I may want to do a little more on this small metalpoint drawing, but this was a good time to take a break. Drawing a a rigid surface was great, and I’ll definitely do this again. I was surprised at the value range.
It’s ironic that with graphite, artists want to avoid a sheen but with metalpoint, it’s considered to be kind of delightful.
Probably best described as multimedia, I started with an Artist Bord by Ampersand and covered it with a coat of Golden Silverpoint Drawing Ground. My first thought was to use metalpoint, but after sketching in the birds on both, I switched to colored pencil. I used some blue ink for the backgrounds, and on the larger piece, I used an aluminum scrubber pad to place some blurry tree branches and a border.
Until tilted to the light, this looks like a hazy, gray smudge with no definition. The process was fast and fun. I used my aluminum “Brillo pad” for the background after I scored numerous, thin branches and grasses into the surface with the end of a paintbrush. The deer was sketched in gold.
This owl settled into a tree and I took four quick, blurry pictures just to prove it happened. Metalpoint seemed to be a good medium for a mysterious, moody drawing.
