Metal Point Drawing
Today, metal point is only being used by a small group of artists concerned with traditional techniques. In the past it was used by many of the great masters to produce extremely beautiful line drawings. In his book "The Practice and Science of Drawing", Harold Speed cites several reasons for this departure in practice. The first reason being that the necessary skills are not taught in art schools any longer, and that today's artists tend to place more importance on the gesture and the "moment" of a piece than in skill and draftsmanship.
Metal point is often called silver point because silver is the most popular metal used. However, Gold, copper, lead and many other soft metals can be used. Over time the silver applied to the paper tarnishes to give the drawing a much desired effect that other metals, which do not tarnish, do not produce. This effect is why silver point became the artists' choice in metal point drawing.
To Get Started
You will need a metal point drawing tool. It consists of a handle and metal wire. There are many styles of handles but all are made to hold a thin metal wire and designed to adjust for different diameters of metal wire. The most popular sizes are 0.5 mm, 0.7 mm, 0.9 mm gauge wire.
To draw using metal point you must first prepare the paper with a thin wash of zinc white or chinese white watercolor or guoache. Without this wash the metal point will not leave a mark. One coat of the white should be all that is needed, but for quality purposes be sure the coat is even and uniform. If you are concerned with the paper warping, you may stretch it as if preparing to do a watercolor.
