24 February 08
Great Egret: Finally, Silverpoint
Storm=gray days, and we had one today. I decided to try silverpoint on Pastelbord (a wonderful surface). You can’t do this quickly: the first pass is almost uniform, so you have to work on getting the darks as dark as possible while leaving the lights untouched, or barely worked.
It’s a hypnotic process, filling in the alfalfa field. slow, steady. It’s not a sketch, though I did a few sketches in pencil beforehand…
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I’ll have to go look up silverpoint to see what exactly it is. It has a lovely misty quality that is perfect for wet, gray days!
Good choice of medium for an egret, I’d say.
Thanks, Teresa and Dave.
One of the problems with silverpoint is its supposed unerasable quality, yet I was definitely able to pick up some of the marks with a white eraser; perhaps it’s the surface? Anyway, I love how it’s almost yellow but not quite.
Your silverpoint egret rocks, Pica!