Transfer your drawings onto encaustic

I have always been inquisitive...once I learn something new and feel comfortable with it, I want to learn something else. I have the spirit of an eternal student when it comes to art. Mixed media is full of limitless possibilities it seems. With mixed media encaustic you can scrape, etch, incise, paint on it, paint with it, collage with it, embed objects and do image transfers. I love to draw and occassionally used my drawings in my artwork. For this project I drew a hummingbird with tombow dual brush pen markers and micron pens, available at most art stores. The markers are water based and acid free and very blendable. I wanted to use them on wax but alas they are not compatible as the wax is non porous..so I decided to use them to draw traditionally onto paper. I then scanned the drawing and then printed the result to transfer it to the wax.

I love the results and will continue this for my new series!

Here are the steps of my drawing which was done on a mixed media paper pad. I love how the pens blend.

I then scanned the end result and colour corrected so that the background would be white

Finished hummingbird drawing scanned and colour corrected. This was then printed on regular paper using a home laser printer.

The last step involved prepping my encaustic surface and ensuring a smooth wax surface. I then employed my 12 year old to transfer the bird as he has become quite adept at it and it saves my fingertips from years of abuse. I paid him for his efforts and he did a great job..he was worried that the wing didn't turn out as transfers are not always perfect. This was easily remedied with a little pan pastel and oil paint. 

Here is the end result...I may still add in some words to this, but I like it so far!

As you can see, the image is reversed when transfered!  Notice how the transfer picked up all the details of the original drawing.

So there you have it.....you can use discrete, high contrast images to do beautiful image transfers....whether they are photographs or drawings. So if you want to practice drawing or have a gorgeous drawing that you have done, scan it, print it and see what happens when you transfer it to wax!

 

Creating from the Soul

Last December I met Corrina Choe who is a holistic healer, yogi and meditation practitioner...we formed an instant connection. I knew that I had a message to share, to empower and inspire others and Corrina had a similar message. We have a lot in common such as our struggles in the past and finally coming to a place of peace and realizing our life's purpose. While I am not a yoga aficionado, I appreciate its benefits. I have been in the practice of meditating for some time now, but as I have shared, meditation naturally occurs when you are in the creative process and that is a daily practice for me. 

We were compelled to design a workshop as a collaborative effort that would bring mindfulness, yoga, meditation and art together. The workshop exceeded my expectations! The art that flowed out of the participants reminded me how much creativity connects a person to their inner light, to their soul. This was after being relaxed with yoga, essential oils, a head massage and meditation. We call it the Goddess workshop as we learned about attributes of ancient goddesses in order to bring forth our own divine essence. Corrina's wisdom and energy was enchanting. I look forward to many more collaborations with this beautiful soul seeker.  

If you are interested in learning about the next Goddess workshop please contact me! 

PanPastels and Encaustic....the medium that changed everything!

I consider myself to be a mixed media artist, not strictly an encaustic painter. Though I use molten wax as my primary medium, I have more than one medium I use to create my art...oil paints, oil pastels, image transfers, collage, alcohol inks...but the one discovery that excited me the most was seeing these beautiful colours that were so vibrant, laid out perfectly in little pans like a super charged eye shadow ! I had to look at them closely when I first saw saw PanPastels in the art store. Hmmm, pastel reformatted to be used like paint!

Like a kid in a candy store, the art supply junkie in me wanted to gobble them all up.....I couldn't wait to try these with the encaustic.  Much to my surprise, the pastels were a PERFECT fit for my encaustic work. I was hooked!  The pastel paint glides on and is so blendable and with the tools you can buy specifically for PanPastels you can paint in fine details and lines. I am able to create entire backgrounds in these vibrant colours with ease. I still use encaustic paint in layers, but to a much lesser degree and my students LOVE PanPastels with encaustic. 

This snowy owl painting was painted almost entirely with PanPastels on top of the encaustic. The owl itself was then painted with oil paints and PanPastels.

snowyowl.jpg

For the making of Mr. Snowy, you can click here 

This video demonstrates how I used PanPastels to draw and then paint a bird...I created an encaustic background withpan pastels with stencils. With the use of the PanPastel fine line tool, I did the underpainting of the bird. This was one of my first experiments with pan pastel.

 

What I love is the ability to paint entire backgrounds with the PanPastels. A little  goes a long way.  It can be used as a way to touch up your paintings with a little color, or it can be used as a primary source of color for your entire painting...you can apply wax over it and the pigments will glide and mix in with the wax or you can gently drop the wax on the surface to leave the pan pastel unaltered. So many wonderful ways to work with this beautiful medium! Thank you PanPastel!!