Tom Mazzullo Drawings

Golden Silverpoint Ground Demo


A while ago, I received from my friend Mary a copy of Just Paint, the Golden Artist Colors, Inc. newsletter announcing a new experimental silverpoint ground product. Then Mark Golden of Golden Paints visited the local art museum where my wife, Maggie, works.


During a conversation with Mr. Golden, Maggie told him that I was a silverpoint artist, and he got to see a catalogue photo of my silverpoint drawings then in a show at the museum, so he promised to send along a sample of the new silverpoint ground for Maggie to give to me. Excited to finally get my hands on this stuff, I decided to document a test of this new product in my studio.


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This is the stuff. Golden Custom Products Silverpoint Ground.

For a support, I use Arches 140lb. hot press watercolor paper.

I mist the paper on the back with water from a spray bottle...

...then tape it down with mylar packing tape. This way, as it dries, it will shrink flat.

I give the bottle of Golden silverpoint ground a good shake...

...then squirt an ounce or so right in the middle of the paper. If I were to tint the ground, I would squirt the ground into a jar and mix in a little tube watercolor.

I spread the ground quickly from edge to edge both vertically and horizontally using a two-inch flat squirrel-hair brush.

I let it dry overnight, so it's good and hard, then carefully peel away the tape.

At the drawing table, I make a light sketch of an o-ring on the prepared paper. I thought it would be good to draw something dark to really put the new ground to the test.

I'm really packing in the silver on this drawing, and the ground is holding up well. I'm using a piece of 12-gauge dead-soft silver wire chucked in a 2mm lead holder, tapered to a point.

A close-up of the finished drawing. You can see that in some places I've really gotten a nice dark, and the ground hasn't chipped at all.

The Golden Silverpoint Ground is excellent right out of the bottle. It dries super hard, and is a brilliant white. It’s pre-mixed, which should appeal to teachers and students.