The early humans would use to draw images with materials like paint made from dirt or charcoal to illustrate how life looked like back then which has worked since we can guess how the early humans lived like

People who lived in Egypt during that time would draw just for decoration or for religious gods and created hieroglyphics that were written in walls or a very known one, papyrus plant

In this era, people would usually paint in artifacts that people would make like jars which they would show a scene of fighting. They would also create sculptures made out of stones like marble and limestone.

People during that dark era would draw images of religious beliefs most commonly about the Bible. They would draw images in tablets that would be made in wood since back then paper was not invented and the animal hides were to expensive for people to draw on them. (Imagine if you made one mistake, since they were no erasers, it would have been wasted)

Art form started to change, since now paper was created, it had more options to create art. For example, now scientist would record their finds in paper, they could use softer materials like chalk and charcoal, and people would now start selling paintings for money. Therefore, art became more popular day by day.