Finishing The Tissue Encaustic

All right, in my previous blog, I was sharing the new technique I was trying, collage with images printed on tissue on 300 lb. press watercolor paper. I finished my first try and found very quickly that it is not as easy as it looks. But then, when something looks great, it isn't usually an easy process!

The glare on the wax is because I took a photo in my studio instead of outside as I usually do.

What I learned:

Cutting the watercolor paper was the easy part!

You can't have your fan running when dealing with tissue images. A fan is a necessary part of doing encaustics because of the fumes but I need to turn it off as I cut, tear, and study placement.

The background to the "tree" was darker, so it shows, although you can't really tell here. I tried using oil pastels and oil sticks to sort of blend it, but it really doesn't work. I know how to make transparent PNG images in PSE, so I will do that next time, then print them.

You CAN use too much wax! I became fed up after trying to scrape back, and then I developed a hot spot where the wax wouldn't stay on the paper.

I am pleased with the layout, as far as composition goes, but I think I will use a stronger "tree" image - that is actually a seaweed.

When trimming the overlapping wax with the blue tape with the X-Acto, you really need to make sure you have a firm press on your ruler. I don't know if you can see, but I took out some of the area that would have showed through a mat board.

The parts of the paper not covered with tape will absorb the wax. In this case it's at the top and would not show if I matted it.

Double sided tape does work in a laser printer. I have also read the painter's tape will work as well. I may give that a try.

I hope that you have seen my encaustic work I've uploaded, to know that I do actually have some skill -haha! I felt like everybody could learn from my mistakes here, so I'm sharing the good with the not-so-good!

I think I will try using a butane torch on these pieces to see if the wax application is smoother. The heat gun seemed to overwhelm the piece. Or else I am too impatient.

And that was my first try, or should I say, experiment! Stay tuned - I'm not giving up!

Many Many Layers.......

One of my favorite acrylic colors is Alarizan Crimson, so I thought I would do my next painting with that as a base. I often add many layers to my paintings to create depth, and to give it age by pulling some of the color off as I go. After doing what I thought was a good number of layers, I then started my design on top.

Oh yuck, I hated it, what was I thinking????

So, I began to add more layers, and continued pulling some of it off to keep up the aged look. (The paints are all pretty transparent so it took a lot of layers to color those BLACK squares!) At night as I would drop off to sleep, I'd be imagining this or that new design. (In between each new application change, I would have to go lie down again, so this all took a period of days.)

So, I thought - flowers!

And after spending over an hour on 3 flowers, I realized realism was not my thing (there's a shock!) and wiped off as much as I could and once again started layering and pulling. When I had it once more to a place where I could add an arrangement of some kind, I was completely blank. At night, still blank as I drifted off to sleep. Discouragement followed. What? What was waiting to go on?

Then, an inspired moment as I was looking at some Japanese rice papers - collage! On each side I put a strip. But what next? What was Asian but a little different for a long canvas? I thought about a Chinese symbol for happiness, or something similar. Yes I know it was Japanese symbols on the side, but they would be under a layer of paint.

No, I felt flat about that. But....bamboo! All right, now I was fired up, but exhausted so I had to lie down again. I realized that I could do a pretty mean abstract bamboo, and so the next morning, I took a yellow colored pencil, drew in the lines, began to add yellow paint. And then that day was over - I had to go lie down again. But the next day, I went over the yellow paint with oil pastel, yellow then green and I was so pleased! I love it when God gives me the inspiration! And here we have, Bamboo On Red!

(click to view details)

So, how many layers total? I have no idea, and I would not even try to guess!

ART AUCTION!!

Today I'm trying something new- offering you a chance to join in an auction for an original small art piece! If this is successful, I will be doing it at regular intervals.

This is a mixed media piece done on a 8 x 10 canvas panel. Click on it to enlarge and see the details. It is signed on the front and will be also signed and dated on the back.

Here are the rules:

The starting price is $15.00

Bidding is in increments of $3.00

Bidding must be posted in the comment section below.

Winning bid must be honored!

Auction is for 3 days (noon 29 Oct - noon 1st Nov)

START BIDDING!

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!

September Already!

And it feels like summer is suddenly trying to squeeze itself into the few days we have left. It has been a mild summer up until last week, when overnight the humidity shot up and made it miserable to go outside! Well, it doesn't have too much longer to do that - things will be changing soon.

In a post a few days back, I showed a few pieces which were WIP (works in progress) and today I have a finshed one to show you.

This .........

                      

....... beame this - a little Pear Whimsey!

Canvas and Giclee prints are available through BelleSouth Studio.

Also, I am running a short Promo on Canvas Prints for 3 paintings:

LOOKING THROUGH

BUTTONS ON COLOR

PURPLE PROSE

The special lasts only a couple more days, go to my Bellesouth Studio Fan Page

and click on the one you like. Your beautiful print will be delivered right to your door - no shipping charge! Think early Christmas gift!

Click on any photo you would like to see closer!

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!

Been A While

Which I'm sure is not news to anyone, if I have any readers left. This past month has been a difficult one, as I have had to learn how to balance trying to promote my artwork, within the confines of this illness. I have been adding photographs, and older pieces of art to my galleries at FineArtAmerica.com and trying to keep up with the different groups I've joined to promote within the site itself, and I have also run myself into a flare/crash, so I have also been spending a lot of time on the bed. I will go sort of backwards here, and show you what I am working on now, then in the upcoming days, show what I have added to the site. (And you can always just go there and see it by yourself!)

Remember, these are all unfinished.

A few whimsical pears .....

An abstract with OPEN paints .....

And a collage.

I'm very tired, so I will leave you to ponder on how these will turn out and hope that you will come back to see!

Click on any photo you would like to see closer!

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!

It's A Mistake! Well No, Not Really.

As artists, we all turn out something we look at and frown - what was I thinking! We may be so frustrated that we have a strong urge to throw it into the trash. But wait! Hold onto it for a while, you may discover something you didn't see before.

Here is a piece that I did when I discovered Heavy Gel and stenciling. Wow, I thought - this is great! And I happily overdid it until the end result was just not something to write home about.

The coloring was nice, but what could you say about the piece? No focal point, no point at all actually, other than showing what different stencils I had. So I stuck it on a shelf and decided that at some point I would comeback to it and figure something out.

Fast forward about a year later, and I pulled it off the shelf, and had another look at it. Suddenly I had an idea! I put more Heavy Gel on it to bring it up almost to the where the stencil shapes were. I painted several layers on it, and rummaged through my stacks of papers, did some cutting, some detail work and arranged them on the piece. And ta-da, here is what we have now!

What a difference, right? So don't be too hasty about mistakes - they could be "happy accidents" in disguise!

Click on any photo you would like to see closer!

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!