Some say the first 'camera' was designed before Christ. It was by simple deduction that an artist noticed a faint image on the opposing wall of a small building where a small hole let in light from outside of the building. He worked on a lens that could be placed in a similar hole of another building and he noticed that the image on the opposite wall was rather clear, color and all, although upside down. He then proceeded to use oil paints that were in use to paint portraits at the time. He simply mixed the oils to match the colors and painted directly onto the image he was looking at.