Encaustic Painting Demo!

"Fadeaway" • 10 in x 22 in wood panel • Colored Pencil, Watercolor, Marker, Gesso, Handmade Paper, Beeswax, Oil Paint • On Display at BAYarts in Bay Village Ohio Until August

This week, I have been creating work for a group show at BAYarts in Bay Village, OH. The show opens on July 5th and features art that honors women's roles by focusing on a "Apron" theme. I am thrilled to be in the company of 9 other amazing female BAYart's teachers for this exhibit.

The painting above is the first of my two entries for the show. The model here is my beautiful friend Laura, who is an incredible photographer (and is super cool too!) 

Here's how I made it: I started with watercolor washes and marker over my vine charcoal drawing. I love how it bled into the wood!

Started working in the colored pencils. I ended up using a very limited pallet overall: White, Light Peach, Mandarin Orange, Dark Brown, and Terracotta Prismacolor pencils. I did pull out some reds of course when I got to her dress.

 The face is colored pencil over my watercolor wash with a touch of marker here or there. I used fabercastelle markers - 3 different shades of brown and red on the dress.

The white at the top here is gesso

Kitty break!

 

 Marker and colored pencil hair with washes of watercolor

Once I was finished rendering, I added the key element of this composition - some pretty handmade paper glued on with elmer's glue and water. It was very hard to wait until all the drawing was done since I was so excited to do this!

Time to add the beeswax. I brushed on the wax pretty roughly because I wanted a lot of texture to show, but I did smooth out the wax on and around her face with the heat tool. My favorite part is that the wax turns the white of the handmade paper translucent!

 

This is what it looks like with the beeswax... not much different yet

 

 This is a cool part - to get the texture of the wax to show, I brushed on burnt umber oil paint. The paint is diluted with Liquin medium so it will dry quickly.

This is what the painting looked like covered with burnt umber.

Using a paper towel (and gloves) I started removing the paint layer.

The paint sticks in the rough texture I created with the wax and to the wood like magic!

You never really know what you're going to get in this process and the randomness is exciting. You can always fix parts that don't work, of course!

I wanted the final piece to be a little bit brighter, so I continued to wipe some areas of the paint off using a paper towel soaked in turpenoid, making sure to preserve the textured areas I love.

 Final Painting - "Fadeaway" (named in honor of Coles Phillips' famous illustration technique)

Come see it live on Friday, July 5th at the gallery opening.

Thanks everyone!

- Erin