Fun Easy Art - John Vandebrooke (historical books to read TXT) 📗

to delight in doing is taking one ply of Kleenex and embedding that into the wax—leaving enough “tooth” on the Kleenex so that I can get it to take up another medium. My favorite is to use Twinkle H2O mica paint. After I finished that process I went back and drew some circles in white on the face of the hot iron and then stamped the circles repeatedly as the last touch on the Manhattan Nights picture below. On the Shoot The Moon picture below I also used some sheet wax to give it some raised texture. This sheet wax, often used in candle decorating, puts a nice accent in pictures.



Manhattan Nights



Shoot The Moon

I am not sure where this next brainstorm came from, but I have always liked the embossing foils. In the painting below I put blue foil upside down on a non-stick, heat-resistant surface (one of those craft sheets) and then heated up some thick, granular embossing powder until it became liquid. I poured that over the foil in a swirl and allowed it to cool. Then with the blue side up I embedded the foil into a waxed background that I had prepared. I liked the effect of using foil a lot and, in some cases, I have used a hot embossing pen to put foil writing on the wax.



Genesis

For those who say they can’t draw, I have found that transferring patterns to wax is an easy way to create beautiful art works. I will show you a few different ways I have done just that. The first is a pattern I got from a friend who does wood carving. On an abstract background I transferred the outline and then drew in the body of the bird with a stylus.


Duck
Next is a project I took from a stained glass pattern book. I created a three-dimensional effect on the basket and flowers by laying one ply of Kleenex over the pattern in areas where I wanted a raised surface. I would then paint with the hot wax, which would soak through the tissue and stick to the surface below, creating the raised look. You can also see that the background is lightly waxed and then painted with mica paint, which adheres to the un-waxed surface.


Flower Basket

Finally, a third painting is also taken from a stained glass pattern book and uses this same technique to create a raised wax surface.



Bamboo

Patterns were also the idea behind the next piece. Originally, I had cut up scraps of wax paintings and combined them to form a small collaged kimono. That got me thinking that I could create a large painting the same way. So I made the pattern, cut it all out, and then waxed all the different sections. I then assembled the separate pieces and placed them on a background of wax and Kleenex for a nice, soft look. That same process was also done on the front of the dress. Several icons made out of soft paper clay, and a rubber stamp with the symbol for wealth, were dried, painted and placed in the picture. This ended up as a large painting with a striking appearance.

Prosperity
After someone has practiced on the small A6 card and has a feel for the iron and stylus, there comes a time for creating a larger painting. This is the first large painting I made, in which I used a pearl gloss card stock that had a pearl gloss surface. The problem comes when you run out of wax, and you have to reload your iron and try to keep the same flow to the wax as you melt the new layer next to the old one. A bit of practice and you will get the hang of it.



High Meadowland

Abstracts are always a treat to work with, as well as the realistic images. Here are a couple of paintings that have similar styles.


Holy Flame



Lighted Garden


Drawing portraits like the Fayum paintings no doubt would be a challenge for
most. But this should not stop one from creating with the help of a JPEG and your printer. One technique is to first print an image with an ink jet printer, dipping the back side of the paper into clear wax melted on a pancake griddle, and then using the front side of the now translucent paper to color in with wax using the stylus tool. Below are a few examples using this method. The last painting is a collage in which the image is inserted along with some embedded silk scarf and a doily, as well as a strip of waxed Japanese paper.




Encaustic overlay

Overlay and collage




Overlay
with encaustics


Practicing this process, it would not be long before one is able to create original drawings. Experimenting with the wax can lead to some nice outcomes. Here are a few examples using foil imprints, to give you an idea of what I mean.









In the above four examples, I first made a background with wax and then crinkled up a piece of tin foil, flattened it out, and applied some wax to one side. Next, I turned the foil over and placed it on the waxed surface. Then I lightly touched the iron to the foil and this transferred a pattern with some wax to the image. I created some nice effects this way.

Below, I give another example of using this same process, but then adding another technique. I took some floral gift wrap that looked like it could be a plastic screen-like material. Since I was not sure if it would melt I had to give it a try to find out. It put down a fine screen pattern that I mixed in with the foil imprint to create a new look that I could use.



Antique Rose

Another process that had interesting results I discovered when I dribbled some colored inks onto card stock, then blew the ink around on the surface with an air gun. I then applied wax on top of that. Here are two examples of what that looked like.



Tree



Neon

I used this same technique in a few more paintings. Of course, it was not long before I got another idea to try. This time I used mica watercolor to color in a section of the surface before I waxed, so that this color would show through the wax. This added a nice flair to the finished picture. Here are two examples of this approach.




Sky painted first




Sky painted first

This painting also has some mica gold powder rubbed into the wax on the tree at the right. This does not always show up in a picture because of the way the light reflects off the powder. Here are two abstracts that use the ink, watercolor background, and mica powder all put together with the wax.


Wishing Tree

Just to complete this section I will add another painting, in which I put one ply of Kleenex into the wax, giving it a textured surface to present a whole new look.



One ply of Kleenex
One can keep putting many different ideas together. Here is a painting that I began as a mono print, then painted in the voids with mica paint, and applied wax on top of that. Next, the foil process was used to create the background, after which I painted in the flower and vine pattern. After all that was done I rubbed some of the mica gold powder into the wax to finish the painting below.

Rusty

Along these same lines of combining methods, to make the following picture I cut out the image of two sisters and applied wax and tissue on top of that. Then I created the floral image, added in the image of the two girls with wax, applied a layer of fine netting over that, and secured that with clear wax. Over all of this I rubbed in some gold mica powder to achieve the look below.


Sisters

I hope all of these ideas will inspire you to give encaustic painting a try, as it has given me many hours of joy. Supplies can be obtained by visiting my website at fun-easy-art.com

. I am a U.S. distributor of Michael Bossom’s Encaustic products from his company in the Netherlands. I also feature many teaching videos on my website, as well as an extensive archive of my e-newsletters.

This e-book will be the first in a series.

Only the beginning.

Below are excerpts from some background resources about encaustic painting that may be of interest.

Article by — Ralph Mayer, The Artist's Handbook

Encaustic is a beeswax based paint that is kept molten on a heated palette. It is applied to a surface and reheated to fuse the paint into a uniform enamel-like finish. The word encaustic comes from Greek and means to burn in, which refers to the process of fusing the paint.

Encaustic has a long history, but it is as versatile as any 20th century medium. It can be polished to a high gloss, it can be modeled, sculpted, textured, and combined with collage materials. It cools immediately, so that there is no drying time, yet it can always be reworked.

The durability of encaustic is due to the fact that beeswax is impervious to moisture. Because of this it will not deteriorate, it will not yellow, and it will not darken. Encaustic paintings do not have to be varnished or protected by glass.
Encaustic paint has no toxic fumes, nor does it require the use of solvents. As a result, a number of health hazards are reduced or eliminated.

The History of Encaustic

Encaustic painting was practiced by Greek artists as far back as the 5th century B. C. Most of our knowledge of this early use comes from the Roman historian Pliny, who wrote in the 1st century A.D. Pliny seems to have had very little direct knowledge about studio methods, so his account of techniques and materials is sketchy. According to Pliny, encaustic was used in a variety of applications: the painting of portraits and scenes of mythology on panels, the coloring of marble and terra cotta, and work on ivory (probably the tinting of incised lines).

Wax is an excellent preservative of materials. It was from this use that the art of encaustic painting developed. The Greeks applied coatings of wax and resin to weatherproof their ships. Pigmenting the wax gave rise to the decorating of warships. Mention is even made by Homer of the painted ships of the Greek warriors who fought at Troy. The use of a rudimentary encaustic was therefore an ancient practice by the 5th century B.C.