Encaustic Gesso is typically used to prime your substrate so that you are beginning with a white ground. But, encaustic gesso doesn't have to be white. In this post, you'll discover two ways to tint encaustic gesso. Underpainting with Encaustic Gesso In 2011, Hylla Evans introduced us to Using Coloured Gesso for Encaustic Underpainting. Underpainting allows you to map out your painting composition before you add wax layers. Make your own encaustic gesso In her post, Testing Suitable Encaustic Grounds using the Freezer Test, Amie Brand provides her recipe for making your own encaustic gesso. 2 part ...
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The information in this post comes from Nicholas Wilton's Creative Visionary Program and is published with permission. Vive la différence! Nicholas Wilton, the founder of Art2Life and the Creative Visionary Program (CVP), talks a lot about the power of differences to make your art stronger. "One of the overarching ideas in this course is differences. How can what we include in our art, not to mention our life, make us feel more alive? Understanding the juxtapositions of opposites in our art will allow us to better exploit and communicate our own particular point of view more powerfully ...
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Do you find that you are in the habit of using the same colours all the time? In this post, Nicholas Wilton presents a fresh approach to colour mixing. A couple of years ago I discovered Nicholas Wilton's Art2Life Free Workshop on Facebook. This class helped me understand colour so much more clearly than I ever had before. Understanding Colour to make your art stronger The 5 most important aspects of Colourfrom Nicholas Wilton Value = the lightness and darkness of a colour. The viewer will see the highest value contrast areas in your art first. Value ...
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Beading Up?? Frequently encaustic printmakers ask how to resolve the issue of beading on the HOTbox plate. What is the #1 reason HOTbox plates bead up? The answer is wax. Certain transparent colors of wax are of a chemical nature that causes the wax to separate on the plate, i.e. Green Gold or Indian Yellow, synthetic pigments, etc. Wax used for cleaning that is not fully removed from the plate and possibly begins to permeate the plate or at least build up on the plate over time.Adding wax or medium to your plate while printing will increase ...
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I’m passionate about stencil making! Heat resistant stencils allow me to use my hand-drawn doodles over and over again. One stencil can create hundreds of prints that never look identical. The wonderful by-product of this process is that a used stencil, covered in ink and wax can be a thing of beauty that begs to be used in your artwork. In this post, I will provide a step-by-step process for making your own heat resistant stencils from a hand-drawn doodle. I provide instructions for cutting a stencil by hand and for using a Cricut Maker. Stencil Making ...
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DISCLAIMER Do your own research, I am not a fire safety expert. Carefully review the manufacturer’s operational and safety procedures for all equipment and art materials. Ruth Maude (allthingsencaustic.com) expressly disclaims any liability resulting from reliance upon the views or opinions expressed in this blog article and makes no representations, warranties, or claims of any kind concerning the accuracy or completeness of the information presented here. When working with encaustic tools, fire safety precautions should be in place and all artists in the studio need to be aware of what these precautions are. Wax Fire If wax ...
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I'm a member at Propeller Art Gallery, an artist-run gallery in Toronto. This Summer I co-organized a group show. If you find yourself hanging an art show, you may find these tips helpful. First of all, check with the gallery as they may have a hanging system and their own recommendations for you to follow. You may want to first read these tips for framing and wiring your paintings. Hang art by its center and use a standard height throughout the exhibition. The rule of thumb is to hang art at eye-level, with the centre of the ...
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