The world of art : Drawing

Drawing 

is a form of visual art in which a person uses various drawing instruments to mark paper or another two-dimensional medium. Instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax colored pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, various kinds of erasers, markers, styluses, various metals (such as silver point) and electronic drawing.

A drawing instrument releases a small amount of material onto a surface, leaving a visible mark. The most common support for drawing is paper, although other materials, such as cardboard, plastic, leather, canvas, and board, may be used. Temporary drawings may be made on a blackboard or whiteboard or indeed almost anything. The medium has been a popular and fundamental means of public expression throughout human history. It is one of the simplest and most efficient means of communicating visual ideas.^[1] The wide availability of drawing instruments makes drawing one of the most common artistic activities.

In addition to its more artistic forms, drawing is frequently used in commercial illustration, animation, architecture, engineering and technical drawing. A quick, freehand drawing, usually not intended as a finished work, is sometimes called a sketch. An artist who practices or works in technical drawing may be called a drafter, draftsman or a draughtboard.

The History of Drawing:

Early History

The earliest known drawings date from 30,000 to 10,000 B.C.. They were found on the walls of caves in France and Spain. Other examples of early drawing are designs that were scratched, carved, or painted on the surfaces of primitive tools.

Ancient Egyptians (beginning about 3000 B.C.) decorated the walls of their temples and tombs with scenes of daily life. These drawings had a flat, linear style. Texts written on papyrus (an early form of paper) were illustrated with similar designs in pen and ink.

Nearly all that survives to show the drawing and painting skills of the ancient Greeks are their decorated pottery vases. These great works of art show the Greeks’ ability to draw graceful figures and decorative lines.

The 1800’s and 1900’s

Many different styles developed side by side during the 1800’s. Pencils were first manufactured early in the century. They became the preferred drawing tools of many artists. The French artist Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres produced highly finished portrait drawings in this medium. Francisco Goya of Spain is known for his expressive drawings rendered with brush and black and gray wash. Late in the century Edgar Degas led the realist movement in France. He experimented with various drawing techniques (oil on paper, pastel, and crayon, for example) with very original results. Everyday scenes, ballet dancers, and horse races were among his favorite subjects.

The tradition of academic training founded on drawing had dominated European art since the Renaissance. In the last quarter of the 1800’s, artists began to question the merits of this training. The change began with the impressionists. They painted directly on the canvas without using preparatory drawings.

Since the beginning of the 1900’s, art has been liberated from past traditions. This means that the definition of drawing has also been expanded. It can be almost anything an artist wishes it to be. All modern western art movements are represented in the drawing medium. These include cubism ( Pablo Picasso), abstract expressionism ( Jackson Pollock), fauvism ( Henri Matisse), and postmodernism (Robert Rauschenberg). Artists continue to express themselves through drawing, just as our ancestors felt the impulse to draw on their cave walls so many years ago.

The 1600’s and 1700’s

The precision and control of Renaissance drawings were replaced in the Baroque period by livelier forms and by bolder use of materials. Chalk and pen lines became freer and more flowing. Washes of ink and watercolor were also used. The drawings of Peter Paul Rubens of Flanders, who was inspired by the Italian painters, are good examples of art in the 1600’s. His larger-than-life figures seem to burst through the surface of the picture.

The Netherlands had its greatest period of artistic flowering in the 1600’s. Rembrandt van Rijn was the most famous painter and printmaker of Amsterdam. He was also one of the world’s greatest draftsmen. He was able to convey form, movement, and emotion with just a few simple pen lines. Dutch artists made a specialty of landscape painting. They often went into the countryside with sketchbook in hand and produced finished drawings or studies for paintings to be completed in the studio.

The rococo period of the 1700’s was dominated by French taste and culture. Decorative lines and cheerful subjects are characteristic of the work of Jean-Antoine Watteau and François Boucher. Both artists often drew with red, black, and white chalks. Sometimes they combined all three.

The Middle Ages

In the Middle Ages, from about the 400’s to the 1400’s, art was produced mainly to glorify God and to teach religion. Painting and drawing merged in the illustration of Bibles and prayer books produced by monks. These beautifully decorated manuscripts were hand-lettered on vellum (calfskin), or later, on paper. Those made for royalty contained miniature paintings ornamented with gold. Those made for less wealthy persons were decorated with pen-and-ink drawings. The flat, linear forms often resembled the ornamental patterns made by metalworkers.

Drawings were used in the preparatory stages of a work of art during the Middle Ages, but few survive. Paper was not made in Europe until the 1100’s, and at first it was expensive and difficult to obtain. Artists sometimes drew on prepared animal skins such as parchment or vellum. But these were also expensive. For centuries, artists made their preparatory drawings on tablets made of slate, wood, or wax. These tablets were thrown away or reused. Some painters made their preparatory drawings directly on the panel or wall that was to be painted. These were covered in the final stage of painting.

Drawings had another important function during the Middle Ages. They helped artists keep a record of images they frequently used. Pen-and-ink drawings of the human figure, costumes, plants and animals, and many other forms were collected in model books. Artists then copied the drawings instead of working directly from live models or from nature.

Leonardo da Vinci 

was a true genius who graced this world with his presence from April 15, 1452 to May 2, 1519. He is among the most influential artists in history, having left a significant legacy not only in the realm of art but in science as well, each discipline informing his mastery of the other. Da Vinci lived in a golden age of creativity among such contemporaries as Raphael and Michaelangelo, and contributed his unique genius to virtually everything he touched. Like Athens in the age of Pericles, Renaissance Italy is a summit in human history. Today, no name better seems to symbolize Renaissance age than Leonardo da Vinci.