Art History may sound boring, but you can learn a lot from the famous drawings of the past. It really is a gold mine for creativity.
All famous drawing artists are like inventors. They each invented a different technique and brought out different aspects of art like none before them. In fact, if you know the style of a particular artist, you will be able to pick out work belonging to him that you had never actually seen before. Let's take Picasso for example. It is hard to confuse the work of Picasso with the work of Rembrandt. Both artists developed their own way of creating art, which is why they are famous today.
As you browse through this part of the site, by examining the drawings from history and reading about the artists you will learn a great deal about how art was made at that time. You will learn something about the way people thought, their world view, what things were important to them, what was methods were used, and how our world has changed throughout history.
Let's start with a brief background to drawing, and with the question:
Since the world was created, man has been given the ability to express himself through the art of drawing. Although there are not many old drawings around today, some of the oldest drawings, preserved on the insides of caves, depict what life was like many years ago. Drawing then was different than it is now. It's primary purpose was not to express the ideas of the artist, but rather to tell a story, or to remind later generations of some important event.
It was not until the 1400's, when paper became more commonly available, that drawing became a popular form of art. Leonardo da Vinci, Albrecht Durer, and Michelangelo are the first well known drawing artists. Da Vinci used his drawings to draw out his inventions and the human autonomy, which were remarkably accurate and still interest many today.
Below is information about famous drawing artists. Although it would be nice to have their drawings on this site, because of copyright law, that is not possible.
Below are links to galleries on other websites. I encourage you to look through some of them, find a style you like, and try drawing a photo in that particular style (each link opens in a new window).
I am not sure how familiar you would be with the Elements of Design. Maybe if you took an art course you will know what they are. There are also Principles of Design. The Elements of Design help you cortically think about your art. They help artists communicate the ideas they want to express in their art. To learn more about the Elements of Design, click on the links.