Encaustic Wax Painting
Encaustic Wax Painting has to be in my “Top 3 Favorite Media” as an artist! My other favorites — is the love for oil painting, welding and surprise, surprise — encaustic! I’m an odd ball that loves challenges.. this year — doing bigger pieces with more abstraction!
I am constantly searching online for inspiration in abstraction. I just cannot get enough of this technique.. blending objects and meshing vibrant colors.. it’s perfect!
Encaustic relates back to 1950s with Jasper Johns who expresses abstraction in encaustic.
This is my first semester at Kendall College of Art & Design in over a year! Wow. The last time I attended KCAD was “Abstract Painting” which happens to be — my favorite type of art expression!
Brighter Future As An Artist
I am looking forward to networking with classmates who share the same passion for art & work together on creative projects to strengthen my mindset as an artist.
I hope to gain more opportunities mixing medias and learning the variables to build my artistic skills.
During our encaustic wax painting lecture, our first step was to tackle the basics — set up the workspace & create the wax paint. Encaustic is a mixture of paint and beeswax.. pretty simple? No.. there’s a bit more to the technique to really pop those vibrant colors & make something epic!
Materials Needed For Encaustic Painting Production
+ Aluminum tins,
+ Hot plate, skillet or something close,
+ Binder clips
+ Danar varnish
+ Coffee grinder
+ Oil Paint
+ Brushes
+ Clay Sculpting Tools
+ Palette Knives
+ Bees Wax
Advanced Techniques
Damar Varnish and Beeswax to create glaze for top coat or dipping brushes into for transparent effect.
‘Utrecht Damar Crystals,” which comes in brown bag —
Damar Varnish will increase raising melting point & esthetic muster to the final product. To create this “damar varnish,” you will set in turpentine for week with closed top. Take the bag out and utilize the upgraded product to advanced opportunities in wax painting.
Scoop bees wax into the aluminum tin, fill more than half way. Allow the wax to melt for 20-30 minutes on the hot plate. Do this for about 5 – aluminum tins to get different colors started during the basic process. Use a palette knife to stir every few minutes.
Preparing Additives
Put the pellets into bowl, and crush the pellets.
OR put the pellets into an old coffee grinder to smooth out the crystals. Be careful, the coffee grinder smokes a little so let the grinder cool down for a few minutes before opening. Use a spoon to scoop and stir.
(Never use liquid damar varnish in the encaustic painting because it will catch fire.)
Mix Bees Wax with Damar Varnish
Add one teaspoon of grind crystals into the aluminum pan of melted bees wax. Stir often to mix the substance completely.
Squeeze two-three inches of oil paint onto paper towel & set for a week to soak. After the oil has soaked on the paper towel, put about quarter of inch of paint into the aluminum tin. The aluminum tin should be on hot plate heating up the mixtures.Use a craft brush to mix the dissolving paint.
Mix the melting substance together thoroughly. Pour the liquid into another aluminum foil and scrape the remaining paint stuck to the bottom. Begin passing the liquid back & forth between two aluminum tins to fully mix the color.
Try an opacity test but dropping few dots onto photo or sheet. If the drops are too white, try using bit less of beeswax.
Carry the finished tin over to the window to let the air get to it. Cools off into nice cake.
Next class period, I will cut my MDF board into smaller pieces and begin uses the colors that were created earlier today.
This is my first time making my own encaustic paint, so if there are any tips that I could try – please let me know!
