MATERIALS
• A length of wire
• A sheet of paper
• A special undercoat
STEP ONE
To the accompaniment of loud music, I set out the figure using a gold stylus to draw in the basic lines. In metalpoint, the harder you press on the stylus, the darker the line, so a very light touch is demanded in order to transfer the image on to the prepared sheet. If I were to use charcoal or graphite, it would still work, but be aware that these materials are not particularly removable either. It is a characteristic of the ground, rather than the drawing implement. Note that there is very little detail in the set up drawing, what is important here is the precise positioning of all the various elements, not the detail.
STEP TWO
When drawing with graphite or charcoal, you can push the lines around, erase stray marks and construct your drawing on the paper. These features are what make graphite and charcoal so useful in life drawing scenarios. With metalpoint, a line once drawn is there forever and blending is extremely difficult. This requires a different approach to more familiar drawing approaches.
The consequence of this is that a metal point drawing is best divided into sections, and each section completed as near as possible to your final vision.
With any drawing, the range of values needs to be established fairly early on. I identify the darkest tones and choose an area where I can get a tonal run from dark to very light. Normally that would be the eyes and face. In the demonstration drawing, the face is in shadow, so I decided to work on her left arm and hand. This sets my value range.
STEP THREE
With the values now set, I can draw in the adjoining sheets, balancing the shifts of light and shade in the drawing, paying close attention to the range of values in the arm and hand. Just remember, the harder you press, the darker the line, so you need a light touch here.
STEP FOUR
I now draw in Scarlet’s body. This is the most difficult part of any metalpoint drawing. Because blending is extremely challenging, and tonal depth depends on stylus pressure, creating flowing areas of subtly shifting values present the ultimate challenge. This is precisely what you find when drawing human skin – particularly that of a beautiful young model. Remembering that I can always go darker, I usually adopt a conservative approach to areas in shadow, keeping it a bit lighter, reserving the option of rebalancing tones later down the track. As a side observation, romantic images such as these are often more interesting when they suggest rather than reveal.
STEP FIVE
Depicting hair is a source of worry for many artists. The results can range from a solid mass to a mess of manic detail. In the end, both of these approaches can look unrealistic and amateurish. When drawing hair, I start with the lighter areas to establish the pattern and flow, then add only the very darkest tones. In a metalpoint you can usually go darker, but if you press too hard, lightening a darkened area can be rather problematic, so positioning of darks is critical. Once you have the pattern of the hair established, draw in your mid-tones in the same direction as the flow of the hair. I also recommend this approach with other media – oils, watercolours, pastel, tempera and graphite.
STEP SIX
I now complete the scene by adding in the lace curtains. This unifies the picture by integrating the figure into the scene and creating a non-intrusive background that delineates the highlights in the sheets and the figure. Don’t fall to the temptation of overrendering a background. It is what it says – a background – something there, but you should notice it only after you have taken in everything else.
STEP SEVEN
The final step is balancing up the tones. I determine which areas need more visual weight and apply more shading. This is best done by placing your drawing on an easel, stepping as far back as you can, and assessing how the tonal balance affects the compositional integrity of the work. The aim in this last stage is to integrate the various parts of the picture so that nothing looks “busy” or jarring at the expense of a harmonious image. Don’t look at small sections, you need to look at the “big picture” the drawing as a whole integrating the figure with the background. I then add in the fine details such as a pearl necklace and stray hairs. These are utterly unimportant to the composition – stand back and you won’t even see them, but close in and they add a lot of visual interest that keeps the viewer engaged.
FINAL STEP
My metal point grounds allow for a useful technique not usually available in other drawing media. To obtain the brightest, sharpest highlights I take a hobby knife to cut into the drawing surface. This will only work in very small areas, such as the highlights in the pearls and the stray hairs running across the face. It is also an extremely high-risk activity and a lot of care is required here because the object is to expose the ground, NOT the underlying paper and you only have a few thousandths of a millimetre to play with.
The end result is an image that appears soft, dreamy and sensual, but has areas of surprising detail held in check by sound composition and decisive tonal balance.
The metalpoint techniques I have evolved over the past decade have enabled me to achieve the value range available in fine art B&W photography. Anything is now possible with surprisingly few tools: high key, low key, or a full value range, with no dropouts anywhere along the scale from white to black. The possibilities are tremendously exciting and it offers artists enormous potential for expanding their artistic horizons.
