# Charcoal and silver leaf



## Kpfrey (Jul 19, 2015)

Hey guys,

I'm a charcoal portrait artist working on heavy tinted paper. I'm interested in experimenting with gilding silver leaf accents on my charcoal drawings. 

I know that gold leaf will not tarnish and therefore requires no varnish. But I'm interested in silver leaf which will need to be varnished. I'm unsure of how this will affect my charcoal drawings.

Generally I frame my drawings without any fixative, but I have occasionally used a spray fixative. I doubt that spray fixative will be sufficient for the silver, but maybe I'm wrong. And I don't know how a brush applied varnish will affect the charcoal.

I'm going to do some experimenting on a small scale, but thought I'd check to see if any of you have experience with this.


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## TerryCurley (Jan 4, 2015)

I know nothing about using Charcoal but I wanted to welcome you to the forum. There are some great artists here that I am sure will answer your question.


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## Bushcraftonfire (Apr 22, 2015)

Welcome Kpfrey..

I have never used Silver Leaf either.. maybe try a Google search or Youtube.. you can typically find anything out there!


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## Asancta (Jul 28, 2015)

I know of only one artist that combines graphite and gold/silver leaf.He is a Frech artist and his name is Yoann Lossel-hope you can find him on the internet.The effect between gray tones and gold leaf is spectacular.I love his "dark magick" art...he is one of my fav artists.
However in my opinion wouldn't be hard to combine the gold/silver leaf with charcoal ...just make sure to protect it in the end with a glazing medium or a fixative spray(there are so many options I dunno which one would suit you).From my experience(I do use gold/copper leaf quite A LOT) it is mandatory to seal the leaf after you finish, so I take it, would be the same thing with the silver leaf.Remember it is a veeeery thin piece of metal and any sort of touch can deteriorate it.


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