A striking silverpoint portrait of Erykah Badu drawn on a black base, highlighting the luminous quality of Black skin. Created for the 25th anniversary Essence Music Festival (2019), this piece anchors the Dared to Be Black... A Soulful Silverpoint Experience collection. The meticulous two-month silverpoint technique—drawing with pure silver on prepared surfaces—captures Badu's dynamic presence with delicate luminosity. This piece took two months to complete.
Rarely seen since Leonardo DeVinci, Metalpoint, a drawing technique, uses a thin metal stylus of a soft precious metal,  in this case wires of silver and other precious metals to create marks on a prepared surface. The stylus or wire leaves behind tiny metal particles as it's dragged across a slightly abrasive ground, resulting in a precise lines, while the stylus or wire is rubbed accross the surface lightly to fill and create subtle dimensions, resulting in drawings or remarkable detail and elegance.