When the first sign of man appeared upon the Earth, there was a need for a way to express himself.
Grunting, throwing rocks, growling, stomping, and dragging people around by their hair was just not going to work.
Through his frustration, and much trial and error, man finally figured out what he was going to do, in order to get his point across.
He drew a line in the sand, and made the first picture.
The art materials used were primitive but, they made a break through for what we use today.
It did no good for a wife to hope her husband would be more sensitive.
Heck, there were no words so how could she tell him her feelings? Maybe, instead of the man, the woman was the one who developed a form of picture communication.
She might have felt she needed some color in her surroundings, and decided to draw some pictures on her cave family room.
But, what was she going to use for this endeavor? One avenue which was found to work easily was (and is) charcoal.
Ancient civilizations found that burnt wood was quite vibrant in making pictures.
Not only was the wood great for warmth, and cooking, it worked well in drawing whatever was in the mind of the artist.
The problem was it only came in one color, and did not withstand the forces of nature, very well.
All of a sudden, she was exploring all kinds of avenues.
She tried numerous types of mortars to get the charcoal to adhere such as: spit, dung, urine, egg whites, blood, animal fat, juices from plants, bone marrow, and clays.
She tested berries, grasses, flowers, and ground stones to make beautiful concoctions that would stick admirably to her walls.
Some tools which were gathered to apply the paint were: feathers, twigs, animal hair, human hair, fingers, hands, bones, moss, fibrous plant stems, and leaves.
The people had to work with what was available to them.
Civilizations analyzed what was part of their countryside, and figured out how to incorporate these items into their art work.
Once she became very good at her art, she thought it would be nice to show her friends what she had done to her place.
But, they lived far away and even though she tried to recreate her paintings on smaller rocks, they just did not do the original piece justice.
The last rock portion she attempted to take, just about ripped her back out of socket! Tree bark, animal skins, large leaves, and slabs of stones were all used in transporting various paintings, drawings, and sketches.
It was a good idea at the beginning but, eventually it was seen that the leaves, and tree bark would decompose rapidly.
This erased the traces of the work that had been done.
Stone slabs were fine unless there were too many and this caused problems when they had to be moved.
When paper finally made its appearance, you can bet your bottom dollar, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
The next time you decide to paint, or sketch a picture, think about those who came up with the idea for all the art materials available in the world.
Since you were blessed to be born in this era, you only have to purchase the items from your local hobby store.
Now, all you have to do is create!