Silverpoint
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Silverpoint is a traditional drawing technique and tool first used by medieval scribes on manuscripts.
Portrait Study of Dorothea Meyer, by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1516. Silverpoint, red chalk, and traces of black pencil on white-coated paper, Kunstmuseum Basel.
Medieval stylus
Artist's Wife, Edith Holman Hunt by William Holman Hunt, a founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Birmingham Museum of Art.
A 1789 portrait of Mozart in silverpoint by Doris Stock
Gesso
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Gesso, also known as "glue gesso" or "Italian gesso", is a white paint mixture used to coat rigid surfaces such as wooden painting panels or masonite as a permanent absorbent primer substrate for pain
Silverpoint
…first used by medieval scribes on manuscripts. A silverpoint drawing is made by dragging a silver rod or wire across a surface, often prepared with gesso or ground of Chinese white. Silverpoint is one of several types of metalpoint used by scribes, craftsmen and artists since ancient times. Metalpoint…
A restored gesso panel representing St. Martin of Tours, from St. Michael and All Angels Church, Lyndhurst, Hampshire
Acrylic gesso