BLOG QUESTION: EARLY HUMANS

What role does lighting play in the caves? How might these paintings have been used by primitive man? What are the two techniques that the early artists used to paint on the walls of the cave? Why do you think they painted with these images?

Lighting was used to see inside the caves, but it was also used to illuminate the drawings on the cave walls.  These drawings were most likely used by primitive man to tell stories visually. One technique they used was through the flicker of the light. The flickering would create the illusion of the motion in the drawings, and in low light, the human vision degrades, amplifying that effect. They used a variety of drawing techniques aside from the regular sequence of drawings to show motion. They used a technique called superimposition, which is when you layer drawings to show a sense of motion. They painted these images to express their reactions to their environments and to tell stories.