Silverpoint Drawing
In this class students will learn about the expressive qualities of line drawing through the Renaissance technique of silverpoint drawing, also known as metalpoint drawing. This 13th-century Italian style of drawing was a popular drawing style by many Renaissance artists including Leonardo da Vinci and Albrecht Dürer.
We will cover traditional ways of preparing surfaces and drawing with metalpoint, while also seeing how the methods have evolved throughout history. Students will walk away with wonderful drawings created in a material that will last forever!
Materials:
Silverpoint stylus (by Cretacolor, Yasutomo or Natural Pigments)
8×10 pad of watercolor paper (Strathmore or Fabriano)
6×9 pad of Yasutomo mineral paper
1 tube of Casein white paint
1 small tube of ultramarine blue or red gouache
A medium-sized synthetic flat brush
A small round brush (size 0 or 1)
Roll of masking tape or green painters tape
About the Instructor: Darryl Smith
Darryl Babatunde Smith is a Philadelphia-based artist who started making art as a way of interpreting foreign languages instead of translating them into English. He studied French, German, and Latin in school before embarking on his long journey of self studying Ancient and Modern Greek. He earned his BFA in Painting from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and his MFA in Drawing and Anatomy from the New York Academy of Art. Through Darryl’s knowledge of Latin and Greek he immerses himself in the multiculturalism of antiquity. He uses Greco-Roman symbols and traditional Renaissance techniques such as silverpoint drawing and egg tempera painting to connect personal narratives with Greco-Roman ideologies and philosophies.
His works have been exhibited nationally—in Philadelphia, Hillsdale, New York City—and internationally in Reykjavík, Iceland; and Athens, Greece. His recent solo exhibition “Ad manum, Ad dorsum” launched the exhibition series at the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art.
Learn More about Darryl Smith
