Whew, this has been a crazy couple of weeks! I opened my studio, started a local artist meet up, updated my youtube channel, and of course worked on some pretty awesome pieces of art, including this Catalina encaustic map painting. This one was super fun, though building up the texture does take quite a while- it’s not something that can really be rushed, no matter how tempted I may be.
Pigmented Shellac Burn
I’ve been doing more experiments with shellac burns lately. Normally, I use ink on the surface of my painting, spray them with shellac, and then light them on fire or do a dry burn after the shellac dries. This time, I used powdered pigments to color the shellac- white in this case. Once I had the outline of my land masses in place, I brushed the pigmented shellac over the area of the map meant to be water. Once it was dry and no longer tacky, I used my blow torch to carefully burn the shellac, doing my best to keep the outlines of the land intact.
I did need to fix a few of the lines I had carved, but that was simple enough. The next step was filling those lines with oil paint. Then, I got to build up the texture of my land masses using a stencil brush and stippling technique to really give the wax a contrasting look to the smooth wax of the “water”.
Stippling Texture
Building the texture takes quite a bit of work. I get the best results when I take my time and use my stencil brush to build up the height and keep the wax rough as I’m working. Of course, sometimes I just want this to go just a little bit faster, so I’ll use my brush to add some wax in certain places, and then rough it up afterwards. This shortcut leads to less control as I’m working, so I don’t usually do it unless I’m pressed for time.
The end result is fantastic, though, and worth the time it takes to accomplish. Catalina island rises from the surface with this delicious rough texture that makes it look just awesome. I definitely think this Catalina encaustic map experiment was a success.
The final result is pretty great, though I do think that for my next map, I’ll add more layers of shellac to the painting to give it more depth.
