Metalpoint Drawing

Interest in the ancient method of drawing known as metalpoint continues to expand. Quite a few artists have chosen to use metalpoint (usually silverpoint). Metals of all kinds are being used to make drawings, usually in the form of a stylus. You can buy rods of silver, gold, copper, and other metals to fit in a convenient holder or mechanical pencil. My own preference is for silver, although I do sometimes use an 18k gold stylus.

For me, metalpoint drawing is important because it requires patience throughout. My own metalpoints have begun to follow the format of many other kinds of drawing methods. That is, a careful and very light block-in of the drawing envelope, careful measurements of lengths and angles, an initial lay-in of the image, and careful buildup of a range of values.

Metalpoint is commonly used to produce delicate line drawings, but it can be used to make more full-bodied lines, depending on how the tip of the stylus is shaped. The metal used are soft enough to be filed down to a needle-like point, or perhaps to a two-sided chisel point. Using a chisel shape gives the opportunity to make both wide and narrow lines.

Here's a silverpoint, about 6x9, done in a sketchbook of prepared paper. The paper was coated with a special silverpoint ground that contains a mild abrasive. The drwing is a copy of a drawing done by vanGogh in about 1889 of a grove of pollarded trees. VanGogh's drawing was done with a reed pen and ink. Getting darker darks is a difficult and tedious process that involves repetitive light strokes of the stylus.

Unlike silver, which has a darker and cooler tone, gold is lighter and warmer. But you can achieve reasonably dark values using goldpoint provided you spend time doing many many light overlapping or crosshatched strokes. This study of a skull (left) was done from life using a very thin gold stylus in a mechanical pencil. The drawing is about 5x5 on prepared paper. The values achieved required several hours of very patient layering of strokes.

Metalpoint is a challenging medium, not least because it's very difficult to efface marks once they're laid down. Mistakes must be minor or very lightly made, so for me the medium teaches lightness and caution. Nonetheless, metalpoint deserves wider use and recognition. I will certainly continue doing them.

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Metalpoint