Encaustic on Glass, Faces and Warm Ups

encaustic on glass

 I'm trying to loosen up..... again.  I get a leeettle too tight and fussy when it comes to painting.  So, I've come to trying to be good about doing warm ups.   I remember way back in gym class and in sports - we'd do warm ups.  We run a little, jumping jacks, sprints - whatever - but the idea is to get the blood flowing and circulating before diving into the nitty gritty of a workout.

After taking the painting faces in wax class with Charlie Levin - I got really intrigued by Charlie's forte which is painting wax on glass or Plexiglas.  Honestly - I wouldn't have thought it could be done.  So, I, naturally being just my pure inquisitive anal self - had to give it a try.  I had this piece of glass and decided to take a run at it.  Well, its hard - this is like my 25th try or so.  I use it as my warm up.  I scrape off the old wax face with a razor blade and give it another go.  Its hard because not only am I trying to paint a face but... I have to think backwards.  What goes down first on the glass is what you see as the top layer on the other side of the glass..  so, painting "inside out" is what Charlie says.  And it is... highlights and the things you want to see "on top" go on the glass first and then layering from there backwards.  In this picture, you are looking at the side of the glass that there physically is no wax - it is all built up on the back side.  The luminosity is magical.

I kinda liked this last face on the glass, so I stopped doing that warm up for a while, so I could enjoy what I had created for a short time, before scrapping it off and going again.  So, I broke out the oil paints and did this little number.  I'm trying new colors and new ways and i seem to be able to figure things out better using oils rather than wax.  Although, this one reealllly doesn't qualify as a warm up because it took too long - lost ground on that leeeeettle too tight and fussy thing - but i like her.  Now to figure out how to translate what I did here to wax.  Need more warm ups.

oil on hardboard

Happy Friday - and a Mama update - She's still there - but now she is perching on the side of her nest rather than all hunkered down inside... I'm wondering if that means we have some hatching going on :)  Will keep you posted.