More Metal

Only a few days remain in Metal Month, my version of an event called Inktober. My goal has been to do at least one metalpoint drawing every day, as a way to practice and refine skills. Ten days of travel out of state caused a bit of disruption, but so far I've managed more than twenty drawings, mostly with silver, though a couple of goldpoint drawings sneaked in too. 

In this drawing of a middle-aged man, it was the sidelong, wary expression that was most attractive, but the off-center hat, jowly cheeks and mustache were added attractions. This one is on a piece of fairly rough paper rather than on a specially prepared surface. Most metalpoint drawings these days seem to be executed on paper or some other surface that has been given at least one coat of liquid silverpoint ground. This one is about 5x9 inches.

Many past masters have made silverpoint drawings, and copying their work has been a good way to work on the mechanical aspects of the medium. That is, since it's difficult to eradicate the marks made with a metalpoint stylus the artist must use special care to place each mark accurately as well as strive hard to give each mark the right degree of darkness. Metalpoint has a much narrower range of values available, which adds to the challenge. This particular drawing of a sneering woman is from a photo I snapped many years ago. It was done in my metalpoint book which has been prepared as mentioned above with a brushed-on liquid ground. 

During these final days of October my plan is to draw more figures. The drawing to the right is a study of a figure in a classic sculpture "Laocoon and His Children," made nearly two thousand years ago in ancient Greece or Rome. It was discovered in 1506 to the delight and inspiration of Michelangelo. I was attracted by the sinuous, muscular torso of Laocoon. 

Only a few more days and a few more figures.

Fall Color

"Autumn Color," watercolor on paper

One of the great joys of living in the upper midwest is the changing seasons. Say what you will about the wonderful weather in places like Arizona and Florida, for me an endless summer is boring. Here in Iowa, the crisp days of autumn are a relief from hot days that are often sticky with humidity. As for winter, seems to me you can't have summer without it.

"Grandview Park," watercolor on paper

Anyway, the autumn give us pleasant days, often with the more oblique light of sunny days that makes the trees glow brilliantly. As the season matures I expect to spend many more days outdoors.

Besides watercolor, of course, I spend a lot of time working plein air in oil colors.

Favorite Artists 16 - Albrecht Durer

"Self Portrait at 13," silverpoint

For the past few years this Favorite Artists series has spotlighted a number of my favorites but to my surprise Albrecht Durer (1471-1528) has yet to receive a full post. He was an indisputable great whose work comprises a wide range of media and genres. His expertise in oil, watercolor, ink, print making, and other artistic pursuits marks him as one of the very greatest of all time.

Albrecht Durer was born in Nuremburg to a goldsmith with the same name (Durer the Elder) and his wife. By age thirteen he was obviously a talented draftsman, even before four years of apprenticeship. Near the end of his training he made a diptych (or possibly two pendant portraits) of his parents (below). The portrait of his father has been known for a long while, but the portrait of his mother was only rediscovered forty years ago.

"Portrait of the Artist's Father," oil on panel, 1490

"Portrait of the Artist's Mother," oil on panel, 1490

After his apprenticeship he traveled, spending time in Venice, where he was exposed to the great works and masters of his day. Returning to Nuremburg in 1495, he began an exceptional career as a painter and print maker and was famous all over Europe. In

"The Four Horsemen," woodcut, 1498

 particular, his series of 15 woodcuts depicting scenes from the Christian Book of Revelation, Apocalypse (below), was most famous. He seems to have learned early on that there was good income in sales of prints and made many throughout his career. But he was a not only a master oil painter but also a master of watercolor, as his Large Piece of Turf (1503) and other works clearly demonstrate. 

In 1505 he again journeyed to Italy, but as a famous artist he gained commissions and more fame. While there he visited Venice again but also spent time in Bologna, Florence, and Rome. His Christ Among the Doctors (1506) shows the influence of daVinci--note the grotesque faces. By 1507 he had returned to Nuremburg but with a wealth of influences from the southern Renaissance. His reputation continued to grow throughout the rest of his life, so that the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian commissioned him and kept him busy until 1519. Durer remains the premier artist of the northern Renaissance.

Below are a selection from Durer's vast oeuvre, including probably his most famous "Young Hare," a watercolor. 

"The Young Hare," watercolor, 1502

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Praying Hands," ink and chalk, 1508

 

"Self Portrait," oil on panel, 1500

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Related posts:

Family Portraits

Favorite Artists
Favorite Artists 2--Chardin
Favorite Artists 3--Grant Wood
Favorite Artists 4--Diego Velazquez
Favorite Artists 5--Andrew Wyeth
Favorite Artists 6--Wayne Thiebaud 
Favorite Artists 7 - Edward Hopper
Favorite Artists 8- Nicolai Fechin
Favorite Artists 9- Rembrandt 
Favorite Artists 10-Hokusai
Favorite Artists 11-Franz Hals

Favorite Artists-12-Vincent 

Favorite Artists 13-John Sargent
Favorite Artists 14-Thomas Eakins 

Favorite Artists 15-Ilya Repin

 

More on Metal Month

As posted a while back, October is a Metal Month for me. That is, my drawing plan for this month has been to do at least one metalpoint every day. The genesis was an event founded some years ago by an artist who decided to do an ink drawing every day of October, and called it Inktober, his stated purpose being to hone his ink drawing skills. Since then the idea has taken off so that now many do some sort of daily drawing during the month of October and post it online. 

So my purpose in doing and posting a metalpoint drawing every day is simply practice, and more practice. Metalpoint drawings aren't much different from drawings with graphite or chalk or any other medium although there are significant differences. The range of darks possible with metal is more narrow, so that you have to be very careful with values. And of course you can efface metalpoint marks, depending, but erasing them without damaging the surface is problematic at best.

"Cyclamens," silverpoint on gesso panel, 4x6, 10-4-21

This drawing of a group of cyclamen blossoms is from a reference I shot some years ago. In this case, my interest wasn't just the drawing but also the support. Silverpoint is done best on a slightly abrasive ground like gesso or the special silverpoint grounds you can buy. This little panel was certainly suitable for the metal, and the darks are attractive.

Untitled, silverpoint on paper, 5x7

The drawing to the left is another silverpoint, this time on a kind of paper that's rough enough to accept the metalpoint marks. This particular drawing was based on an online photo reference from a few years ago. This paper is relatively thin and won't rub off enough silver to make darks very deep. So a way to overcome the paper's lower level of abrasion is to cross-hatch, as I did in this image. Even so, the darks aren't very dark.

Untitled, silverpoint on prepared paper, 5x9

The evergreen in the silverpoint drawing on the right is outside my studio window. It's part of a group of three or four that are thirty feet tall, or so. This drawing began as an experiment with paper. I have a sketchbook that I prepped with a metalpoint ground to make it usable--otherwise the paper was too slick. The ground comes as a liquid and is simply brushed thinly onto whatever surface one is preparing. The paper in this sketchbook is substantial enough to accept the ground without much cockling. I've been using it for metalpoint drawings this month while experimenting with other surfaces. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure, silverpoint on paper, 5x7

The figure below is another that I did early this month in my metalpoint sketchbook. This figure is a professional model. Although the paper surface was one of my interests in doing this particular drawing, mostly I was interested in trying very very hard to make an accurate line drawing with firm lines. Using a broad point on the silver stylus allows wide lines. Also, one of my habits is to use a kind of searching line as I draw, sometimes moving it a lot or making furry, scratchy marks. Here I wanted to see a solid drawing without any of that. Surprisingly, this drawing felt considerably more free than some of the earlier ones.

The month continues, more to be posted in a week or two.

Florida

"Fan Palm," wc, 4x8

We arrived here a few days ago for a long-delayed family visit, hindered by the pandemic as so many have been. Unlike the Midwest, Florida stays green all year round, more so the farther south you go. Here around Tampa Bay the plants and foliage are always green. Palm trees grow wild and species we know as house plants grow tall in the gardens outdoors. Even in the depths of winter, like January in the watercolor on the left, people walk their dogs in shirt sleeves and huge palm trees flank the buildings and gardens. 

"Bradenton Green Belt," wc, 8x10

In Iowa, when we talk about green space or green belts the trees we know are cottonwoods, willows, elders, oaks, even elms. But in Florida its palms but also many many other species. In south Florida, green spaces are effectively jungle, choked with undergrowth, middle tier and high tier native trees, and commonly damp, muddy, or actual wetlands. Where there is water, even in residential areas, you see alligators, wading birds like sandhill cranes. Deer and all manner of bird life thrive in the warm, wet, and green environment.

The green belt behind us is a good example of the jungle-like areas you see around here. Although it is only thirty or forty yards deep, this space is in many ways like rainforest or jungle. I spent some time painting the green wall next to a walking trail that's perhaps forty yards away, back in 2016. If anything the green belt has become more dense and darker.

"Bradenton Bird," wc on paper, 4x7

The weather was rainy and humid during the early days of our visit, but here are a couple of subjects from sunny Florida. The first is a bird of paradise that blooms continuously outside the front door. It's an astonishingly healthy clump of plants. The second is the view from the back of the house, showing a distant line of trees and three of the bright red ti plants that so many here employ as garden accents. These plants can grow tall--perhaps six feet or more. 

 

 

"Florida," wc on paper, 5x9

 

Weekend Watercolor

Ten days or so ago the Saturday sketch group spent a warm sunny afternoon at Greenwood Park, which south of the Des Moines Art Center. The park contains an amphitheater, woods, walking paths, gardens, artwork, and a big pond. I spent a couple of hours along the bank where ornamental trees were just starting to change color. The bright yellow-orange of their foliage against the dark emerald greens of the surrounding woods was almost artificially bright. 

"Greenwood Park, Autumn," watercolor on paper, 8x10

Fall is a great time for sketching. I'm traveling this week in Florida, where autumn never penetrates, but expect more of these when I return, as Autumn reaches its peak.

Metal Month

Late last month while considering another Inktober--the worldwide event of drawing and posting a daily pen and ink drawing--I decided instead to do a metalpoint drawing every day of this month, posting the results. We're now about a week into the month and so far I've managed to follow through. Of course, metalpoint is a much different drawing discipline than inking. Both invove drawing with materials that aren't easily erased, only effaced; both are considered antique, if not archaic; and both have a limited following. No matter. The point is to work with the medium repetitively, becoming familiar with its strengths and limitations. 

Working with metalpoint requires an exacting approach, a carefully prepared surface, and considerable time. Whatever support one uses for metalpoint drawings, the surface must have some "tooth," a mildly abrasive surface, to allow the metal to be rubbed onto it. Soft metals like silver, gold, even lead, work fine and make marks that vary in darkness and color. Silver makes a cool, medium-dark line while gold makes warm but paler lines. The need for an exacting approach is similar to ink--another unforgiving medium--since erasure isn't really possible. Depending on the support and surface you can erase metal marks with exceptionally-fine sandpaper, but usually the surface is damaged too much. And since even silverpoint marks can only be deposited in a limited range of values, shading and volume rendering need care with line weights and hatching, both of which require considerable time. I'm hoping that a month of working with silvepoint will give me much experience and advance my skills with the medium.

These are a few of the daily metalpoints from the past week.

"Breaker Boy," silverpoint on board, 3x5

The first silverpoint for October, "Breaker Boy," was actually finished September 30. It is a drawing on a piece of gessoed hardboard, which provides a good surface with enough tooth for silverpoint. The image is from an antique photo of boys who worked in deep-shaft coal mines in Appalachia at the turn of the 20th century. These school age boys worked 60 hour weeks and had no schooling. Breaker boys worked to remove impurities from coal that had been broken into lumps--by hand. Eventually child labor laws stopped the practice of children in coal mines.

Figure study, silverpoint on paper, 7x9

The figure drawing on the left, from a reference photo, shows the fine lines you can achieve with a sharp stylus. The challenge with this drawing was exactness. For me that meant long study before making a single mark, then extreme care, placing a mark and then leaving it alone. The idea was to do each piece of the figure accurately the first time. In the end that approach means very little fiddling with the drawing, cleaner lines, and a good figure. The paper used for this drawing was prepared by brushing a liquid silverpoint ground onto each page of a sketchbook. The paper weight was enough to allow application of the ground without cockling, and the ground is more abrasive than gesso, which allowed for very thin yet dark silver lines.

After Buonarotti, silverpoint, 5x6.5

The drawing below is another silverpoint drawing on paper but the paper itself accepts metal without preparation. Unlike the thinner paper in my sketchbook, this paper has a bit of "give," or compressibility, which actually prevents making exceptionally dark lines, plus a sharp point will incise the paper, which I wanted to avoid. This drawing is a detail of a sculpture by Michelangelo that he abandoned. It was to be part of his own tomb but the stone was flawed and he quit working on it long before he died. A student kept it. This is a detail of the head of one of the figures, which is said to be a self portrait.

As the month progresses my plan is to continue working with a variety of supports. Most of these works will be silverpoint but perhaps I'll throw in a goldpoint or two.

A Memory

Sometimes an image, a video, a snatch of melody can trigger a memory. Just today while reviewing some old drawings a remembrance of things past struck me.

Hoff, "Old Times," pen and ink, 2008

Around 1950, maybe a bit earlier, my grandmother lived on the edge of a tiny town in Oklahoma wheat country. There were a few hundred who lived there and a few hundred more who farmed within maybe ten or fifteen miles. During the summer a train came almost every day to load wheat from one of the elevators in town. The railroad tracks passed a few dozen yards from my grandparents' place, and I developed a habit of running out to the tracks and waving to the crew as the big engine came slowly by. Sometimes they would blow the steam whistle--it was a big steam engine of the kind we don't see any more. I used to stand and gape as the huge line of cars rattled past. 

Today I know that the huge engine was really only middling in size and the long line of cars was much shorter. No matter. To this little boy it could have been the Orient Express or maybe the California Zephyr. The big black engine, the mixture of hot oil, coal smoke and dust was intoxicating. 

But one day, the train stopped. Astounded, I craned my neck to the man in the engine's window. "Hey, Little Bud," he cried. "Want a ride?" Without a thought I clambered over and he lifted me into the cab, full of dark oily levers and rods. In those innocent days no one thought twice about such things. Although I didn't know it, the engineer and fireman on the train knew my family. And it was probably no more than three or four blocks to the elevators where they would load. And off we went. 

Hoff, "Setting Watches," pen and ink, 2008

He let me blow the whistle, lean out the window the way he usually did, and dropped me off two blocks away, across from a gas station in town. Men in the station chuckled as I hitched up my jeans and strutted over. "Hey Little Bud! Does your mommy know you're here?" Of course she didn't, but a quick call and my grandfather took me home. You could do things like that in those days. 

Perhaps that memory is why railroads have always fascinated and attracted me. A couple of decades back I made a series of drawings of classic railroad subjects--mostly steam engines and early diesels. The majority of the drawings were done using standard black ink, but a few (eg, right) were done using a very old kind of ink known as iron gall--favored by masters of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Although none of these made it to the market, they remind me of old times, now only memories.

Hoff, "The Big Diesel," pen and ink, 2008

Hoff, "Long Gone," pen and ink, 2008

October Daily

Two years ago was the first time I participated in the phenomenon called Inktober. Originally it was created by an artist named Jake Porter, who conceived of daily ink drawing as a way to improve his skills. Last year he copyrighted Inktober, causing significant controversy, then got embroiled in a claim of plagiarism against him. The result has been a general shunning of the event known as Inktober. Instead artists have come up with alternative events. Like the original event, each has published a list of suggested subjects for an image. The idea of ink-only images seems to have gone in favor of nearly any medium, even three dimensional. 

My plan is to do something to stretch my drawing skills and commitment, which is an echo of Mr Porter's original idea. Although it is quite a commitment since part of October I will be out of town and away from my studios and equipment. Nonetheless my plan is to produce a daily metalpoint drawing during the month of October. None of these is likely to be large, of course, but the main point of doing these is to practice the ancient skill of metalpoint drawing. 

daVinci, "Head of a Girl," silverpoint on paper, 1483

Metalpoint is an ancient way of making marks. Romans and probably peoples before them used lead rods to scribe on wooden boards. (They also employed reusable wax tablets.) In the Middle Ages, lead and silver were used for marking on boards, either to write or to lay out a tempera painting. Over centuries, silver became the primary metal used for marking, probably because it makes lines as dark as lead but is harder than lead. And over a period of time those initial silver marks tarnish, as silver does, to a lovely tea color. By the time of the Renaissance the use of silverpoint was waning, though masters like Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael certainly used it, as did the great German, Albrecht Durer.

Albrecht Durer, "Dog Resting," silverpoint, 1520

Joseph Stella, "Self Portrait," silverpoint, 1925

In the past few decades metalpoint drawing has undergone a surge of interest. Besides silver, artists these days use gold, copper, and other metals. The revival of silverpoint began with Joseph Stella (1877-1946), an Italian-born American painter and graphic artist. and continued during final decades of the century.

Silverpoint and other metalpoint have been interests of my own for several years, so there won't be a "learning curve" for the medium. And I have several styli to use during the month. The challenge will be to finish a daily drawing because metalpoint is a very exacting and demanding medium. For one thing, it's very difficult to efface a silverpoint mark, though not impossible. So any drawing must be done very carefully, and necessarily that means slowly. Alas, the likelihood of keeping up a daily pace seems small but even if I can't finish a drawing a day my plan is to draw with metalpoint, either goldpoint or silverpoint, every day in October, and I'll post results. Meanwhile here are a couple of previous silverpoint drawings.

Hoff, "Rosebud," silverpoint, 6x8, 2017

Hoff "Spruce in Snow," silverpoint, 6x8, 2020