Encaustics Day Two

Posted on December 9th, 2009

Yesterday I was back in the studio for the second day to continue on the path of exploring using encaustics. I am planning to add this material to my work as another collage element. I started by warming up my tools for applying and sealing the wax. You must take the time to do this before beginning to work. It takes about 10 minutes to warm up my electric skillet to 200 degrees. The skillet contains unbleached wax in a block purchased from a online store. Next you need to heat up your electric griddle to 200 degrees. You use the griddle to mix paints into the encaustic for color which is your palette. You must use encaustic paints which I purchased in basic colors also sold in blocks. I also keep my base of the collage either a wooden board or sturdy base on the griddle to keep warm while you apply wax and seal the collage to the composition. I will in the next week post a small video showing how I work for a better explanation of applying to the collage. I added a figure of a headless man and table from my archive of photos on my computer. These were attached with a dab of wax then sealed over with a brush of wax from my clear wax base in the skillet. So far working the way I always do placing a subject moving it around on the surface then attaching it once I find it works with the background collage. I have no path before hand planned out for the composition. I did find that some pieces of collage which have a coating on it from a magazine or book do not work well. The wax does not hold onto the base with these pieces. I only had a hour’s worth of work here as my day was pretty busy. I continue to enjoy the process and can not wait to see where this process takes me next on this piece. Questions? What do you think? I would love to hear from you so leave a few words out there….