Artwork Gallery - Metalpoint Drawings

* all works ©Kathie Miranda

 * all works framed unless otherwise noted and available for acquisition *

* contact info:  kathieartist@gmail.com

What is metalpoint?

Literally drawing with a metal wire, an ancient technique that pre-dates graphite pencil.  Silver became the most popular because it produces extremely delicate pale gray lines, which tarnish over time to warm mellow tones. I use sterling silver and add a touch of color to impart a contemporary air to this Old World medium:

In the beginning...(Aloe), silverpoint + pastel, 14 x 11, $475

Foxtail (Agave), silverpoint + pastel, 9 x 11, $350

Horrida (Agave), silverpoint + pastel, 16 x 14, $425

Paddles (African Paddle Plant), silverpoint + egg tempera, 11 x 16, $425

Sun-catcher (Agave), silverpoint + pastel, 9 x 12, $350

Starflower, silverpoint, 12 x 15, $425

African Violet, silverpoint + pastel, 8 x 10, $350

Spotted Wintergreen, silverpoint + pastel, 12 x 9, $400

Indian Pipe, silverpoint + pastel, 10 x 8, $350

Globe Artichoke, silverpoint + casein on board, 7 x 5 (unframed), $250

Angel's Trumpet (Brugmansia), silverpoint + casein, 14 x 11, $450

Pink Ruffles (Petunia), silverpoint + casein, 12 x 9, $400

Buddies (Amaryllis), silverpoint + pastel, 14 x 11, sold

Glad Blossoms, silverpoint + pastel on panel (unframed), 12 x 9, $400

The natural imperfections of stone tiles provide a perfect surface for these tiny succulent plants the hug the ground in African deserts (aerial view):

Ice Plant 1 (living stone), silverpoint + pastel on Travertine stone tile (unframed)

3 x 3, $250

Ice Plant 2 (living stone), silverpoint + pastel on Travertine stone tile (unframed)

3 x 3, $250

Ice Plant 3 (living stone), silverpoint + pastel on Travertine stone tile (unframed)

3 x 3, $250

As aluminum oxidizes it becomes whiter.  This lightening creates a lovely contrast on a black surface:

Hosta Shoots, aluminum-point + pastel, 12 x 9, $400

Jelly, aluminum-point + pastel, 12 x 10, $400

Mantid Photo Bomb, aluminum-point + pastel, 12 x 9, $400

 Artwork Gallery - Mixed Media

* all works ©Kathie Miranda

 * all works framed unless otherwise noted and available for acquisition *

* contact info:  kathieartist@gmail.com

What is mixed media?

My own technique to create depth and atmosphere using individual layers of India ink, watercolor and colored pencil:

Tropical Whorl (Croton), 14 x 17, $1,250

Scarlet (Tuberous Begonia), 10 x 8, $425

Tigers (Tiger Lily), 10 x 8, $425

Turtlehead, 10 x 8, $425

Black Lily, 10 x 8, $425

Forest Find (Purple Trillium), 12 x 12, $450

Pansy Power 2, 8.75 x 11, $425

Fruits from Rain 2 (Bricktops), 9 x 12, $425

Website Update!

March 6, 2020:  My website has been hacked! It appears I was selling Viagra for a few days 😅

The site has been taken down, but a new one will appear ASAP.

Meanwhile, please check here from time to time for my latest news - art classes, exhibitions and industry information.

In the beginning... [Aloe] Silverpoint + Pastel + Colored Pencil 14" x 11" framed $475

Upcoming Silverpoint Workshop

March 13 & 14, 10:00 am to 3:30 pm

Location: Stamford, CT.

Please email me for more information

Pastels Explorations

on Toned La Carte Paper

I love to draw and I love to paint: with pastels, I can do both at the same time.

Pastels can be applied to just about any paper surface but colored grounds are my favorite.  The ground color ground influences the appearance of the pastels, especially when bits of the paper show through the final work.

I begin by taping the edges of the paper to create a border around the work:

First Layers

I select a range of hard pastels to begin the painting.  CarbOthello pastel pencils and NuPastel sticks are perfect for this as they do not over-fill the paper tooth, allowing for subsequent layers.

Sometimes drawing with the tip of the pastel and sometimes sweeping color across the surface like a paint brush, the first layers are applied. I'm careful to suggest values and overlapping planes right from the start.

Detail of First Layers

Switching to a medium soft pastel, Rembrandt brand, I continue to add layers of pastels to describe the local colors of the rocks, lichen and ivy leaves.

For the rough texture of the rocks, I scrape the sides of the pastel sticks against a straight-edge razor directly over the painting surface.  These speckles of color are then pressed into the paper surface with a palette knife.

Local Colors

This layering process follows the oil painting idea of "fat over lean".

Because I prefer to use many layers of color in my work, each layer is lightly applied to ensure the paper does not become overly saturated with pigment.  The many colors used are visible in finished work, much like a pointillist painting.

The final layers are saved for touches of soft, buttery pastels such as Sennelier and Diane Townsend brands.

On the Rocks 2
Pastel on Paper 12" x 9" (image size)
© Kathie Miranda

Working with Colored Pencil Powder

As many of you know, I prefer a background for my botanical drawings and paintings versus the traditional presentation on a stark white page.  Working with colored pencil on colored papers presents some fun challenges and great color effects which I continue to explore.  I wrote about this in a previous post Black is Fascinating.

This piece is rendered with colored pencil on Canford Mocha colored paper.  The value of the paper is ~50%.  I added lighter values with whites and pale colored pencils as there is no "white of the paper" for these effects.

For the background, I chose several Caran d'Ache Pablo pencils since they are more opaque than other brands and have lots of covering power.  I grated them against a fine-mesh tea strainer into powder form.

Making Colored Pencil Powder

Powder Grated into Wells of Watercolor Palette

Next, I masked the positive areas to keep them clean during the background lay-in.  The masks are simply paper cutouts weighted down with various size hardware washers to keep the cutouts in place.    (I avoided taping them down, or using frisket masking film, because the plate-smooth paper surface is easily marred by even the lightest tack found in these products)

Paper Masks Weighted with Washers

With the masks in place, I freely worked the background with my chosen colors (from bottom up, dark to light).  I dipped a dry filbert brush into the colored pencil powder, and drew/pushed the powder into place.

Applying Powdered Colored Pencil

Lots of powder remained on the paper surface; so I pushed it further into the limited paper tooth with a cotton pad. I applied a few layers in this manner - adding color with the brush and smoothing it with the cotton pad - until I was satisfied with the result.

Cotton Pad to Push Powder Into Paper Tooth

The finished piece...

Fruits from Rain
(Wine-cap Stropharia Mushrooms)

Composing Within A Circular Format

Like many artists, I've always been fascinated by circles: the neatness; the closure; a universal symbol. I teach my students how to construct a perfect circle by beginning with a perfect square. A square painting format intrigues me, it feels natural to me.

Circle Within A Square

Composing within a rectangular format, particularly a vertical orientation, is not easy for me: I favor and mostly use a horizontal one. Within this format, I use The Rule of Thirds to keep me on track to "a good composition" - all the while fighting the urge to centralize my elements around a circle - and thereby ending up with a square composition.

Rule of Thirds

The premise for the Rule of Thirds is to divide the image area into thirds using two equidistant vertical and two equidistant horizontal lines.  The points at which they cross are good choices for placing key elements, and particularly the focal point (center of interest) of the painting.  The Rule can be equally applied to a square image area.

The caveat in either case has always been to avoid placing a focal point dead center in a composition as it creates a bull's-eye effect, drawing the viewer's attention immediately to it.

[I'm rethinking the notion of a focal points...and bull's eyes...I promise more on that another day]

My favorite questions are 'What if?' and 'What else?' I thrive on exploring new ideas.
I took the summer off from teaching to devote time to the ones that keep replaying in my mind (you know how they do!).

Composing within a circular format is the first of these.  I own several pieces of (gorgeous) TwinRocker handmade watercolor paper with heavily feathered edges, each ~ 18" round. (Please see the artwork images at the end of this blog)

To compose my round painting, I abandoned the Rule of Thirds and instead divided the circle into 6 segments to see what the diagonals might suggest as compositional devices. I remained cognizant of what portion of my plant would occur at the point where all 6 diagonals intersect - at dead center.

Circle Divided into 6 Segments

At the end of the day, I used what "felt" right: loosely placing some elements along the diagonals but always mindful of edges; spacial relationships; implied movement; and not so much on placement of a focal point.

Seen below are 2 artworks of the series of 6 pieces planned. When I analyzed why I like the compositions, I discovered the structure relies heavily on a simple Old Master device of overlapping triangles. The tension created by the angles along with the implied directional movement pushing against the closed circle feels right to me within the context of my subject matter.

Plants in nature bursting out with energy in all directions.

Skunk Cabbage
Watercolor

Pink Lady's-slipper Orchids
Watercolor

What is TerraSkin and What Do I Do With It?

TerraSkin is paper made of stone!  It's actually mineral powder + resins formed into sheets of varying thicknesses indicated in points: 10 pt and 12 pt are the thicknesses I favor.  It is translucent like Mylar but a creamy color.

I use it for silverpoint drawing primarily because it is beautiful to work on but also it requires no surface preparation.  The sheets can have some flaws: linear scratches across the surface likely due to the method of manufacture (?)  Once I know where they are, I adjust my silverpoint application accordingly by working around any lines I may find.  Shallow flaws are quite easy to disguise in the finished piece.

Though it is "stone", the surface is delicate: easily damaged and unforgiving if erasing is necessary.  The dark joke is we botanical silverpoint artists never erase: we just turn our stray marks into another element like a flower bud or berry!

TerraSkin also accepts pastel dust - my favorite technique for applying a touch of color to my silverpoint work.  The artwork in my Blog header, "Horrida" (Agave horrida), is a larger silverpoint on TerraSkin (11" x 14")  The one shown here is a smaller work (8" x 6.5"), "Sun-catcher" (Agave attenuate)

I use a light box to transfer my original line drawing to the surface.  I then began the piece by applying light layers of silverpoint using a shallow elliptical application rather than the more traditional cross-hatch approach.  I shape the silverpoint tool into a rounded tip for this; and sometimes to cover larger areas, I use a blunt-angled tip.  My way gives me a smooth, even tonal coverage.  TerraSkin accepts many layers, so I achieve a fairly broad value range.  Where I need more darks, or to better define detail, I use a sharper silverpoint tip and work with it linearly, like a pencil.

There are a couple of options for applying pastel dust to the finished silverpoint work.  Sometimes I scrape the side of a pastel stick with a straight-edge blade into the well of a watercolor mixing palette.  More often now, I use Pan Pastels.  In both cases, I dip a dry watercolor brush into the dust and gently apply it to the desired area by gently pushing the strokes into the surface.  It takes just a tiny brush-tip full of dust for lots of coverage!  Transparent color passages glow on the TerraSkin surface.