Showing posts with label leonardo da vinci. Show all posts
Showing posts with label leonardo da vinci. 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.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Getting Closer to Silverpoint

We have the materials (Jim & I). Now we have to prepare some paper & make some drawings. To clarify: silverpoint (or other kinds of metalpoint drawing) is achieved by using a thin piece of metal wire (silver, copper, gold, etc) held in a stylus to make marks on a prepared surface (paper coated with gesso or gouache, usually), so the line is formed on the page when a trace of the metal is left on the surface. After time (or exposure to the sun), the traces of metal oxidize & subtly change color -- silver becoming brown, for example.

Here's a metalpoint drawing by Leonardo, to demonstrate the fine lines & subtle shading possibilities:


Angel for the Madonna of the Rocks, metalpoint heightened with white. Leonardo da Vinci, circa 1483-85.