Drawing

Feel the magic of a blank surface waiting just for you. With a single, simple line, you can create a smiling sun hanging in a bright blue sky. Add a few squares and a triangle, and suddenly a cozy house with a pointy roof appears, with swirly smoke coming from its chimney. Maybe you want to create a silly, three-eyed monster with zig-zag teeth or a beautiful, soaring dragon with shimmering scales. You are building whole new worlds with just a few strokes of a pen or pencil. You are bringing ideas from inside your head out into the world for everyone to see. Can you imagine the power you hold in your hand. That power is me. I am Drawing.

My earliest memories are from a very, very long time ago, long before cities, cars, or even written words. Imagine being inside a deep, dark cave where the only light comes from a flickering fire. This is where I was born. In a place we now call Blombos Cave in South Africa, someone picked up a piece of reddish rock called ochre and carefully scratched crisscrossing lines onto another stone. That was me, making one of my first known appearances as far back as 73,000 BCE. Much later, around 30,000 BCE, people in places like Chauvet Cave in France used me to cover the walls with spectacular pictures. They ground up charcoal to make bold black lines and used colored earth for reds and yellows. They drew huge, powerful animals like mammoths, lions, and bison that seemed to leap off the stone walls. Were they telling the story of a great hunt. Or were they making magic, hoping to bring good luck to the hunters. I was their way of sharing their world and their thoughts with each other.

From the darkness of caves, I stepped out into the bright sunlight of great civilizations. In Ancient Egypt, around 3000 BCE, I was extremely important. Can you imagine building those giant pyramids without modern computers or machinery. The Egyptians used me to make it happen. Scribes and architects would draw careful plans on pieces of limestone or on scrolls of papyrus, showing exactly how every single block should be cut and placed. I was also the heart of their beautiful writing system, called hieroglyphs. Each little picture of an owl, a snake, or a pair of walking legs was a tiny drawing that told big stories about gods, pharaohs, and everyday life. Then I traveled to Ancient Greece and Rome. The Greeks loved using me to decorate their pottery with detailed scenes of heroes fighting monsters and gods having adventures. The Romans used me to sketch out the plans for their amazing buildings, like the Colosseum, and to design lifelike sculptures that still impress us today. I was their blueprint for building empires.

Later, a time of incredible creativity called the Renaissance swept across Europe from the 14th to the 17th centuries. This was when I really got to show off all the different things I could do. One person who understood my power better than almost anyone was the great Leonardo da Vinci. He carried a sketchbook everywhere he went, and it was always filled with me. He used me to explore everything he saw. He would draw the muscles and bones inside a human arm, the delicate petals of a flower, or the swirling patterns of water in a river. But he didn't stop at what he could see. His mind was full of amazing ideas, and he used me to invent things far ahead of his time, like flying machines and armored tanks. For Leonardo, I was a way to think, to understand the world, and to invent the future. It was also during this time that new tools, like the graphite pencil which became more common after the 16th century, made me easier for everyone to use.

Today, I am everywhere you look. An architect used me to design the tall skyscraper in your city and the school you go to. An animator used me to bring your favorite cartoon characters to life, making them run, jump, and laugh one frame at a time. An engineer used me to sketch the first ideas for your video game console or the phone in your parent's hand. I am still the starting point for so many new and amazing things. But my very favorite place to be is with you. Every time you pick up a crayon, a marker, or a pencil to doodle in your notebook or create a masterpiece for your wall, you are using me. I am your special power to show everyone the incredible, unique, and wonderful ideas that live inside your imagination. So go ahead, make your mark on the world.