People make images. As far back as we can trace, we see examples of people creating images of how they saw the world. These range from a kind of visual commentary and storytelling to images of perfection and beauty made simply to enjoy. While our mediums have become more sophisticated and varied than those of our ancestors, the desire to create and consume images is perhaps even more apparent now than ever.
So what purpose does something as comparatively primitive as painting and drawing offer the modern image maker? Why would one bother with the trouble of manually rendering a form through sustained concentration and careful study when we now have the means of capturing such an image mechanically? When the camera was first introduced, one could see how the history of painting changed in its presence.
Following this example, as the decades progressed with each advance in image making technology, painters continued to exploit the nature and form of their medium (rather than carry on the representational traditions of the past) in part as a way to justify the existence of an old craft against the accuracy and efficiency of modern means.
However, with all the sophisticated image making technology we now have at our disposal, people still marvel at a picture masterfully rendered by the human hand. This kind of artwork speaks to a part of our souls that a mechanically produced image can never reach.
It's not that film and photography can't give us anything—they have become an invaluable means of expression that certainly have enriched our lives—but they can never replace the simpler forms of image making. An image, carefully drawn or painted by hand, speaks to something gentle, noble, essential and authentically human like nothing else can.
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