In art, there are two main types of artworks that could be done namely figurativism and abstractism. In a nutshell, figurative and genre art is known as representational art that would emulate real life objects, places or people. As compared to abstract artwork which has no real representation and would usually have a vague meaning.

When one would depict a subject from real life, he is not necessarily making an exact replica of the subject. What he is doing is he is actually interpreting the subject and recreating it to how he perceives it. Basically, he is creating a replica of that subject with his own special twist to it.

Now when one would try making artworks that are in this category, he would usually choose between either humans or animals. Now even though these two are the most common subjects to be used for this type of artwork, many artists would actually use objects from nature like trees or mountains. Sometimes they would even use architecture as their subjects like castles or buildings.

The earliest artwork that would fall under this category would be the a statue of a woman that was discovered somewhere in Southern Germany. The statue is roughly thirty five thousand years old and was curved by the tusk of a mammoth. The oldest of figurative paintings on the other hand, would come from France and depicts different kinds of animals. This cave painting is at least sixteen thousand years old.

Of course if one is an artist of this category of artworks, he will always have to take note of certain elements in the process. Now since the end products are somewhat replicas of the real things, then one would have to pay close attention to certain elements. Elements such as the shapes, the colors, the lighting, the angles, and the texture.

Of course one has to be very meticulous with the details because it is actually the details that would make the end product. Although the small lines or small shadings may not seem very noticeable, they actually do make a lot of difference. It is for this reason that being detailed is one of the most important things in being an artist.

Now the Greeks would often make exact copies of their subjects down to the very last detail. This would be in contrast to the Egyptian style of doing things which would entail a good memory and a pair of artistic hands. Of course nowadays, these two concepts have fused to create a hybrid style of doing art that people are very familiar with nowadays.

So basically, those are some bits of information about this genre of art. As one can see, it has a very long history that started from the cavemen to the ancient Greeks or Egyptians until the Renaissance painters. Until now, this type of art is still evolving and becoming even more famous because many more techniques are being added to the arsenal.