What are goldpoint drawings? The story begins around 1400, with the Renaissance art of silverpoint, which is the art of drawing with a silver stylus or wire directly on to paper coated with a specially prepared ground. If you are unfamiliar with either the term or the medium, it is best to think of the silver stylus as a propelling pencil with the lead (graphite) being substituted by a silver wire. As the silver wire is drawn across the surface of the paper, minute particles become embedded in the special abrasive ground (similar to an undercoat) leaving a line that turns a very dark grey. 
Almost any metal and most alloys can be used for drawing, but historically the most commonly used metal was silver. When metals other than silver are used, we refer to them by the generic term of “metalpoint”. Irrespective of the type of metal, all metalpoints look grey when the lines are first drawn.  Most pure metals, whether silver, copper, tin, lead, and all alloys will tarnish over time, changing the colour and therefore the look of the drawing. The only metals that do not tarnish are 24ct gold, palladium, and platinum, which unfortunately are also very expensive. 
As a medium, silverpoint reached its peak in the 15th and 16th centuries during the Renaissance. Many of the great masters of this period such as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Albrecht Durer used it to create some of the most beautiful and recognizable drawings in the history of art. Yet by the late 1500’s it had all but disappeared; its demise no doubt hastened by the discovery of graphite in 1560. Unlike silverpoints, graphite drawings could be done on unprepared paper, mistakes could be erased, and graphite was much less expensive to use than precious metals. There it remained, languishing in relative obscurity for many centuries until recent times, when it seems to have experienced something of a revival. Although one of the most difficult of all mediums to master – errors cannot be erased - silverpoint drawings (and those in the broader category of metalpoint) have a subtlety of line and a tonal beauty that no other drawing medium can rival.
Instead of traditional silver, Gordon Hanley works mostly with 24ct gold on paper (“Goldpoints”) and he has been at the forefront of a world revival in this beautiful art form. 
The drawing grounds take approximately two days to prepare using his own unique formula on Infinity Grade Arches 300gsm hot press rag art paper – the same stock used by the Louvre museum for their reproductions and will last for thousands of years. The goldpoint drawings themselves usually take many weeks to complete (often in excess of 200 hours of studio time) where the average 72cm x 52cm work is composed of around 800,000 – 1 million individual stylus strokes. Each has to be perfect in execution as metalpoints are essentially non-correctable – once a line is drawn, it cannot be erased. The white areas are un-drawn on paper, the dark areas pure silver and/or platinum overworked with gold. On completion, every square millimeter of the drawing is again worked over in 24ct gold which unifies the surface and adds a shimmering golden lustre to the entire artwork. There is an almost unearthly sense of realism to these beautiful drawings that often make a profound emotional connection between subject and viewer.