How did people make colors and paints long ago?
Trapping Color
How did people make colors and paints long ago?
Long before art stores existed, people looked at the world around them and thought: I want to capture that. The red of sunset. The yellow of flowers. The deep blue of a summer sky. But how do you trap a color and make it last?
The first paints came from the earth itself. People discovered that certain rocks and dirt weren't just brown—they were red, yellow, orange, even purple. Crush them into powder, mix with a little water or animal fat, and suddenly you had paint that would stick to cave walls.
