Fourth Attempt

This is my 4th metalpoint drawing. I still have a long way to go but I'm enjoying it and my hand is getting more used to all this drawing. It takes a lot more pressure and so many more pencil strokes to complete than more conventional media. This is a picture of a pumpkin, in keeping with the season, and is done completely in 22K gold wire on an 8"X10" gessoed artist board. It's a simple drawing but I needed a fall picture for display. This is the picture with a flash...it shows the shine of the metal. Without the flash...

Picture #3

I had fun doing this picture.  i did a little more planning on this one than I did on the other two.  With them I just started to draw.  With this one I did a preliminary sketch to figure out what went where.  I was concerned with the placement of the leaves and didn't know for sure where they would look best.  I also didn't want anything overlapping so lines from the things underneath would show.  There's no erasing!

This picture of cherries was completely drawn with 22K gold wire and it was done on an 8X8 lightly textured gessoed art board.  This one went quite a bit faster than the first two on smooth boards, in fact, I did it all in one afternoon.  I attribute that to the rough texture of the board.  I liked that in a way but it's harder to get that shine I like so much.  It was easier to get the darker values with the gold than it is on smooth boards and they shine a bit.  You can see the gold reflecting in the darker spots, when it's held in the right light.  That's one quality of these drawings that I love.  It's hard to get that to show in photos, tho.

Second Try

This is my second try at metalpoint.  It's a mixture of copper and silver.  

I learned a hard lesson from this picture.  Don't touch the edges of the board with bare fingers!  The natural oil in your fingers can really booger up the edges, or where ever you touch and cause the board not to take the metal.  You can see this in this picture, especially on the left side (I'm right handed and held the board in my left hand a lot.) This picture was also done on a smooth gessoed art board. It's 8X10.

My First Attempt

This is my first try at metal point.  It's a mix of copper and sterling silver wire.

I found out what a slow process this is and how much I enjoyed it.  I had no idea what I was doing but it was a satisfying medium, regardless.

It's very difficult to get many dark values in the picture and that bothers me a little bit.  I used a 11X14 gessoed art board that were totally smooth.  Maybe that was part of the problem, altho I think that's just a trait of this medium.  I can't wait for this to tarnish to see if that darkens things up a bit.