Drawing is a
visual art that uses an instrument to mark
paper or another
two-dimensional surface. The instruments used to make a drawing are
pencils,
crayons,
pens with
inks,
brushes with
paints, or combinations of these, and in more modern times,
computer styluses with
graphics tablets or
gamepads in
VR drawing software.
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,
vellum,
wood, plastic,
leather,
canvas
Canvas is an extremely durable plain-woven fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, shelters, as a support for oil painting and for other items for which sturdiness is required, as well as in such fashion objects as handbags ...
, and
board
Board or Boards may refer to:
Flat surface
* Lumber, or other rigid material, milled or sawn flat
** Plank (wood)
** Cutting board
** Sounding board, of a musical instrument
* Cardboard (paper product)
* Paperboard
* Fiberboard
** Hardboard, a ty ...
, have been used. Temporary drawings may be made on a
blackboard
A blackboard (also known as a chalkboard) is a reusable writing surface on which text or drawings are made with sticks of calcium sulphate or calcium carbonate, known, when used for this purpose, as chalk. Blackboards were originally made of ...
or
whiteboard. Drawing 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 ideas.
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
An illustration is a decoration, interpretation or visual explanation of a text, concept or process, designed for integration in print and digital published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, vid ...
,
animation
Animation is a method by which image, still figures are manipulated to appear as Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent cel, celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited ...
,
architecture,
engineering, and
technical drawing. A quick, freehand drawing, usually not intended as a finished work, is sometimes called a
sketch. An
artist
An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...
who practices or works in technical drawing may be called a
drafter, draftsman, or draughtsman.
Overview
Drawing is one of the oldest forms of human expression within the visual arts. It is generally concerned with the marking of lines and areas of tone onto paper/other material, where the accurate representation of the visual world is expressed upon a plane surface. Traditional drawings were
monochrome, or at least had little colour, while modern colored-pencil drawings may approach or cross a boundary between drawing and
painting. In Western terminology, drawing is distinct from painting, even though similar
media often are employed in both tasks. Dry media, normally associated with drawing, such as chalk, may be used in
pastel
A pastel () is an art medium in a variety of forms including a stick, a square a pebble or a pan of color; though other forms are possible; they consist of powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are similar to those use ...
paintings. Drawing may be done with a liquid medium, applied with brushes or pens. Using a brush for drawing is very widespread and here it is more the process of using lines and hatching, that characterises something as a drawing. Similar supports likewise can serve both: painting generally involves the application of liquid paint onto prepared canvas or panels, but sometimes an
underdrawing is drawn first on that same support.
Drawing is often exploratory, with considerable emphasis on observation, problem-solving and composition. Drawing is also regularly used in preparation for a painting, further obfuscating their distinction. Drawings created for these purposes are called sketches.
There are several categories of drawing, including
figure drawing,
cartooning,
doodling, and
freehand
Freehand may refer to:
* Freehand drawing, a drawing made without the help of devices
* Freehand lace, a bobbin lace worked directly onto fabric
* , drumming technique
* Adobe FreeHand, software package
* ''Free Hand'', a 1975 album by Gentle Gian ...
. There are also many drawing methods, such as
line drawing, stippling,
shading, the surrealist method of
entopic graphomania (in which dots are made at the sites of impurities in a blank sheet of paper, and lines are then made between the dots), and tracing (drawing on a translucent paper, such as ''
tracing paper'', around the outline of preexisting shapes that show through the paper).
A quick, unrefined drawing may be called a ''
sketch''.
In fields outside art,
technical drawings or plans of buildings, machinery, circuitry and other things are often called "drawings" even when they have been transferred to another medium by printing.
History
In communication
Drawing is one of the oldest forms of human expression, with evidence for its existence preceding that of written communication.
It is believed that drawing was used as a specialised form of communication before the invention of the written language,
demonstrated by the production of
cave and rock paintings around 30,000 years ago (
Art of the Upper Paleolithic).
These drawings, known as pictograms, depicted objects and abstract concepts. The sketches and paintings produced by Neolithic times were eventually stylised and simplified in to symbol systems (
proto-writing) and eventually into early
writing systems.
In manuscripts
Before the widespread availability of paper in Europe,
monks in European monasteries used drawings, either as
underdrawings for
illuminated manuscript
An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared document where the text is often supplemented with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Church for prayers, liturgical services and psalms, the ...
s on vellum or parchment, or as the final image. Drawing has also been used extensively in the field of science, as a method of discovery, understanding and explanation.
In science
Drawing diagrams of observations is an important part of scientific study.
In 1609, astronomer
Galileo Galilei explained the changing phases of Venus and also the sunspots through his observational telescopic drawings.
In 1924, geophysicist
Alfred Wegener used illustrations to visually demonstrate the origin of the continents.
As artistic expression
Drawing is one of the easiest ways to visualise ideas and to express one's creativity; therefore it has been prominent in the world of art. Throughout much of history, drawing was regarded as the foundation for artistic practice. Initially, artists used and reused wooden tablets for the production of their drawings. Following the widespread availability of paper in the 14th century, the use of drawing in the arts increased. At this point, drawing was commonly used as a tool for thought and investigation, acting as a study medium whilst artists were preparing for their final pieces of work. The
Renaissance brought about a great sophistication in drawing techniques, enabling artists to represent things more realistically than before, and revealing an interest in geometry and philosophy.
The invention of the first widely available form of
photography led to a shift in the hierarchy of the arts. Photography offered an alternative to drawing as a method for accurately representing visual phenomena, and traditional drawing practice was given less emphasis as an essential skill for artists, particularly so in Western society.
Notable artists and draftsmen
Drawing became significant as an art form around the late 15th century, with artists and master engravers such as
Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer (; ; hu, Ajtósi Adalbert; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528),Müller, Peter O. (1993) ''Substantiv-Derivation in Den Schriften Albrecht Dürers'', Walter de Gruyter. . sometimes spelled in English as Durer (without an umlaut) or Due ...
and
Martin Schongauer (–1491), the first Northern engraver known by name. Schongauer came from Alsace, and was born into a family of goldsmiths. Albrecht Dürer, a master of the next generation, was also the son of a goldsmith.
Old Master Drawings often reflect the history of the country in which they were produced, and the fundamental characteristics of a nation at that time. In 17th-century Holland, a Protestant country, there were almost no religious artworks, and, with no King or court, most art was bought privately. Drawings of landscapes or genre scenes were often viewed not as sketches but as highly finished works of art. Italian drawings, however, show the influence of Catholicism and the Church, which played a major role in artistic patronage. The same is often true of French drawings, although in the 17th century the disciplines of French Classicism meant drawings were less Baroque than the more free Italian counterparts, which conveyed a greater sense of movement.
In the 20th century
Modernism encouraged "imaginative originality" and some artists' approach to drawing became less literal, more abstract. World-renowned artists such as Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat helped challenge the status quo, with drawing being very much at the centre of their practice, and often re-interpreting traditional technique.
Basquiat's drawings were produced in many different mediums, most commonly ink, pencil, felt-tip or marker, and oil-stick, and he drew on any surface that came to hand, such as doors, clothing, refrigerators, walls and baseball helmets.
The centuries have produced a canon of notable artists and draftsmen, each with their own distinct language of drawing, including:
* 14th, 15th and 16th:
Leonardo da Vinci •
Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer (; ; hu, Ajtósi Adalbert; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528),Müller, Peter O. (1993) ''Substantiv-Derivation in Den Schriften Albrecht Dürers'', Walter de Gruyter. . sometimes spelled in English as Durer (without an umlaut) or Due ...
•
Hans Holbein the Younger
Hans Holbein the Younger ( , ; german: Hans Holbein der Jüngere; – between 7 October and 29 November 1543) was a Germans, German-Swiss people, Swiss painter and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style, and is considered o ...
•
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was insp ...
•
Pisanello
Pisanello (c. 1380/1395c. 1450/1455), born Antonio di Puccio Pisano or Antonio di Puccio da Cereto, also erroneously called Vittore Pisano by Giorgio Vasari, was one of the most distinguished painters of the early Italian Renaissance and Quattroc ...
•
Raphael
* 17th:
Claude Claude may refer to:
__NOTOC__ People and fictional characters
* Claude (given name), a list of people and fictional characters
* Claude (surname), a list of people
* Claude Lorrain (c. 1600–1682), French landscape painter, draughtsman and etcher ...
•
Jacques de Gheyn II
Jacob de Gheyn II (also Jacques de Gheyn II) (c. 1565 – 29 March 1629) was a Dutch painter and engraver, whose work shows the transition from Northern Mannerism to