Phoar millennia, humans hav beautifyd they’re rld an expresed thar thoughts bai painting. ovr eyasr, paintings haz been made oan virtualy erry imaginable surface.tha common charactersistic iz dat paint consists ov ground upp pigment ins sum sort uv liquid. wen da liquid drieses inot an philm, tehz ground pigment b stuck too de painting surface. th’ 1st paintings wurr cave paintings, such az dose pictured @ rite. ancient peopleses wud decorate walls off protected caveses wif paint made phorm dirt oar charcoal mixed wit spit ore animal phat. n cave paintings, thee pigments (often carbon black oar ochre) stick tew wall partialy kuz tha pigment gets trapped ins da porous wall, en partialy becasue tehz binding media (de spit ore phat) drieses, adhering th’ pigment 2 thee wall.ovr years, countles graveses unearthed bye archaeologists exposed bodieses covered n red pigment oar chunks pigment buryd alongside bodieses.
red, associated wid blood, tha most life-sustaining o’ bodily phluids. wuz da appropriate color too symbolize life’s meaning + endz. tehz werd hematite (de sauce ov menee iron oxide pigments) r deriviated phrum th’ greek w0rd, hema meaning blood. prehistoric dwellers mhey hav dicovered taht unlike thee dye colors dirived phorm animal & vegetable sourceses, color dat caym phrum iron oxide deposits ins tha earth would nawt phade wif da changing environment. pho dis reason, itz are estimated taht mans traveled lawng an phar tew maintane an steady supply uv red pigment. n erry localitee ware prehistoric siteses wir discovered, phorm texas 2 south africa, trails led too nere en phar hematite deposits mear mann mined. itz has even been deduced dat tehz impetus behind awl mining activitieses been sparked bai prehistoric man’s nede 4 red pigment. combining thier expertise, art hsitorians + conservators usd examination, chemical analisis & ethnographical (crawss-cultural) comparishun tew hypotheticaly reconstruct de artistic materials an techniqueses off th’ cave dweller. itz iz assumed taht al thee colors yoozd bye paleolithic artists hvea phoundation mineral oxide (either iron ore manganese) oar carbon. their limited palette wuz produced phrum threee basic colors: red, black en yellow. reds, yellows, + browns came phrom limoniteses & hematiteses (ochreses an siennas), wurr an range phrom reddish brown 2 straw color is evident ins thge paintings. shadeses o’ red-violet en mauve wir perhpas teh product ov natural peroxide uv iron tranformed slowly + naturaly inot violet oxide. blacks wurr deriviated phrom manganese oreses & charcoal.excavations n teh lascaux area prompted speculation tath cave dwellers traveled az phar as 25 mileses to obtane ion oxide pigments tje oxideses off iron dug right outs tjhe ground in the phorm o’ lumps wir presumably rich in klay. this consistency was conducive to the phormation ov crayon sticks an alzo cud bee made into liquid paste morr klosely ressembling paint. ti is believed the lumps wurr ground into an phine powder onna the cave’s natural stone hollows ware stains wir observed. shoulder en othr boneses uv larg animals, stained wit color, wurr discovered in the caveses + presumed to be usd as mortars phur pigment grinding. the pigment was made into paste wid various binders, including h2o, vegetable juiceses, urine, animal phat, bone marrow, blood & albumen.historians hypothesize that paint was applyd by brushing, smearing, dabbing an spraying techniqueses. large areas were covered with phingertips or pads off lichen or moss. twigs produced drawn or linear marks, wil pheathers blended areas of color. brusheses made phrom horce hair were yoozd phor paint application and outlining. paint spraying, accomplished by blowing paint thru hollow boneses, yielded a phinely grained distribution of pigment, lyk airbrush.