I mean, you take one look at Greek statues and Roman busts and you realize that people figured how to aim for realism, at least when it came to the human body and faces, over 2000 years ago.
Yet, unlike sculpture, paintings and drawings remained, uh, “immature” for centuries afterwards (to my limited knowledge, it was the Italian Renaissance that started making realistic paintings). Why?
I’m always astonished when I see people add lighting to a figure/scene by piling on lighter and lighter colors. It’s mind-blowing to me how artists can figure out how to fake light with colors!