Silver and gold..

I finished that silverpoint portrait I was working on today and am quite happy about the effect it has… I was struggling to get deeper contrast between light and dark and going over and over areas to get more dramatically shaded areas but I think that’s part of the beauty of this medium… it takes a very light hand – at least when drawing in this style.

I was thinking about drawing with gold and silver earlier today and about how cool it is when I realized something – I’ve never really valued being able to make art as something that’s unique… I’ve always admired other peoples work and have been in awe of the talent of others but have never really taken much pride in what I’ve done. Making art was never seen as something that was really important or useful… I saw it as something that had no actual practical value. Over the last little while I’ve been reminded that there is huge value in art… In the last year or so I’ve been discovering the joy in creating and my skills have never been more important to me. I am finally beginning to look at this aspect of my life as being very precious to me and something that I need to develop. Stumbling across gold and silverpoint was a fantastic thing… they are the perfect mediums to work in and especially now for me – the work that I would just as soon give or even throw away than sell has taken on a new meaning for me and has become more precious than ever.

I am just about to leave and get some 24k gold made into a wire so I can do some sketching in gold… I actually panned some gold last summer and I think I might add that in to the gold wire I’m getting made… this is fun.