encausticart.pdf

Encaustic Art

By Celia Piper

MATERIALS REQUIRED:

Encaustic Iron: ECT01 (a small non-steam travel

iron will do the job instead if you have one).

Encaustic Tools: ECT02 (comes with Drawing Tip,

Brush Head and Mini Iron Tip).

Coated Card: COAT5.

Selection of Encaustic Wax Blocks: ECW02

Vermillion, ECW06 Leaf Green, ECW07 Green,

ECW09 Blue, ECW14 Yellow Brown and ECW16

White. (a basic range of colours to start you off).

A Few Sheets of Plain Newsprint Paper: NE001.

Kitchen Roll and a Soft Polishing Cloth.

ABOUT ENCAUSTIC ART:

Encaustic comes from the Greek word egkaustikos

which means to burn in. It is thought to have been

invented by the ancient Greeks and perfected by

an artist called Pausias in the 4th century B.C.

Pliny, 23-79 A.D. had recorded formulae, colour

mixes and techniques of encaustic art.

The best surviving portraits are two Egyptian, 2nd

century, Al-Fayyum Mummy portraits, one is in Paris,

the other is in New York.

USA painter, Jasper Johns, used wax on several of

his ‘Pop Art’ collection. Van Gogh, Picasso, Hayet

and Rubens are just a few names among the many

that tried working with wax.

Cave paintings from 20,000 B.C. have the burnt

qualities of encaustic. Many binding materials found

were a mixture of wax, animal fats and oils while

chalks, earths and ground minerals supplied the

colours.

Waxes today are formulated from a mixture of

Beeswax and Carnauba wax (from the leaf of a palm)

mixed with non-toxic pigments. This wax is heated

with a small flat based iron to make pictures.

Note: This information was gathered together from many different

reference books in the library.

the kitchen paper gets messy, just throw it away and

replace it with some fresh sheets.

For general work, set the iron to low and allow to

heat up for about 1 minute. Test the temperature by

melting a little wax on the base plate. At the correct

temperature, it will run slowly, like thick oil, when you

hold the iron vertically. Adjust the dial to achieve this

then hold it as shown below, and load it up with wax

by gently moving the wax block across the sole plate.

You can add as many colours as you like to get

TECHNIQUES:

Make sure you protect your clothing or wear old

clothes. Don’t use old newspapers to work onto as

the print will dirty your work.

Make a bed of a few sheets of plain newsprint with

some white kitchen roll paper on top to work on, as

different effects for fantasy pictures or sky, clouds,

fields etc. You need to vary the technique for large

areas of colour, textured areas and fine detail and

you can use a selection of encaustic tools. I will do

my best to explain some of these.

end up with a lovely result. Load the iron with several

different colours and do the smoothing first, next dab

for texture, then go on to any grasses and/or birds.

The yellow highlights on both these fantasy pictures

were added later by lightly rubbing yellow wax over

some areas of the finished picture. Once your pic-

tures are finished, polish with a soft cloth to remove

the dull ‘bloom’ from the surface.

After a fair amount of practice, you will feel ready

to try out a landscape. Please note, the ‘step’ pic-

tures below are not all from the same landscape, they

are just general steps for making landscapes.

1. Place your encaustic card onto the prepared sur-

face with the coated side up. Now to begin with, just

load your iron with one colour and have a practice.

There are four basic movements of the iron.

A: Smoothing, this makes perfect skies and hills.

Place the loaded iron flat on the card and lightly

sweep it across. If you end up with more wax on your

kitchen paper than on your work, you are pressing

too hard, just let the weight of the iron do the work.

When making hills, it’s the top edge that will show on

the finished design, the lower part may be uneven,

but will be covered as you work forwards, this is

shown in more detail at step 7.

B: Dabbing, for texture. Place the iron flat on the work

and quickly lift it straight up.

C: Edge of iron for grasses. Tilt the iron and use the

side edge to ‘draw’ in the grasses, the more you tilt

the thinner the grasses will be.

D: Use the point for birds. Turn the iron point down

and place the tip into the wax then onto the card,

slide down at an angle to make the first wing, then

back up for the other wing, like writing a ‘V’.

4. Always start with the sky,

I’m using white with pink over

it and blue above, keeping to one side of the iron as it

has to fit on just the top area of the card.

5. Place the iron onto the card, so the blue is at the

top and drag across from one side to the other to

leave a band of sky with cloud below.

6. Add more wax to the iron in the same way using

a narrow band of two greens and a touch of brown

along the edge of the iron. Place the iron so the

waxed part just overlaps the lower edge of the sky

so there is no gap, then use the dabbing technique to

make a bushy/hedge. The pinky white at the overlap

will show through the bushes.

7. Now go on to the hills using a mixture of greens,

and maybe a little brown too. Always begin with the

furthest back hill and work

forwards to cover the lower

edge of the previous hill.

Drag the iron from the lower

left edge of the bushes using

a curving sweep across the

card. Move on to the next

hill, reloading the iron with

more wax.

8. This is a very similar

scene, the hills have a

slightly different layout, but

are worked in just the same

2 & 3. Once you are familiar with the techniques, fan-

tasy scenes are a good next step, they will help you

to learn how the wax flows off the iron and you often

way. Add a new row of bushes below the hills using

the ‘dab’ method with some green and a touch of

brown wax.

Below these bushes I have made a lake, which

should have a straight top. Chances are, your edge

is a bit uneven, straighten this by placing a clean iron

over the lower edge and use a pad of kitchen roll

to wipe any molten wax off the picture. The lake is

‘smoothed’ across using clear or pearlescent wax,

add a little colour at the same time if you want to

reflect the sky too.

‘Dab’ some green mixed with a little red to make a

grassy, flowery mixed foreground. Then ‘edge’ the

grasses in with the edge of the iron and ‘point’ in

some birds with the tip. Buff the design with a soft

cloth and this completes the little landscape (8),

which can be presented on a single fold card.

Adding flowers

and trees is more

complex and you

will need the extra

tools shown on

the list.

9. Use the stylus

with a drawing tip.

Place the tip in the

block of wax al-

lowing the slot to

fill with wax then

use the tool like a

pen. Turn it so the

wax flows out of

the slot and draw.

For the tree use

a mix of browns

to ‘draw’ the

shape using more wax for the trunk and less for the

thinner branches.

10. The leaves and flowers are added using the stylus

with the mini iron tip attached, this is an indirect

method which allows you to work on a small area

without melting the wax already on the design. Place

the edge of a piece of kitchen paper onto the wax

block, put the tip of the mini iron on top and as the

wax melts it will be absorbed onto the paper.

11. For the leaves, hold the waxy paper over the tree

and press quickly with the mini iron tip for each dot.

Do the same for the flowers using a red wax. I like to

refer to this as ‘Monet’ style.

I hope this article encourages you to have a go for

yourself, it’s im-

possible to give

exact instructions

for each design,

as every press

of the iron will

give a slightly

different result.

The two pictures below illustrate just how detailed

wax pictures can be, both are A3 size and ‘David’

was worked onto encaustic card. The Arundel Castle

picture was worked onto on dark green mountboard.

The stylus was

used for both

pictures and the

various greens

were achieved

by rubbing

in white and

yellow waxes

underneath

the green.

Issue 56

Spring 2010

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