More About Silverpoint

Silverpoint is a Medieval drawing medium rarely practiced by artists today. Silverpoint technique allows the artist to design with very fine lines of pale-gray color on a suitably prepared surface. While initially a silverpoint drawing resembles a graphite drawing, a drawing in silver left open to the air will begin to tarnish after a few years and the dull gray lines will take on a warm, sepia hue.

Artists can exploit this tendency to tarnish by mixing non-ferrous metals in one drawing. While silver tarnishes to brown, gold will never tarnish, copper will lighten and turn greenish, brass will darken and turn greenish, and other metals, like tungsten, aluminum, and zinc each lend a certain patina to the drawing. Graphite can even be used to punch a warm, dark emphasis in the pale silverpoint field.

The paper must first be coated with a slightly abrasive paint, and allowed to dry hard before the metal will rub off onto the drawing. This ground, made of gesso, gouache, or casein can often be tinted to produce subtle contrasts with the silver lines. The support for the abrasive paint can be almost anything: paper, wood, mylar, canvas, and parchment have all been used. Click here to see a demonstration of silverpoint materials.

Silverpoint has several drawbacks which may have hindered its continual use in the half millennium since the Renaissance: it is a medium geared to careful description rather than overt expression; the drawings tend to be subtle and intimate. Building up a dark, even gradation takes time and patience, and even then, it takes great control to create contrast in the finished work. Also, once applied, the silver line cannot be erased without disturbing the surface and preventing the perfect adhesion of new lines.

My preferred materials and techniques haven't changed much in the fifteen years since I learned silverpoint from my drawing professor, Chuck Schmidt, at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. I use Arches Hot Press 140lb. watercolor paper, and a simple silver stylus made from fine silver jeweler's solder held in a mechanical lead holder. For a ground, I use Plaka white casein thinned with water to the consistency of light cream, and I tint the liquid ground with Winsor & Newton watercolor. Golden Artist Colors, Inc. has also started producing a pre-mixed silverpoint ground that I like.

An excellent source for information about silverpoint, as well as links to other artists and resources can be found at SilverpointWeb.com.