Explorations in Encaustic: A Daily Practice by Lisa Solomon

All levels | 3 hours 37 min

Explorations in Encaustic: A Daily Practice
Overview01:54
Safety and set up04:17
Materials11:42
Day 1 - General techniques10:09
Day 2 - Backgrounds15:17
Day 3 - Embedding in wax07:30
Day 4 - Drawing on surfaces10:25
Day 5 - Adding paper elements21:27
Day 6 - Mark making with ink16:24
Day 7 - Using stamps16:03
Day 8 - Using stencils10:38
Day 9 - Create texture by carving away16:09
Day 10 - Image transfer10:12
Day 11 - Creating texture by adding wax08:21
Day 12 - Gold foil and tissue11:40
Day 13 - Adding natural elements08:53
Day 14 - Creating 3D elements13:10
Day 15 - Book cover14:48
Day 16 - Final thoughts08:01

Taught by Lisa Solomon

Buy For $3.95

Pricing Options

Encaustic, an ancient artistic technique, involves painting with hot wax to create tremendous textural possibilities. Lisa Solomon, a multi-disciplinary artist and educator, guides you through an exploration of this unique medium. The wax, sometimes infused with colored pigments, is applied to surfaces, typically wooden panels, and manipulated using various tools. During the process, experiment with techniques such as embedding, mark making, layering, carving, and incorporating natural and 3D elements. The resulting encaustic paintings often exhibit a lustrous and translucent quality, providing a means for creative expression through the fusion of wax, pigments, and heat.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Safety Materials:

Gloves or Barrier Cream
Fire Extinguisher
Container of water, in case paper or something catches on fire or for burns
Safety glasses if you are doing a lot of pouring or splashing of materials
Respirator and/or work in ventilated room
Hair tie to keep hair off of your face, well-fitted sleeves
Tip: keep palette 200 F/93 C or lower

Encaustic Materials:

Encaustic Starter Kit
Encaustic medium: Lisa recommends R&F brand, or make your own with 9 parts wax to 2 parts damar resin
Plain beeswax or paraffin wax: in a brick or preferably pellets
Hot surface, such as a griddle, skillet, etc.
Flat Thermometer for checking surface temp
Large drip pan or cookie sheet to protect work surface
Metal containers to hold encaustic, such as small aluminum baking pans
Fuse tools: torch, heat gun, or iron (for encaustic use only)
Encaustic paints: purchase premade colors or add dried oil paint, oil sticks, pigment powder to create colors
Popsicle sticks for stirring wax
Bench scraper
Wax paper
Hand tools such as wood carving/linocut tools, awls, brayer, burnisher, bone folder, pottery tools, metal palette knives with shapes, rolling wheels, tweezers, and a Tjanting (Indonesian batik tool)
Natural bristle brushes: Hake brushes or hardware brushes (for encaustic use only)
Substrate: stiff, non bendable surfaces are better, such as encaustic board, wood panels, plywood, cradled panels (with or without lip), thick non-coated paper, very thick canvas, etc.
Paper towels - rags can get wax filled and not useful quickly
Slick Wax for cleaning

Art materials:

Watercolor pencils, chalk pastels, india ink, pencils, Sharpies, etc.
Linseed oil as a release for stamps and burnishing surfaces
Gesso
Matte medium or PVA glue
Scissors, utility knife and cutting mat
Hand carved stamps - check out Lisa’s Carve a Rubber Stamp Kit class
Silicone molds
Other items to add to your composition: stamps, pigment ink pads, stencils, carbon papers, gold leaf, tissue paper, ephemera, laser prints for image transfers, parchment/wax paper, painters/washi tape, textiles, ribbon, silcone molds for pouring 3D wax items, dried plants, old hardcover books, rope or other fibers, etc.

Downloads:

Download Materials List

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