Determined to Fly - SOC3 week 3

I enjoyed letting go and making last weeks winged girl so much, I decided to make another one this week before my short attention span kicks in. This week's winning colors were lime green and purple.  I used basically the same process, although I did catch myself getting more perfectionisty (if it's not a word, it should be), and would have to try and stop myself.  This week's girl is a little more confident about trying to fly with her (encaustic wax) wings, because her butterfly friend is whispering advice in her ear...

 

Don't Fear Your Wings - SOC Week 2

Sometimes I feel the need to force myself to unclench, and let go of perfectionism, and just create as if I were a child again.  This does not come naturally to me, but at the same time I'm often drawn to art created this way.  So for this week's challenge I roughly tore out pieces from my collection of old papers, the rough shape of a head and dress, and created and painted a girl in one of my journals, with wings she's feeling intimidated about using.

I love the old papers against the bright pink and orange, the winning colors for this week and ones I wouldn't normally think of using together much - that's the beauty of challenges like Summer of Color that force us out of our comfort zone a little.  Her wings were created using white encaustic wax.

 

If you're not already participating in Summer of Color, click the link at the top of my sidebar to come play!

Is It Wrong to Deface a Globe?

It felt kinda wrong, but I did it anyway.  Admittedly it's kinda old but not an expensive one, and as I first touched a paintbrush to it I kind of held my breath to see if the globe police were going to descend on me.  But they didn't, so I just kept playing. I've had this a while with the intention of doing something with it, but I found it particularly difficult to figure out WHAT to do...I'd sit with it in front of me as I relaxed in front of the TV, just looking at it occasionally hoping to be inspired.  I finally just started - just put paint on it and followed my instinct, and this is where it ended up.  I think I like it....

I did something which felt pretty brave - I put a layer of wax all over it. You can't really tell in the picture, but it really adds a lot, I'm glad I did it, but what an adventure. One of those situations where the more you try to fix it, the worse it gets, with rivulets of wax running everywhere. But eventually, with only a few burned fingers, I managed it.

This is another piece that I'd started last Sunday during my art marathon, got it finished and waxed yesterday...Unfortunately there's a lot of glare from the wax.... Playing with texture...

And because this picture was in with these art ones I downloaded, and you're so good about indulging my occasional dog pictures, here are all my boys lazing around together in the heat...

Back to the Art

My hands are looking more like normal again - paint, ink and wax spattered.  But it felt good to get back to creating something.  I took some art materials with me on vacation, but as usual I didn't touch them.  I always imagine that I'll want to sit and look reflectively at the scenery and sketch, but it never happens. I'm usually too deep into a good book when I'm on vacation.

This is on a 2" thick canvas, not sure why I didn't take a picture from the side, I like how the sides turned out.  Lots of layers, collage materials, and wax. Can you see the face?

Mint Chocolate Chip - Summer of Color

This weeks Summer of Color ice cream inspiration over at Kristin's blog is mint chocolate chip.  Yummm....  I'm loving the sheer variety and creativity I'm getting to see as I look through everyone's blogs for these challenges.  I had no idea where I was going when I sat down to start this piece, but somehow I ended up with this.

On wood, with old papers, old handmade lace, wax, a frozen Charlotte, and misc bits and pieces.

Some of you may be thinking hey, that piece in the picture is awfully familiar - a little soon to re-post about it huh?   Well yes, a few posts ago I talked about this encaustic piece I had just finished, and about how I made the dragonfly using a cookie cutter and pouring the wax into it, so that the result is that the butterfly sits about a 1/4" above the base.  I just set this piece aside since then to let the wax cure, and a few days ago I was buffing the wax and thinking that I wished the dragonly had more detail.  Then I realized that all I had to do was carve into it and give it detail (duh...)  So since some of you had asked me further questions about the cookie cutter 3D shape and how to do it, I thought I'd show you how it turned out...

So, just like you can do on the main wax surface, I just took something sharp and carved into it. Then I rubbed black paint into the areas I'd carved, then wiped it back off leaving the paint in the incised areas.  Then, since I was on a roll, I couldn't resist giving it little metal antennae.  

Okay, I swear - no more posts about this one!

Encaustic Paint

I know that I've waxed poetic about encaustic wax before (he he, get it?), but I had never tried encaustic paint before, in spite of having the intention, and the actual little paint blocks, for quite some time.  Last weekend I decided to dive in and try it, and it was a lot of fun.  I've been thinking about it for so long that I was kind of overwhelmed by all the possible things I could do ( actually, I spend too much of my "studio" time in that state), but finally managed to settle down to something.  Making the Dragonfly was really fun - I know you can't tell from head on, but it's about 1/4" high.  You press a cookie cutter into the wax layers til there's a tight seal, then pour melted wax in, it only takes a few minutes to dry, and then you pull the cookie cutter off.  I've done that before, but much more satifying with colored wax!  And brushing colored wax over the circle stencil was really fun too.

 I think that all the mixed media goodness we love - layering papers, image transfers, and incorporating 3D objects is just that much more fun with wax.  If you've been tempted, don't wait as long as I did - you don't have to have much equipment, I hardly have any.   And I'd be happy to help if you have any questions...