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.