Module 2 · Elements of Art
Seven elements.
One cave wall.
The first artists had a fire, four earth colors, and a wall. Every element of art you'll learn this year was already there.
Chapter 1
A fire, four colors,
and a wall.
Early artists painted deep inside caves. It was dark, so they used stone lamps with burning animal fat. They made paint from things they found in nature.
Painters worked deep inside caves, lit by small stone lamps burning animal fat. Everything they painted with came from the ground around them: pigment (the color), a binder (fat, water, or spit to make it stick), and something to apply it with.
Chemists have tested paint from caves like Lascaux and Niaux. Artists even mixed in minerals as extenders to make the paint spread better and stick to the wall.
The paint kit
Red ochre
Iron-rich earth, ground to powder.
Yellow ochre
Iron-rich clay in a yellow form.
Charcoal
Burnt wood. Some caves used a black mineral called manganese.
Chalk white
Soft white clay or limestone.
The tools
Fingers
Smear and drag soft paint, or press into soft cave walls.
Chewed twigs
Chewed until the end frays into a brush.
Hollow bones
Blow powdered paint onto the wall, like a spray can.
Flint
A sharp stone to scratch (engrave) lines into the rock.
Want the full story of how old this art is? Walk the timeline in The First Paintings.
Chapter 2
Line comes first.
Look at cave art and you'll see mostly animals: bison, horses, deer, even lions. They are drawn with a strong outline. There is almost no ground, sky, or trees.
Almost everything in cave art is an animal: bison, horses, wild cattle, deer, mammoths, even lions. People are rare, and usually drawn very simply. And the animals float. There is almost never a ground, a sky, or a tree. Line does nearly all the work.
Many artists started with an outline, called a contour line. At Niaux cave in France, most animals were first sketched in charcoal, then painted over. Other lines were scratched into the rock with flint, or dragged into soft cave walls with fingers.
Some animals have extra legs or repeated outlines. Many researchers think this was a way to show movement, like a flip book frozen into one drawing.
Contour
One flowing outline.
Hatching
Short parallel strokes, like fur.
Finger flutings
Fingers dragged through soft cave walls.
Dots
Dabbed with a finger or pad.
Why so much line? Nobody knows for sure.
Archaeologists still argue about it. A few of the ideas:
- Hunting magic: drawing an animal might bring a successful hunt.
- Storytelling: a way to pass on knowledge to the group.
- Ritual: the deepest caves may have been special places for ceremonies.
- A simple answer: a line is the fastest, clearest way to say "this animal" on a rough wall by firelight.
What do you think? Hold onto your idea. You'll make your own wall in Chapter 5.
Chapter 3
Build a bison.
One element at a time.
The elements of art are the seven building blocks of every picture. Tap through them and watch one bison come together.
Chapter 4
The cave palette
on the color wheel.
Cave artists had only four colors. On the color wheel, they could only make the warm colors: yellow, orange, and red. Tap any slice to see.
Cave painters had red ochre, yellow ochre, charcoal, and chalk. Put those on the color wheel and something jumps out: everything they could make sits in one warm corner. No blue, no green, no violet. Tap any slice to see why.
Tap a slice.
Mix like a cave painter
Slide to mix your two ochres. Then slide toward chalk or charcoal.
Why does this matter?
Analogous: yellow-orange, orange, and red-orange are neighbors, so they always look good together. It's the same kind of palette you'll use in The Color of Home.
No complement: in the color wheel lesson you darkened red with its complement, green. Cave painters had no green, so charcoal was their only way to go darker.
Make it with pencils
Layer and burnish these five (see Burnishing): yellow-orange, red-orange, brown, black, and white.
Chapter 5
Paint your
own cave wall.
Pick a color and a tool. Draw an animal. There's no eraser, just like in the cave. Use Undo if you need it.
Pick a pigment and a tool. Paint an animal, a hand, a herd, whatever you like. Try to use all seven elements and check them off as you go. Cave painters couldn't erase, so commit to your marks.
Did you use all seven?
Chapter 6
Check yourself.
Chapter 7
Now try it
with real materials.
Print the worksheet, find the seven elements in cave art, and color the cave palette with your pencils.