Natural Colours - Wall Cave Art
- Thread starter TeeDee
- Start date
Pretty much it really. Ochre, charcoal, some of the 'red earths', iron rich ones. Pound them up, mix in with some grease of some kind. The plant materials don't seem to last near so long as colours. You could try kermes or cochineal though.
If you're thinking of doing it nowadays (on a concrete wall for instance) then look up Egg Tempera. It's another very old technique and it's long lasting, dries quickly and can give beautiful results.
It pre-dates oil painting, and has none of the dry down issues of oils.
M
If you're thinking of doing it nowadays (on a concrete wall for instance) then look up Egg Tempera. It's another very old technique and it's long lasting, dries quickly and can give beautiful results.
It pre-dates oil painting, and has none of the dry down issues of oils.
M
There are deposits of copper metal all across Canada (Yellowknife, Coppermine, YT)
That copper was traded at least as far south as near the American Border ( lat 49N in Saskatchewan)
Some of the copper corrosion compounds are a pale sky blue which was mixed with salmon egg or oolican fish oil as binder.
Together with ochre, charcoal and ash, these gave the Haida and others on the Pacific Northwest 4 colors for illustration.
I suspect that there was some effort to use burnt clays as well.
What you see in the old things is red, black and white (sound familiar?)
TeeDee, unlike your place, there really are no habitable caves in the PacNW.
Here in BC, I can't name more caves than the fingers on one hand.
Color was used to decorate totem poles, story poles and mortuary poles outdoors.
Then masks, boxes and screens indoors.
That copper was traded at least as far south as near the American Border ( lat 49N in Saskatchewan)
Some of the copper corrosion compounds are a pale sky blue which was mixed with salmon egg or oolican fish oil as binder.
Together with ochre, charcoal and ash, these gave the Haida and others on the Pacific Northwest 4 colors for illustration.
I suspect that there was some effort to use burnt clays as well.
What you see in the old things is red, black and white (sound familiar?)
TeeDee, unlike your place, there really are no habitable caves in the PacNW.
Here in BC, I can't name more caves than the fingers on one hand.
Color was used to decorate totem poles, story poles and mortuary poles outdoors.
Then masks, boxes and screens indoors.
From the Wikipedia entry for Cueva de las Manos:
the mineral pigments include iron oxides, producing reds and purples; kaolin, producing white; natrojarosite, producing yellow; and manganese oxide, which makes black.
A lot of these type of pigments can provide more than one colour because they are changed by heating.
Z
the mineral pigments include iron oxides, producing reds and purples; kaolin, producing white; natrojarosite, producing yellow; and manganese oxide, which makes black.
A lot of these type of pigments can provide more than one colour because they are changed by heating.
Z
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