Encaustic Cube Collage with Shellac Burn Effects
Creating an encaustic painting on a cube requires a bit more patience than a typical 2D painting. I tend to try to work too fast most of the time, especially when I’m filming a video, and I found that to be more of a problem with this piece. Luckily, encaustic is such a forgiving medium that no matter what happens, its’ fixable. All the extra drips and bare spots were not hard to redo, even with through the shellac. It just takes a bit of light fusing.
Encaustic Cube Collage
I’ve been trying to work on my collage work. I feel like I do better with collage when it’s not embedded in encaustic medium, and so I’ve been practicing adding elements within different layers of encaustic work. Adding paper itself can be a bit tricky in encaustic- if you fuse too much, the edges can float to the surface and ruin the effect. It’s take a lot of practice to fuse paper correctly so that it stays embedded in the wax. Though this collage is simple with just a few layers, I’m pleased with the result I achieved here. I do have more work and experimenting to do before I’ve really mastered encaustic collage, but I can see my progress and that’s such a great feeling!
Adding the shellac was fun, too. I have a heavy hand when it comes to shellac burns, and I’ve been working on keeping the torch low and further away from the surface when I burn. My instinct is to go over the whole surface of shellac really closely, and when I do that, I lose the more distinctive cells. I’m pretty pleased with the burns in this piece. And having them layered through the cubes was really fun to do. I think my next piece, I’ll add a few more layers of shellac to the next cube!
The shellac in this piece is colored with dry pigments I purchased from Earth Pigments. (I use these pigments to color my medium, as well.) I scoop a little shellac into a small disposable cup, add a bit of color, and mix it with a foam brush. When you’re done, make sure to cover the cup of shellac, as well as the brush. Once the brush dries, it won’t be usable anymore, and even the covered shellac will only be good for so long, so try not to mix too much for one piece.
What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
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