really do have a soul. They can also on occasion capture elements of an item in a way that cameras can't, lighting is difficult and the image is sometimes extremely flat and boring. Mike (the quiet other half) spends a lot of his time drawing beads, before trying to make them. It gives him a sense of the structure and helps work out means of creating the bead in a way that just looking at an image cannot. This is, of course, the opinon of a non-archaeologist.
I spend a lot of time looking for images of beads (well, yeah...) and some of the older illustrations really do have a soul. They can also on occasion capture elements of an item in a way that cameras can't, lighting is difficult and the image is sometimes extremely flat and boring. Mike (the quiet other half) spends a lot of his time drawing beads, before trying to make them. It gives him a sense of the structure and helps work out means of creating the bead in a way that just looking at an image cannot. This is, of course, the opinon of a non-archaeologist.