I did a mini painting the other day on a piece of salvaged wood…a solid wooden coaster, actually…using acrylics, and the encaustic wax effect I wanted to try.
First (on the gessoed piece) the background…random color and marks. As is often the case, I photographed it, and posted this at my online art shops because I liked it as an abstract! 😀
Next, I drew my design on it, and then painted around the shapes to form the second stage…of which I also liked, photographed and posted. lol It is VERY hard to throw caution to the wind, as it were, and paint over something you liked! I could have kept “Energies” as it was, and looking at it in the pic up there, I almost wished I had! ACK! Oh well…it is done. I like how it turned out in any case….
So, then, I now had to jump in and do the thing I had never done before, and risk mucking up the whole thing! Adding melted wax to the whole thing, scratching into the dried wax to make “distress” marks, and other marks, then covering the whole thing in black oil paint…rubbing it into all the nooks and crannies(I didn’t photograph that part). Then I put some linseed oil on a rag, and rubbed off the paint, so it only shows up in the marks I made in the wax. This is the final piece….
I am happy with it. I like the dreamy (hard to tell in the photo) effect the wax gives to it, plus the graffiti type look it has to it. It was a fun little project, that I no doubt will try again. I suppose I should likely keep it out of the sun, or away from any heat source though…or it will have to be renamed, “Melted Daydream”! hahaha
My source and inspiration for this technique was from this wonderful book…
Sunshyne Art & Design 