PROGRESSION OF DRAWING

At the start of history, the oldest art we know is about 40,000 years old which are
painted by natural materials or carved on walls and rocks. The most common idea or
subject of art is people killing each other or people killing animals. Drawing is almost as
old as humankind, it developed along with other forms of arts during antiquity and the
Middle Ages. But cave paintings have been discovered way back 10,000 years BC,
proving that humankind has always been interested in making images or drawing
anywhere.

Ancient art, during this long period a lot

of art with different styles was created. This
includes prehistory (~40,000–4,000 B.C.)
Paleolithic, Neolithic, the Bronze Age, etc.
Origins of art history can be traced back to the
Prehistoric era, before written records were
kept. One of the most famous examples is that
of the Paleolithic cave paintings found in the complex caves of Lascaux in France.
Archeologists have identified 4 basic types of Stone Age art, as follows: petroglyphs
(rock carvings and engravings), pictographs (ideograms or symbols); prehistoric
sculpture (including small totemic statuettes
known as Venus Figurines), and megalithic art
(works associated with arrangements of stones).
As time goes by, people start to write and
write things down and civilization happens
(Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and those of the
Americas), this civilization started ancient art.
Ancient art (4,000 B.C.–A.D. 400) has used a lot
of mediums for their work depending on their
civilization, but mostly all of them have a common ground for their purpose which are:
display religious and symbolic imagery, to tell stories, decorate, demonstrate social
status, etc. Most topics are about gods, goddesses, and rulers. In ancient Mesopotamia
one of the most famous works is Code of Hammurabi. Created around 1792 B.C.

In Medieval Art (500–1400) to Early

Renaissance Art, the Middle ages also referred to as
the Dark ages, a period of economic and cultural
deterioration following the fall of the Roman Empire in
476 A.D. Artworks created in this period are mostly
about the church; and are described as hideous imagery
and barbaric settings. Medieval European art saw a
transition from the Byzantine period to the Early Christian period. As a thousand years
passed, a lot of more christian and catholic kinds of art appeared. This is where the rise
of illuminated manuscript and Gothic and Romanesque styles of art and architecture.

Renaissance to Early Modern Art, this

period is from 1400 through 1880. During the
renaissance the Italians created most of the
noble art. We saw the work of Da Vinci,
Michelangelo, and Raphael. We began to see
new art movements appear after the Italian
Renaissance, Northern Renaissance, and
Baroque periods were over. Western art followed a series of styles in the 1700s
including Rococo and Neoclassicism, followed by Romanticism, Realism, and
Impressionism.

Modern Art, this period is from 1880 to 1970. Impressionism

arises and artists such as Picasso and Duchamp were responsible
for creating multiple movements. Last 20 years of the 1800s were
filled with movements like Cloisonnism, Japonism, Neo-
Impressionism, Symbolism, Expressionism, and Fauvism. In the 1900s Movements like
Art Nouveau and Cubism kicked off the new century with Bauhaus, Dadaism, Purism,
Rayism, and Suprematism following close behind. Art Deco, Constructivism, and the
Harlem Renaissance took over the 1920s while Abstract Expressionism emerged in the
1940s. As time goes by evolutionary style arises, Funk and Junk Art, Hard-Edge
Painting, and Pop Art became common in the 50s. The 60s were filled with Minimalism,
Op Art, and much more.

Contemporary Art initially grew

along with Modernism. Contemporary art
meaning “the art of today”. This genre of
art is different from all as there is no
distinguished style or approach in this art.
The 1970s is the time people considered
the start of Contemporary art up until now.
The 70s saw Post-Modernism and Ugly
Realism, Feminist Art, etc. The 80s were
filled with Neo-Geo, Multiculturalism, and the Graffiti Movement, as well as BritArt and
Neo-Pop. Though it's still new, the 21st century has its own Thinkism and Funism to
enjoy.

SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES OF DRAWING IN

EACH ERA/PERIOD

SIMILARITIES DIFFERENCES
 Renaissance period and  Romanesque period depicts topics
Gothic era both focus on about mythical creatures and Gothic
subjects that are both natural period portrays real life scene of a
and realistic life of a human. human.
 Mannerism and the Baroque  The Baroque period have strong and
era both have an over- powerful painting and Rococo period
exaggeration in their art which have light and playful paintings.
makes it unrealistic.  Romanesque period, Gothic period,
 The Romanesque and Gothic and Classicism period both can be
era both use bold and viewed from front as they are two-
contrasting colors. dimensional. While the Renaissance
 Romanesque and Baroque period is three-dimensional.
era both period religious  Both romanticism and contemporary do
symbolism is present. not follow a uniform or determinable
 The Classicism period and style in their painting.
Rococo period both began in  Romanticism shows emotional and
France. sentimental paintings. While realism
 Renaissance and Classicism shows both the good and ugly sides of
both took inspiration from life in paintings.
Roman and Greek art.  Baroque period paintings are about
 Romanesque period, Gothic glorifying wealth and status. While
period, and Classicism period expressionism criticizes power and
both can be viewed from front standing social order.
as they are two-dimensional.  Futurism rejects christian morality.
 While romanesque focus on christianity
 Romanticism and and spreading the word of the bible.
Romanesque both have high
emotional value and
sentimental paintings.
 Romanticism and realistic are
both styles that are not
 famous to everyone.
 Art nouveau and Rococo
period both depicts
playfulness in their paintings.
 Both impressionism and
cubism are most easily
recognizable art periods.
 Symbolism and expressionism
painting are both subjective to
feelings.
 Futurism and Expressionism
both possess paintings about
politics.


Prediction on the future of drawing

We are already advanced as much as we thought to date right now, we
can draw anything we like anytime anywhere whatever we use. Modern technology is
becoming the norm for almost everything in our world so it is not impossible that the
future of drawing will continue to evolve with the help of modern technology. It might be
difficult to predict what drawing will be in the next 20 years, but today there are Artificial
intelligence in our computer that can draw anything that we type. Knowing that it exists
today, a machine that can draw by just typing the description, I am going to predict that
in the future we will no longer need to physically draw something. We just think of a
picture of something and it will automatically in the computer and we just have to print it
out. That may sound impossible right now but there are infinite of possibilities into the
future. But one thing I hope is that drawing traditionally with a paper and pencil will not
go extinct. It shall goes on forever so humans will not lose the skill to draw with their
own hands, It is possible that technology will collapse in the future, I believe that with
the growth of technology towards the future, artist will also evolve and develop a new
era of drawing and will make drawing the finest class of art.
Resources:

- https://www.britannica.com/art/drawing-art/History-of-drawing
- https://artincontext.org/art-periods/
- https://www.invaluable.com/blog/art-history-timeline/
- https://www.invaluable.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/inv_art-history-timeline/
images/2x/01-prehistoric.jpg
- https://www.invaluable.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/sites/77/2018/11/01-
ancient-hammurabai-1.jpg
- https://www.thoughtco.com/art-history-timeline-183476
- https://cdn.kastatic.org/ka-perseus-images/
2bf68a41eaecac45d3a31838d3daa261f8b7a675.jpg
- https://2renaissance.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/michelangelo-creation-
adam.jpg
- https://collectionapi.metmuseum.org/api/collection/v1/iiif/485406/1005024/
restricted
- https://mymodernmet.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/what-is-
contemporary-art-definition-10.jpg
- Contemporary Art : Definition | IESA International