Anglo Saxon and Viking Longships in watercolour

 About 14 years ago now I completed  a series of watercolours, they were of various Viking/ Anglo Saxon longships, whilst they were  just working studies of the ships for other projects I still have a pair of them, thought I would include them here as part of a back catalogue.

The First below shows  an imagined Anglo Saxon longship drifting ghost like upon then still waters of an river like The Deben or Blackwater of East Anglia.

The figure head on the prow is of a horse type animal and although there is now archaeological precedence for this type of prow, I based the design on the animal heads at the base of the internal arches in the Anglo-Saxon church of Deerhurst in Gloucester.This colour sketch was produced with water colour and colour pencil.



This water colour below shows a smaller version on an Osberg type ship on a trading journey.