Centuries back painting was used as a way to convey messages to the people. You can see the same thing today also but the use of paintings today is limited. A painting not only shows the artwork but it also represents an entire age, for example, the paintings on the walls of caves shows the painting examples of the stone age. The oldest paintings were made by the caveman who made the drawings of animals. They made the paintings of animals because the caveman draw from what they saw and it was animals that they saw all around them. These paintings were made during 30,000 10,000 BC.

How the caveman did painted the walls of the caves?

You can find the examples of the Stone Age painting in the caves of Southern France. You can see many examples in Spain also. Iron oxide was used by the caveman to create those paintings. The use of iron oxide in those paintings was same as the use of paints or oil paints in todays paintings. They also used manganese with iron oxide. They used iron oxide by crushing it into the fine powder and then mixed this powder with grease. The cave painters used this mixture to color the walls of caves with the help of brushes made from animal hairs or plants.

Development of the painting techniques

The basic idea of painting remained the same but the materials and techniques in this art were improved and refined with time. About 5000 years back, the first and the oldest civilization was developed in Egypt. The Egyptians developed their own painting techniques. They had many methods of painting. In one method, they put watercolor paint on limestone walls or mud plaster. The watercolor paintings were preserved from being destroyed because of the dry climate in this region.

Paintings by the Christians and Egyptians

The Egyptians believed that everyone has a life to live after death and this belief made them record every happening of their life by painting it on the walls of the tombs. The figures of men, women, children, boats and animals were made in the paintings. The Greeks and Chinese were the best painters in the history of painting. Later flat designs were introduced by the Christians and replaced the oriental styles. The Christians also used the concept of Symbolism.