Discover the traditional art of Silverpoint Drawing with Gabriel Chaim
- Written byLoana Rondot
- Published date 31 October 2024
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Before the development of graphite pencils, old masters used silverpoint drawing—a technique that scrapes metal onto an abrasive surface to create fine, intricate lines.
We met Gabriel Chaim, painter and tutor at Central Saint Martins, UAL for a conversation about this ancient art form, his experience teaching the Silverpoint Drawing Short Course, and how he helps students learn to master this challenging and meditative technique.
Could you introduce yourself?
My name is Gabriel Chaim, I am a painter and a graduate from UAL and King's Foundation School of Traditional Arts, and I teach the Silverpoint Drawing Short Course.
What made you want to learn Silverpoint Drawing?
It's a very beautiful and elegant type of drawing. When you look at old masters' drawings, they have special characteristics and qualities that contemporary materials do not achieve. It’s very subtle and demands a lot of patience and practice.
What made you want to teach it?
It's a niche. Not many people teach or know this technique, and I think it's a shame that it should be lost.
Who should take this course?
This is a beginner friendly workshop, an introduction to silverpoint drawing. Anyone who has interest in drawing, the tradition of art or history of art would definitely benefit from the course.
Tell us about what students will learn.
The course tackles the methods and materials of how to prepare the paper and any other surface that can host a silverpoint drawing. We also engage with still life, copy old masters drawings and create our own.
What’s the students’ experience of the course like?
It's very interesting, because most people come with a preconceived idea of what it will be. But once you start dealing with the materials, you realise that it's completely different to your average pencil.
You actually have to relearn how to draw, and that's a very interesting intellectual exercise. You tell your hand to do something you're not used to.
Is it a relaxing practice?
It’s meditative. You have to create a sharp eye-hand relationship, because it's an unforgiving technique: you cannot erase anything. Silverpoint drawings are also very synthetic: they only have one line delineating the face, one the nose. To get that right is an effort and demands a lot of practice.
So it’s not just a matter of learning the physical skill, but you need to understand the medium as well.
Absolutely. And because we are engaging with actual materials, we also tackle chemistry and physics, things that you’d never think we’d be doing in an art class.
Funnily enough, because we're dealing with metals, there are chemical reactions happening all the time. So if we use certain metal-based pigments to tint a paper and then do a silverpoint drawing on it, it could disappear.
What do you think the course can bring to people that are either starting their artistic practice or just want to try something new?
It is a new way of looking at things, especially in our modern times where we go to shops and get paper ready, paint in tubes, everything is just delivered. In the class, we are actually mimicking what the old masters would do. It's an invitation to rethink our practice.
What would you say to students that are thinking about coming to the course?
Come with an open mind and be eager to try new things, because the class is a real surprise for anyone that is accustomed to drawing in normal ways.
About
Gabriel Chaim (b. 1994, Brazil) is a painter living in London. He teaches traditional painting and drawing techniques at University of the Arts London and King’s College. Chaim holds a MA in Visual Islamic and Traditional Arts From Prince’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts, a MA in Painting from UAL Wimbledon College of Arts and a BA in Graphic Design with emphasis in Marketing from ESPM. His latest projects include works for the StART Art Fair 2024 and an exhibition about pigment and the tradition of pigment making with the King's Foundation.
Feeling inspired?
Take a look at our upcoming drawing courses. If you know a young creative interested in drawing, we offer a Fine Art for 16 to 18 year Olds Online Short Course as well as Graded Awards in Drawing certifications.
