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Why drawing matters
Experiencing the world one sketch at a time
With a pencil in hand, earth is a more magical place
Drawing has always fascinated me. When I was six, I marveled at my granddad’s sketches of cute rabbits on paper napkins.
For years after, I’d copy my granddad’s renderings many times. I then sketched my turtle, my garden, the house, members of the family.
Yielding that pencil was also my strategy for not having to do chores. I was simply too busy drawing. That was accepted as a plausible excuse. Lucky me.
But the question arises, when did drawing really start?
73,000 BC, the year of the first known human drawing
According to Science Magazine, a red hashtag design discovered in the Blombos Cave on the southern coast of South Africa’s Western Cape province, dated to about 73,000 BC, is the world’s earliest known example to date of a human surface drawing.[1]
The drawing, made with ochre paint, an iron-rich mineral found regularly at Stone Age sites throughout southern Africa, distinctly crisscrosses the stone surface. Scientists believe it to be an intentional design, and therefore, it is a drawing.[2]
