Recording Rock Art

Stephen Townley Bassett has spent the past ten years refining techniques for the full-colour documentation of rock paintings. He has experimented extensively with mixing natural pigments and every effort is taken to reproduce the images and the underlying rock as accurately as possible. The process of recording involves the following 6 stages:

1. Surveying the site
An important first step in the process of documentation is to survey the whole site. Stephen may spend several hours looking at a cave. Observations are written down and photographs are taken.

2. Selecting and tracing the images
Stephen is careful to make exact, full-size representations of all the images within the chosen frame. Transparent film is used to trace the images.

3. Matching the colours
Stephen then mixes up colours to match those of the images and the surrounding rock, and creates a ‘colour chart’ for reference purposes.

4. Recreating the rock surface
Back at the studio, the artist recreates the colours recorded at the site and paints the rock background. Up to seven washes of paint are used to build up the colour and texture of the rock. Artist's paints (gouaches) and natural pigments are used.

5. Mixing the pigments
Stephen uses only natural pigments for reproducing the images. Reds are haematite, yellows are limonite, and white is obtained from plant sap or raptor faeces. Black is obtained from charcoal or burnt bones. The pigments are mixed with carrying agents such as water, blood, egg, gall or animal fat.

6. Bringing images to life
Using the photographs and field notes to guide him, Stephen starts to paint the images. Whenever possible, Stephen takes the canvas back to the site to check the colours.