Commitments, Style and Inspiration

Style Statement
encaustic on birch 10x10

Way back in March,  I committed to doing a painting for an upcoming raffle.  The raffle is just a couple of weeks away and I decided that I needed to get on it, after all, I had committed a painting.  There's still a little tidy up work to do on this pair, but for the most part they are done.  I've been wanting to experiemnt with incorporating the style of one of my favorite artists - Wayne Thiebaud.  He often uses a plain off white background and that awesome blue for shadows.
I'm actually glad that I waited to do this because I have used some of the techniques that I have been playing with over the past week or so.  The background is done with tinted off-white shellac over the off-white background.  I just painted it on leaving lots of brush strokes horizontally.  I wanted kind of a striated line.  Its a shame that encaustics don't photo better because the background, while subtle, is pretty good.  I did start with a bright orange layer, then the off white, then the shellac, then clear wax to get what I was looking for.  I also used the exacto knife and black oil paint for outlining, like in the zentangles from last week.  I did have to tighten up a bit as all the play was really wigging out my inner critic, who has been howling with all this playtime.  I've delegated her to take a seat in the back of the bus with fear and doubt.   The three of them can keep each other company in the back seat, while I do the driving. 

I am still working on playing in the studio.  I've also been digging into books for inspiration.  In keeping with my thoughts on loosening up and stretching my wings to try new things... I signed up for an online painting class with Flora Bowley called Bloom True.  Its going to be a stretch for me, a biiiiiiiiiiiggggg stretch,  but in a good way I think.  I'm deciding whether to try it in wax or actually go for it with acrylic paints.  I have time to mull that over as class doesn't start until September 3.
Its Friday.  Its Party Time. 

Encaustic Zentangles, Inspiration, and the First Week of Playtime

Encaustic Zentangles
a la Allgra Hicks

What a week.
I don't know about you, but I really look forward to PPF because there are so many talented people who participate.  Fortunately, many of them share techniques as well as their wonderful artwork.  Personally, I find huge inspiration each week by seeing what everyone is doing with their different mediums.  At first, I often think that it really doesn't translate that easily to working with encaustic - 200 degree wax.  But, with my new playtime outlook for the month, I have a new perspective.   Last week, I walked away from PPF with some great inspiration.  Over at Tracy Fletcher King's blog, she walked through her process. She talked about using a micro pen to tidy up her artwork from the ugly child phase to finished in the end. Well, micro pens are not on the encaustic workbench, but... with a cup of coffee under my belt and full brain synapses clicking away... aha! an exacto knife can make some very precise lines that are then filled with oil paint thus simulating a micro pen - OK, I'll give it a try!   I set to work to try the zentangles that I also see on PPF.  And, to top off my inspiration gathering at PPF last week, I even started a 21 day meditation challenge over at Deepak Chopra's place. What a week! And... gee, thank you all for sharing so much wonderful information that we each can take and make our own.

The first week of no agenda, studio play time is now behind me.  I actually did pretty good with my goal.  I'm not going to say that it was easy for me.  I'm can be a little uptight, in that I feel I have to paint SOMETHING - anything, but something recognizable.   I have to admit that its been a bit hard to end my studio time with really not much to show.  Its been a new hurdle for me to climb over, but its getting easier.  I have stumbled on some pretty cool stuff.  But, in the end, I'm not really sure what to do with this cool stuff I'm discovering.  It doesn't seem to fit into what I do - or should I really say - what I think I should do.  However.... its cool and its fun.

I'm intrigued by shellac.  Its totally unpredictable, which is what makes it interesting.  A light touch with the torch works best.  Its easily over done, so I have to be patient.  I am discovering ways to slightly control it by scoring it with lines before I put a wax layer over it.  I'm loving tinting it with powered pigment and/or graphite powder.  I'm finding ways to recreate the bokeh effect that I so love in photography by using shellac.  I've been playing with embedding some really cool handmade Japanese papers cut into shapes and then tinted shellac over them.  Lots of good stuff going on around here.  This is all stuff I know, but never really spent a lot of time getting to know.  There's a difference. 
It's interesting... not so long ago, I never would have shown these paintings.. the play, the not so perfect, glimmers of good stuff but not really kinda photos.  So, this in and of itself is one step closer to scaling that wall that I talked about last week.   Party Time - hit the button and see some greatness.

The Wednesday Experiment :: Ink transfer to encaustic wax

I'm coming to realize that I don't think outside of my parameters as much as I should.  I tend to poop along in my studio and work on what I know.  I've talked some about stretching and pushing creativity (here), to try some new things and see where they lead.  It seems to be kind of a mission for me here in the moment.  So, here's what I found::

Yesterday, I stumbled upon the youtube video by Randy Purcell on transferring ink onto wax.  Its a process that I know, however haven't visited for a while.  I've added the video at the bottom of the post if you are interested in watching it.

 I decided to give it a try.  Randy's concept of this procedure is more than I have seen.  He uses magazine pages for his ink source.  As a wax artist, I know that magazine pages and wax don't really mesh due to the slick nature of the paper.  Wax doesn't really bond with it unless you sand it, which will then distort the image.  But.... I have never thought of using the pages for the ink and creating mosaic paintings with strips of paper.

The process is pretty simple. 

1. First, cut your shapes from magazine pages and place the paper on your wax background.  Be sure the side that has the colors you want is the side next to the wax (face down). 
2. Second, burnish the paper to the wax. I used the back side of a spoon. 
3. Carefully sand the top ink off the paper, being sure to not go through.  This removes the slickness from the page and leaves the raw paper exposed.  In the photo above you can see the two to the left are sanded and the one on the right is just through steps one and two.
4. Take a carving tool and carefully clean up the dust around the edges of the paper.  It is showing as gray in the photo above.
5. Once you have cleaned up around the edges of your paper, use a heat gun to warm the paper and the wax to help transfer the ink.  I did try using a flame and it worked too, but you have to be careful not to heat it so much that the wax comes through the paper and sets it into the painting.

The final step is to wet the paper with water and rub the paper off leaving the ink which has transferred to the wax.  There is a point at which you can rub too hard and start damaging the ink transfer.  I went ahead and used my flame torch to set the painting after I removed the paper, but you can see in the first photo that it caused the ink to crack and move a bit even though I was careful.  So, a heat gun may work a little better. 
Its important to remember that the ink is just sitting on top of the wax which means that it is a little delicate.  It comes off with linseed oil and it scratches easily.  You can put a thin layer of medium on top to protect it. However, that will dull the colors a bit.  There is a wax sealer(here) that can be used.  I have never used this product but it looks interesting.

Above is Randy's video.  This is a great example of the importance of sharing what we do.  Some artists are worried that if they give up their procedures that they will be copied.  I really believe that since art comes from within each of us with its own unique voice, there is no reason to be worried about being copied because it just really can't happen.  However, by sharing techniques, we all benefit and can take it in a direction that suits our needs.  Thank you Randy for sharing!