The history of drawing is as old as the history of humans, beginning with the Stone Age markings on cave walls that have been discovered in France and Spain. These remarkable characterizations are mostly of animals and probably served as part of a ceremonial belief that making such permanent likenesses would ensure a successful hunt. In Egypt and Mesopotamia from about 4000 BC, symbolic forms were used as both communication, in hieroglyphic and cuneiform writing, and decoration. Between 3000 and 300 BC, systems for the representation of the figure and of forms in space were further developed in Mesopotamia and Egypt and later in Greece and Rome. We know of these early developments from examples found in Egyptian tombs, especially papyrus works of figures and hieroglyphs, pot shards, and wall paintings. The development of drawing in Greece is known mainly from vase drawings, beginning with the first geometric, abstract motifs on pieces such as the Dipylon Vase from Athens (8th century BC) to the more realistic depictions on Greek vases from the 5th to the 3rd century BC.

Of special note during the 15th century in Italy are Antonio Pisanello's Vallardi Codex (Louvre, Paris), Antonio Pollaiuolo's anatomical studies in pen, wash, and chalk, and Luca Signorelli's anatomical studies. Various techniques were widely used, such as tinted paper, pen and ink, chalk of various colors, and silverpoint, to achieve great realistic effects. The advent of the study of perspective, medicine and anatomy, and the other sciences stimulated great advances in representational style. Leonardo da Vinci's many drawings from the late 15th and early 16th century are outstanding in this regard; works such as his pen and ink Embryo in the Womb (c.1510) were extremely important to the development of scientific illustration. Along with the great classical drawings of Michelangelo and Raphael, they represent outstanding accomplishments of the Italian High Renaissance in the field of drawing.