Drawing v Painting: Does it Really Matter?

It was a question raised in an email discussion into which I had been copied. What’s the difference between drawing and painting? There are so many overlapping features to drawing and painting that it is almost impossible to establish where they diverge. You could say painting is more of an indirect application as it requires the use of a tool to transfer the medium to the chosen surface. But this can be true of drawing as well. A dipping pen, for example, requires both pen and ink. I suppose If I had a gun held to my head on the subject – apart from the fact that I’d likely agree with the owner of the gun – otherwise I’d conclude that the employment of individual lines is what differentiates drawing from painting. It’s not enough to say that painting requires the use of paint and a brush as a single line can be produced this way too. Brush strokes are used in painting to fill large areas with the medium of choice – usually paint – but could be tea, coffee, runny foodstuffs, ochre, clay, human excrement, etc. But it is also not untrue that these things can be used with additional tools to draw an individual line. If you listen to ”bah humbug” friends, who sum it up thus: you can draw with a paintbrush, but just try painting with a pencil and that with all things said and done, does it really matter anyway?