bnwstudios

DRAWING

What is Drawing?

Drawing is one of the major forms of expression within the visual arts. It is generally concerned with the marking of lines and areas of tone onto paper, 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 paintings. Drawing may be done with a liquid medium, applied with brushes or pens. Similar supports likewise can serve both: painting generally involves the application of liquid paint onto prepared canvas or panels, but sometimes an under drawing 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 studies.

There are several categories of drawing, including figure drawing, cartooning, doodling and shading. There are also many drawing methods, such as line drawing, stippling, shading, the surrealist method of en topic homograph (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 OF DRAWING

Drawing as a Form of 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 specialized form of communication before the invent of the written language, demonstrated by the production of cave and rock paintings created by Homo sapiens sapiens around 30,000 years ago.These drawings, known as pictographs, depicted objects and abstract concepts.The sketches and paintings produced in prehistoric times were eventually stylized and simplified, leading to the development of the written language as we know it today.

Drawing in the Arts Drawing is used to express one's creativity, and therefore 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 re-used wooden tablets for the production of their drawings. Following the widespread availability of paper in the 14th century, the use 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. In a period of artistic flourish, the Renaissance brought about drawings exhibiting realistic representational qualities,where there was a lot of influence from geometry and philosophy.

The invention of the first widely available form of photography led to a shift in the use of drawing in the arts. Photography took over from drawing as a more superior method for accurately representing the visual world. Following the invention of photography, artists began to abandon traditional drawing practises. Modernism in the arts encouraged 'imaginative originality' and artists became more abstract in their approach to drawing.

Drawing Outside of the Arts Although the use of drawing is extensive in the arts, its practice is not confined purely to this field. Before the widespread availability of paper, 12th century monks in European monasteries used intricate drawings to prepare illustrated, illuminated manuscripts on vellum and parchment. Drawing has also been used extensively in the field of science, as a method of discovery, understanding and explanation. In 1616, astronomer Galileo Galilei explained the changing phases of the moon through his observational telescopic drawings. Additionally, in 1924, geophysicist Alfred Wegener used illustrations to visually demonstrate the origin of the continents.