Work in Progress, Another Silverpoint/Metalpoint continued....

I've done more work on the metalpoint. Above is a close up of the rocks with all their great textures. I think this was one of the big attractions of this scene for me. There is a great range of values I'm trying to get and I find metalpoint is great for achieving this. I just have to remember to be mindful of what it is I'm doing. When you want a very dark area, you add small cross hatching or circles over and over softly to build up that dark. You do NOT press hard, the metal point of the pen can scratch through the ground and you don't want that. You can see the dark area in the back forest where I'm trying not to get carried away! I've found the silverpoint to give a much darker mark than the copperpoint. I still don't know how this will age color-wise. It will be interesting to watch as I've mixed them in working and pick them up according to whether I want a softer or darker value. I'm still adding the forest, trying to show the shapes of trees, bringing some forward, pushing some back. I've also added the suggestion of the seagull.

Below is a detail of the upper tree and rock. There will be more branches added on the left side. The bottom photo is a long shot of the piece. There is still so much to do!

As you can see, it's difficult to photograph metalpoint due to the reflective quality of the metal. It doesn't look like this in person. The surface is a warm white. Thanks for looking and taking the time to read this. I hope you find it helpful if you want to use metalpoint in your next work. If you aready are a metalpoint user, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this interesting medium, especially if you've mixed them in the same work.

Next post will be on showing my materials, so I hope you will stop by again!