What Is Silverpoint?
Silverpoint - also known as metalpoint - is a traditional medium for drawing, using silver (or other metals) to make marks on specially prepared paper.
Silverpoint has been used since the Rennaissance but was mostly superseded by the discovery of graphite and invention of the pencil. Metalpoint is the more accurate description of the method, but as silver was the most used metal, silverpoint is the better known term.
Ordinarily, metal won't mark paper, so artists use coatings such as paint to create a layer that can been drawn on. This ground layer is a big part of metalpoint drawing, for, as long as the ground is harder than the metal and minutely abrasive there are many additives, binders and pigments to experiment with.
Although most metals will initially appear as a grey line, different metals will show their colour in slant light, and those that tarnish, such as silver, will change colour over time.