The History of Drawing

Drawing is not only an art but also the recording of a visual image on paper. It isn't easy, but drawing skills improve with constant practice. Many experienced artists have the habit of sketching whenever something, a movement or a small detail, catches their eyes. Sculptors and painters use drawings as preparatory studies for their works of art. Architects and engineers make drawings for technical purposes.

The history of drawing is as old as the history of humans. Long before people invented writing, they painted pictures on cliffs or on the walls of their caves to express themselves. We don't know whether the cave artists created their pictures and symbols to express their artistic senses, or whether they wished to communicate messages. Most likely, the cave painters combined pictures, symbols and signs to express thoughts and feelings and to record important events.

The rock carvings found on cliffs in Norway date from the end of the Stone Age (4000-5000 years ago) to the end of the Bronze Age (about 2500 years ago). The oldest carvings often depict images of animals such as moose, reindeer, fish and birds. Anthropologists believe that the images symbolise hunting and the culture of the hunters during the Stone Age. Very few of these images show humans.

Signs and symbols like those found in the caves and rock markings are called "proto-writing" or pictograms. Endless varieties of proto-writing or pictograms exist, and have been created by people during all stages of human history.