Of course drawing and painting are innate, no one giving the matter more than a moment of thought could argue that we are evolving away from that with the advent of computers and digital tools. (They are far too new on the scene to have influenced evolution in any case!)

I have observed in my own son an obsession with both form and materials- I will never forget watching him as a 3 year-old standing on a chair over a large-scale multi-media (yes, that includes cream cheese) painting that he worked on for hours, only looking up to demand “Stick!” or “Spoon!” of me the way a surgeon might request a scalpel. He is excruciatingly particular about his pens, paints, brushes, spray can tips, etc. And he also loves being able to manipulate digital images, and taking digital pictures… but almost exclusively of other (traditionally generated) artwork. He is perhaps more disciplined in art than other kids his age, but I see the same interest in developing and using basic skills in his peers of both genders… and fortunately they are in an educational setting with access to arts curricula that engage their instincts and impulses. It is dismaying to think about for how few children that is true, even in this age where all data indisputedly points to the effectiveness of arts educational models in developing other critical learning areas.