Art Techniques: Silverpoint

I have talked quite a bit about silverpoint in previous posts and have received quite a few questions from curious individuals about the technique.

So I thought it would be useful to put together a post on resources for silverpoint.

Books

The first thing I always want when exploring a new technique is books on the subject.  I must admit that there are a paucity of books on silverpoint.

I did find one book that is a great introduction to silverpoint and also includes a gallery of work by contemporary silverpoint artists: Silver Linings by Banjie Getsinger Nicholas.

The books covers all the basics including tools, grounds, and basic exercises.

Here are a couple of examples of the wonderful silverpoint illustrations from the book:

Silverpoint drawing by Banjie Getsinger Nicholas

Silverpoint by Koo Schadler

Websites

There are a couple of websites in particular that are useful for information on silverpoint.

The Silverpoint Web includes both basic useful information as well as more esoteric information such as how to make your own silverpoint ground from scratch.

The Society of Metalpoint Artists is a newer website that also has useful information as well as a listing of contemporary metalpoint artists and their websites

Tools and Materials

There are a few places to buy silverpoint tools, grounds, etc.  Two online sites that I found particularly helpful were: Silverpoint Web and Natural Pigments (the two links here take you directly to product pages).

Silverpoint kit from Silverpoint Web

Silverpoint kit from Natural Pigments

 

I bought the basic kit from Silverpoint Web and those are the tools I have been using for my silverpoint work.  However, the options are endless with different metals, grounds, techniques etc.

Supports and Grounds

Supports and grounds seem to be the topic that occupies a lot of air time in silverpoint forums.  The only requirement is that the ground has a “tooth” to remove silver from the tip of the tool.  Grounds can be applied to paper or board.

Some examples of grounds include caesin or gouache titanium white, traditional gesso, claybord, or Golden Silverpoint ground, to name a few.  It is really personal preference that is the deciding factor in choosing a ground.

I  prefer to work on board versus paper and have no desire at this time to make and apply my own grounds to a support.  However, I have seen wonderful examples of silverpoint done on all kinds of surfaces including ceramic tiles!
I have found 2 sources for supports with grounds that I like and work fantastically for silverpoint: True Gesso Panels and Art Boards Gesso Panels.  Neither of these are the least expensive options but I find it a real pleasure to do my silverpoint work on these surfaces.

I hope that you will explore the ancient art form of silverpoint – it can be truly addictive.

If you have additional questions, let me know and I will do my best to steer you in the right direction.

Oil Paint Palette: Williamsburg Native Italian Earth Colors

I am getting ready to start on a miniature oil painting of a cheetah that I shared earlier.

I would like to use a color palette that harkens back to early renaissance styles and colors.

On a whim I bought a set of Willamsburg Native Italian Earth Colors (OK – like everyone else I am prone to good marketing – I even love the names of the colors).

Here is the description supplied by Williamsburg: “Clean, vibrant and more translucent than other earths, these rare Italian colors are prized among painters as among the finest available in the world. Primarily used in restoration, they are the very same colors made by Italian Renaissance and used by conservators.”

I wanted to see what they would look like as glazes so I painted 3 layers of glaze onto a gessoed panel (the cerulean blue and ultramarine I added because I knew I would need a blue for my final color palette as well). You can see the layers of glaze producing darker/richer color as they are added.

Pretty nice colors I must say!  Some of them are very similar to other earth colors – like the yellow ochre and the orange ochre (like burnt sienna).  However, some like the lemon ochre, green ochre, and rosso veneto were unique and made beautiful glazes.

They have that renaissance “feel” I am looking for.  So with a fun new palette to work with, it’s on to the actual painting!

Tapestry Weaving: All Finished!

I wove some small format tapestries a while back and I decided to enter them into the Tapestry class at the San Diego Fair.

That means I had to finish them!

I followed the excellent direction on Tommye Scanlin’s blog on how to finish and mount small tapestries.

Sarah’s Rabbit 4″x4″ by Marque Todd 2013

Pink Barn Rhapsody 4″x7.5″ by Marque Todd 2013

All prettied up and ready for delivery to the fair!

 

 

Painting, You’re Doing It Wrong

Really excellent information and technical advice on painting!

Blogs I Like: Gurney Journey

One of the best things about the internet is have access to so many useful and inspirational blogs and websites.

One I really like is Gurney Journey – the blog of James Gurney creator of Dinotopia.

James Gurney is an incredible artist and freely gives of his passion, knowledge and research on all things to do with painting, imaginative realism and illustration.  James posts every day and every day I learn something.

Here is an example of a recent post:

Donkey and horse minipaintings

Donkey and Horse by James Gurney

Yesterday on my morning walk I did these tiny sketches of a donkey and a white horse with an old sable watercolor round brush and casein paint. Casein is an opaque water-based paint.

Instead of starting with a pencil, I jumped straight in with the brush, massing the big shapes and cutting foreground over background and then background over foreground.

Corrections and refinements were easy with an opaque paint. Note that the plane of the scapula in both sketches was placed as a single stroke.

I used just four colors: titanium white, ivory black, raw sienna, and raw umber. That was all I really needed for such a subject under such conditions.
It is a good super-basic palette for exploring simple relationships of light and dark, warm and cool.

Photo by James Gurney

The donkeys were fascinated by the smell of casein. Maybe they liked the milk-based binder. I was afraid they might try to eat the paint, but they didn’t. Lee just nibbled my fingers with her lips, and Peanut kept sniffing the paint rag.
—–
Here’s what I used:
Jack Richeson / Shiva casein colors
Moleskine watercolor notebook
Winsor and Newton Series 7 round watercolor brush
I’m using a watercolor palette for a mixing surface, but I didn’t use any of the watercolors for this sketch.