A Silverpoint Drawing a Day: blue ground

Showing posts with label blue ground. Show all posts

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Day 45: Grotesque Yet Melancholy Profile

New silverpoint drawing on blue. Done today (Saturday). I hadn't intended to work on the weekends with this blog, but I missed a day a while ago, and this means the series of 50 silverpoints should be finished this coming Friday.

Grotesque Yet Melancholy Profile by William T. Ayton, 2009. Silverpoint drawing on blue-tinted card, 10" x 8". WTA103.

Inspired by yesterday's somewhat grotesque image, and also by Leonardo's grotesque heads, and the monstrous inventions of Bosch...

Price available on request. Please leave a message on this post, or email "info" "at symbol" "ayton.net". Thanks.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Day 44: Craggy Profile

A new silverpoint drawing on blue, done today:

Craggy Profile by William T. Ayton, 2009. Silverpoint drawing on blue-tinted card, 10" x 8". WTA101.

Partly inspired by the work of legendary comic book artist Jack Kirby, whose work I mostly followed from the mid-late 60s to the early 70s. His work often featured characters with literally stony faces, from Ben Grimm to Darkseid. Here's to you, Jack.

Price available on request. Please leave a message on this post, or email "info" "at symbol" "ayton.net". Thanks.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Day 43: Vestiges of a Forest

Silverpoint drawing on light blue:

Vestiges of a Forest by William T. Ayton. Silverpoint drawing on blue-tinted ground, 10" x 8". WTA099.

Mostly tonal drawing of trees, etc. Inspired by surrealist "landscapes" of the 1930s & so on (Magritte, Tanguy, Dali, Ernst -- the usual suspects.) You could also see this as a small ecological statement...

Price available on request. Please leave a message on this post, or email "info" "at symbol" "ayton.net". Thanks.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Day 41: Figure Stuck Between Two Walls

Silverpoint drawing of a male figure on a light blue-tinted ground:

Figure Stuck Between Two Walls by William T. Ayton, 2009. Silverpoint drawing on pale blue ground, 10" x 8". WTA097.

Price available on request. Please leave a message on this post, or email "info" "at symbol" "ayton.net". Thanks.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Day 26: Woman's Head on Blue

A silverpoint drawing on a blue-toned ground:

Woman's Head on Blue by William T. Ayton, 2009. Silverpoint drawing on blue-toned ground, highlighted with white pencil, 11" x 8.5". WTA052.

A delicate sketch in silverpoint.

This piece is signed & dated, it was scanned before being signed, however. It also bears the serial number #52--this is purely for the artist to keep track of the order in which these pieces were done. This is a unique, hand-done piece & NOT a limited edition print or giclee.

Price available on request. Please leave a message on this post, or email "info" "at symbol" "ayton.net". Thanks.

Conclusion: Looking back & looking forward

Here are just a few notes to give closure to this blog:

I'm not going to upload any more silverpoint drawings here for purchase. There are the 50 below, of which 48 are mine, & the other 2 are Jim Stevenson's. Unfortunately, Jim became very busy with other work, so was unable to go beyond the 2 promising silverpoints he created near the beginning.

I'll leave these drawings for sale here for as long as it makes sense. They will remain at their current prices. I also reserve the right to sell them privately, i.e. not via this blog. In that case, I'll put up a "sold" notice as soon as is feasibly possible.

It's been an interesting learning process. I only started using silverpoint around June of this year, so in less than 3 months, I've created a decent body of work. In addition to the 48 presented here, there are another 60 or so in my collection, some of the other ones can be seen on my own web site, & so on.

I've gone from using silverpoint on white ground, to tinted ground with white highlights, to finding variations of tinted ground that didn't really need the highlighting. I didn't get to try out liver of sulfur, which apparently darkens silver to black. That is still to be done. I also didn't get to try out other types of metalpoint; copperpoint, goldpoint, & so on.

In terms of drawing, silverpoint gives a very subtle line, which gives the artist more sensitivity of control, I have found, than other, similar media such as graphite pencil. I believe it allowed me to extend my lines and make them more sinuous & sensitive than before. The limited tonal range was also a benefit in some ways, as it made me focus on maximizing the available tones. Of course, silverpoint drawings tend not to be as dramatic as, say, ink drawings, due to their relative lack of contrast.

However, all in all, the use of silverpoint drawing, which I shall continue & extend, has been a positive, learning experience. I hope that this blog might help inspire others to take up its use.

While I shall not post further siverpoint drawings here, I may post news items - for example if I have shows of my silverpoints or related work. Also, I may add items to the links bar from time to time.

Thanks for visiting.
—William T. Ayton

A Silverpoint Drawing a Day