Artwork by James Q. Jacobs

Ink Renditions

A great way to share the rewards of and spare others the difficulty of those long hikes in the hot desert searching for rock art panels is by creating ink renditions of prehistoric rock art panels. Initially, I just enjoyed using a portfolio of renditions to introduce people to many of the spectacular petroglyph panels and pictographs scattered across the American West. I have since sold image collections to Bishop Gallery and private parties.

In 1983, I first created rock art ink renditions to show family and friends the art without the graffiti. My first project recreated Buckhorn Wash in thirteen views. When I showed the drawings to Santa Fe gallery owners and personnel, noone knew what they were. That certainly changed quickly, as rock art imagery became ubiquitous in current art. During 1986-1987 I created many drawings to illustrate Finding America.

My intent has always been to reproduce scientific illustrations. The drawings are produced by carefully tracing projected slides to achieve accurate renditions. I use India ink, typically on 30" x 22" watercolor paper. Many background images on my web pages were created using the drawings and can be seen in the Archaeo Art Gallery. My rock art renditions are also collected in a volume entitled Archaeo Art, Prehistoric Rock Art.

The framed rendition above is of the Rochester Creek petroglyph panel. You can link to a 1 MB, 600 dpi file of this and another image below. The images are sized to print on 8.5 x 11 paper. While they are copyrighted images and all rights are reserved, without my permission you may print a copy for personal use or use the images for educational purposes or in scientific literature. The images were projected from slides to achieve photorealistic accuracy.

The next two links lead to 600 dpi black-on-white images.

Rochester Creek - 1 MB ---- Newspaper Rock, Utah - 940 Kb

Colorized desk pictures of these and other renditions are now available. One is a Puebloan petroglyph panel in a remote National Parks location (detail above), the second (detail below) is a Fremont rock art panel in eastern Utah. Both desk pictures are 1024 x 768 pixel, highest quality jpegs.

ALSO: Desk Picture Calendars with rock art renditions | Desktop Pictures Gallery

Petroglyph Panel Desk Picture -- 294 Kb -- a 45-foot-wide Puebloan petroglyph panel.

Cottonwood Canyon dot group panel (200 Kb), tan or blue.

For more information, see the Rock Art Images and Illustrations Collection page,
an introduction to my transparency and illustration collection.

Contact me to acquire renditions or image rights.
For framed work contact Heirloom Gallery or Pegasus Gallery.
Bishop Gallery possesses some of the finest panels I've rendered.

Return to the Rock Art Pages.

Artwork Sampler