2016 Topic 3 Encaustic Art {by Lin Brown}

 2016 Topic 3: Wax

Hi everyone Lin from Yoursartfully here.

Tonight I'd like to share with you this evening a post about Encaustic Art.

I've been playing around with some encaustic supplies for a while now and I'm not sure if I've mastered the basic techniques yet, but I love the unpredictability of colouring the wax with other mediums. I'm really not good at following step by step instructions from books or videos, I love to experiment and just see what happens, so my project this evening is a picture that was totally experimental. I'd played around with some of the steps before but never attempted to make a complete picture.

Step One: I purchased a really cheap hot plate/griddle along with some mini baking tins from a cookware shop as my basic encaustic equipment. If you are careful, you could of course put a baking tray on your hob as an experiment to see if you like working with wax, before investing any pennies. I decided to invest in this equipment as it means I can melt lots of colours of wax all at once. If you are lucky enough to own a Melt Pot, then you are fully equipped already! You do need to make sure the room is well ventilated and you  have to be prepare to dedicate a brush to Encaustic Medium. Once used for this, it will only ever be used for this medium.The brush needs to have natural fibres too in order to withstand the heat.

Step Two: Working on a wooden frame that I had primed with Encaustic Gesso, I painted on my first layer of encaustic medium. It was a bit patchy in places at first so I reheated it with my heat gun to even out the wax. At this point, I should point out that after every layer that you create, you should fuse the wax. This I do with my heat gun. It bonds the top layer of wax to the layer underneath. You only need to heat it until a shine appears, otherwise you start to loose the crisp images.

I added some colour around the edges with my Portfolio oil pastels, blended them with my finger before fusing. The wax also acts like a glue which is a bonus, I simply warmed the wax gently and this allowed me to fix my collage of papers in place. I then painted on another layer of Encaustic Medium and fused once more.

Step Three: I carefully applied some Pan Pastels through my new stencil PS024 and fused again.

Step Four: Having scratched a line in each leaf with my pokey tool, I added more of the same colour Pan Pastel to add depth to the leaves. I nearly forgot to fuse again at this point, glad I remembered, as the Pan Pastel would have rubbed away in time.

Step Five: I stamped the doorway and clock from HP1509 on tissue paper which I painted with an assortment of Fresco Finish paints. I did trim them closely though before adding to my picture as I wasn't sure if those edges would show or not.

HP1509

Step Six: The clocks looks fabulous underneath another layer of wax.

Step Seven: While the surface of the wax was still warm, I added tiny pieces of variegated gold leaf. I then scratched into it so that it wasn't solid areas of gold.....it looks so pretty, I'm not sure my photo does it justice!

Here's a final close up shot where you can see a little bit of all the details including the addition of black Pan Pastel through my stencil.

I hope this little project has inspired you to have a dabble with wax for yourself, it's so much fun with tons of possibilities. Next time I try a project like this, I think I might glue some of my collage papers to the board before the first layer of wax. I could  add more papers with each additional wax layer to see if they appear to be trapped at different heights within the wax.

I think the gold leaf has to be my favourite part, which part do you like best?

Thank you for joining me and the PaperArtsy blog team this evening.
Lin Brown
Yoursartfully (blog)
@yoursartfully (Twitter)

This is a brilliant project Lin to kick start our new theme and explore the world of Encaustic Art ... Like probably many of us, it is something that I haven't explored in depth (and slightly terrifies me to be honest). I love how you have incorporated the use of both the Portfolio Pastels as well as Pan Pastels ... two very different mediums to what we would commonly use on a project, the effects are stunning encased in the wax layers and love the elegant touches of the Gold Leaf. Thank you for sharing your creativity with us. ~Gillian

We would love to see how you interpret this Hearts  topic by linking what you make to our 2016 Challenge #3: Wax, on this page HERE.

All of our bloggers love to see your twist on their ideas,  particularly if you were inspired directly by their post.