Metalpoint Drawing Tutorial: A Step by Step Guide to How I Made the “Snarling Wolf Tribal” Artwork

This tutorial is going to be a step by step guide in which I explain how I made my “Snarling Wolf Tribal” metalpoint drawing. This drawing was made with 24 karat gold, palladium, and aluminum, but the same instructions would be applicable also for making a silverpoint drawing (the word “silverpoint” is used when a drawing is made with silver).

My other metalpoint tutorials can be found here. And here you can see a gallery of my other metalpoint drawings.

Step 1: Prepare all the Materials

Things I used for making this artwork:

• An aluminum panel, 8×10 inches large and 2 mm thick, surface already prepared for painting media. I like to draw on aluminum panels, because, unlike paper, they create very flat drawing surfaces. Moreover, this way my drawings are waterproof.
• Lineart. Sketching on metalpoint ground is not recommended, because erasing is problematic. This is why I drew the lineart on a piece of paper beforehand.
• Graphite transfer paper.
• Golden Acrylic Gesso.
• Golden Clear Leveling Gel.
• Golden High Flow Medium.
• Small porcelain condiment dish for mixing paint, you can also use an artists’ palette instead.
• Paintbrush with soft synthetic hair.
• Abrasive powder for making a silverpoint drawing ground.
• Titanium dioxide powder for making my drawing ground whiter.
• Metalpoint drawing tools: a stylus with a 1 mm gold wire, a stylus with a 1 mm palladium wire, a mechanical pencil with a 0.9 mm aluminum wire inserted in it, a mechanical pencil with a 0.5 mm aluminum wire, a mechanical pencil with a 0.5 mm gold wire, a wire brush with aluminum wires.
• 180 grit wet/dry sandpaper.
• 2500 grit wet/dry sandpaper.

Step 2: Cover the Aluminum Sheet with Multiple Layers of Gesso

I used white acrylic gesso for coating the aluminum panel. I used about 6 coats of it.

Step 3: Sanding

Once the aluminum sheet was painted, I used a piece of 180 grit wet/dry sandpaper for sanding the gesso until it was completely flat with no visible brush strokes. Sanding acrylic gesso works much better when it is wet, which is why I sanded it in my bathroom above the sink. A 180 grit sandpaper will leave visible scratch marks, but that’s not a problem at this step anyway, so I just ignored them.

Step 4: More Layers of Paint

The next step was mixing together one part acrylic gesso with one part Golden Clear Leveling Gel. I applied about four coats of this mixture on top of the sanded drawing surface.

Different acrylic media create different films. Some are harder, others are softer and more flexible. Above you can see a photo of what happened when I tried to draw on top of acrylic gesso—on a metal sheet acrylic gesso creates a drawing surface that is too hard and fragile, drawing on it resulted in it getting scratched and pieces of it being torn off. For a metalpoint drawing surface you need acrylic film that is a little soft. This is why I mixed together Golden Acrylic Gesso with Golden Clear Leveling gel. The former creates a hard film. The latter creates a soft film. A mix of both of them creates a drawing surface that has the right hardness for a metalpoint drawing. (Obviously, when drawing on a sheet of paper none of this applies; paper itself creates a slightly soft drawing surface.)

By the way, you don’t want to draw on top of a thick layer of Golden Clear Leveling Gel either. Such a film would be too soft and each time you press your metalpoint stylus against it, you would get an indent.

Step 5: More Sanding

Once again I used a piece of 180 grit sandpaper to sand it even. Visible scratch marks from the sandpaper still doesn’t matter.

Step 6: Apply a Coat of Silverpoint Drawing Ground

The next step is applying a layer of metalpoint drawing ground. I make my own metalpoint drawing grounds. Here I wrote about why I don’t like any of the commercially available acrylic-based silverpoint drawing grounds. I prefer to make a small amount of the drawing ground immediately before using it. I use small porcelain condiment dishes for mixing my paints, of course you can also use an artist’s pallette for this purpose.

My metalpoint drawing ground recipe includes these ingredients (by volume):

• two parts abrasive powder,
• one part titanium dioxide powder,
• four parts Golden High Flow Medium,
• one part water.

For the abrasive powder you can use various options. Bone ash or marble dust are what artists have traditionally used for many years. Of course, there are also various other alternatives. From synthetic diamond dust, to aluminum oxide (another industrial abrasive), to various minerals that are ground into a powder.

The reason why I add a bit of titanium dioxide to my grounds is because it makes them whiter.

In order to make the metalpoint drawing ground, you have to put all the ingredients into some tray, then mix them together. Then use a brush to apply a thin coat on top of your drawing surface.

Step 7: Transfer the Lineart

When the first layer of the metalpoint drawing ground is applied on top of my drawing surface, I use a sheet of graphite paper to transfer the drawing.

Step 8: More Coats of Silverpoint Drawing Ground

Graphite looks very dark on a metalpoint ground. I don’t want dark and highly visible outlines in my drawings. This is why next I apply about four more coats of my metalpoint drawing ground. It partially covers the dark lines, making them much lighter. This way I get outlines that are still visible enough to work with, but not too dark to look ugly. Since I sanded the acrylic surface with a 180 grit sandpaper, there used to be visible scratch marks. Several layers of metalpoint drawing ground will cover and fill up all the scratch marks.

Step 9: Even More Sanding

After applying the last coat of my DIY drawing ground, I use a 2500 grit wet/dry sandpaper to lightly sand the surface. I usually have a couple of dust particles that have settled on top of my drawing surface while the wet acrylic binder was still drying, and a bit of light sanding will get rid of those.

Step 10: Drawing

Now it’s finally time to start drawing. This artwork is created with 24 karat gold, palladium, and aluminum. Of course, you can also use other metals, for example, you can use silver instead of aluminum. Here I have written about how different metals look like in a metalpoint drawing. Aluminum appears pretty dark on a metalpoint ground, which is why I use it for shadow areas. Gold is the lightest, that’s what I use for drawing highlights. Palladium is for midtones.

Erasing in order to fix mistakes is problematic in the metalpoint technique. Regular rubber erasers damage the drawing surface, hence those cannot be used. I prefer to use wet cotton swabs for erasing mistakes, but those can only make some part of the drawing lighter, this way it is not possible to completely erase metal marks. For that I would use a piece of 2500 grit sandpaper that would allow me to completely remove a thin layer of the drawing surface.

When drawing in metalpoint, I usually start with drawing the darkest areas. This way I establish early on how dark the darkest parts of the image are going to be. Tonal range is limited in metalpoint. Erasing is also limited. This is why I have to be careful to avoid a situation where I have accidentally made the lighter parts of the drawing too dark, because in that case it wouldn’t be possible for me to make the shadow areas even darker.

Once the darker parts are drawn, next I focus on the highlight areas. Finally, when darker and lighter parts of the image are mostly finished, I draw the midtones, which are in between in terms of how dark they have to be.

Here the finished drawing is photographed together with the drawing tools I used for making it: a stylus with a 1 mm gold wire, a stylus with a 1 mm palladium wire, a mechanical pencil with a 0.9 mm aluminum wire inserted in it, a mechanical pencil with a 0.5 mm aluminum wire, a mechanical pencil with a 0.5 mm gold wire, a wire brush with aluminum wires. Wire brushes are useful for for creating fur (and also hair) textures.

This is a scan of the finished artwork.

When light is falling on a metalpoint drawing at an angle, it looks shiny. Aluminum and palladium appears silvery, gold is golden.

Where to Buy Materials for Metalpoint Art

• Aluminum Panel. Jackson’s (UK store).
• Golden Acrylic Gesso. Jackson’s (UK store). DickBlick (USA store).
• Golden Clear Leveling Gel. Jackson’s (UK store). DickBlick (USA store).
• Golden High Flow Medium (formerly Transparent Extender). Jackson’s (UK store). DickBlick (USA store).
• Titanium Dioxide Powder. Kremer Pigmente (German store). Natural Pigments (USA store).
• Bone Ash Powder. Kremer Pigmente. Natural Pigments (note: you want the powder with a smaller particle size).

Of course, you can substitute any of these products for something similar. An acrylic gesso of any brand will do, they are all pretty much the same, there’s nothing special about any particular brand. The binder that you use for the metalpoint ground has to be very fluid. I have tried various acrylic mediums as binders for my metalpoint grounds, and the more fluid ones performed better than thicker acrylic mediums. Titanium dioxide powder is optional. If you like a slightly beige drawing surface, then you don’t need it.

As for the abrasive powder that you choose to use for your metalpoint ground, you can use anything. Personally, I prefer powders with particle size ranging between 3 and 12 microns. The powder also has to be at least 5 on the Mohs hardness scale, otherwise metals won’t leave a dark enough mark on your ground. That being said, you have plenty of options: various white or beige pigments, bone ash, industrial abrasives that are used for polishing, various mineral powders that are milled to a fine particle size, etc. By the way, if the abrasive powder you want to use comes in a too coarse particle size, you can use elutriation to separate the smaller particles that would make for a less coarse silverpoint drawing ground.