Drawing

Drawing is a technique by which images are produced on a flat surface chiefly through the drawing of lines, although drawings may also contain tonal areas, shading and other non-linear marks. It is one of the oldest and most fundamental forms of visual art: humans drew on cave walls long before the appearance of painting or writing. Drawing is carried out with dry or liquid means — pencil, charcoal, chalk, sanguine, pen and ink, silverpoint — on paper, parchment or other supports. In art, drawing performs a dual role. On the one hand, it is a preparatory tool — a sketch, study or cartoon by means of which an artist works out a composition, studies nature and plans a future work in painting, sculpture or architecture. On the other hand, a drawing can be a self-sufficient, finished work of art with its own aesthetic value. In the Renaissance, drawing (disegno) was regarded as the intellectual foundation of all the visual arts, a means of expressing an artist's conception and skill. Outstanding draughtsmen — from Leonardo da Vinci, Dürer and Rembrandt to Ingres, Van Gogh and contemporary artists — attest to the inexhaustible expressive possibilities of line. Drawing remains today the foundation of artistic education.