Took a class in Encaustics at the Art Students League in New York. I had always been fascinated by the Fayum Mummy Portraits at the Met and thought that I might try out this ancient archival medium. They are paintings in pigmented beeswax which have a depth, texture and translucency due to the wax medium.
Here was a corner of our classroom, Suzy on the right and another classmate on the left
My first few attempts …..
I decided to keep working at it. Here’s my first encaustic from my own modest studio:
Encaustic and oil stick on R&F encaustic gessoed cradled birch wood panel.
Palette and Supplies:
Encaustic media was created by melting the beeswax and Damar resin together at 225-250F in an 8:1 ratio (wax to resin) by weight. Three layers of medium were brushed onto the wooden support and fused with the heat gun.
Design was created in Photoshop and then printed onto parchment paper using an HP Laserjet printer. The panel was heated with the heat gun and parchment paper applied, pigment transferred by burnishing with a wooden spatula.
the key lines of the image were then etched into the wax with a metal tool and filled with oil pastel. Shadows were then painted in.
Midtones and highlights added
Background painted in
“Suzy” (2018). Louis Cooper. Encaustic and Oil Stick on Wood Panel. 10″x10″