Silver Point

This is a nude drawn in silver point. This technique requires the artist to make tiny scratches with a sharpend silver wire into a surface prepared with gesso or, as in this case, rabbit skin glue with pigment. It is a method that was used by the masters and really forces the artist to be accurate and precisce with his markings, as there is no erasing. While I dabbled in the technique on my own is was Melinda Whitmore at Vitruvian Fine Art Studio that really taught me how to properly prepare the surface and approach the marking. I highly recommend any artist who wants to draw like the masters to do silver point. Mindy teaches it here in Chicago, so look her up at http://www.vitruvianstudio.com/home