Photo-Encaustic: Introduction
Encaustic medium is beeswax mixed with damar resin. When combined with a photo, you can create a range of photo-encaustic works.
For example: You print an image on matte paper, and the photo is subsequently brushed with or is dipped in a pool of melted encaustic medium. Much like a traditional encaustic painting, you can then add color, incise or cut lines in the wax for filling with colored paint or add materials to create a collage. Encaustic medium can also make a photo, the paper it’s printed on, translucent. And if you sandwich two identical photos treated with medium, the combination can have added depth, density and luminosity—it pops. This combination is then back rather than front lit.
The photos in this gallery are such sandwiched images. In contrast, the photos in the next gallery are glued to a board to be painted/saturated with wax and subsequently manipulated. You can also use other techniques to transfer a photo to a medium.
An excellent resource for materials, including safety information, is R&F Paints at http://www.rfpaints.com.
Read MoreFor example: You print an image on matte paper, and the photo is subsequently brushed with or is dipped in a pool of melted encaustic medium. Much like a traditional encaustic painting, you can then add color, incise or cut lines in the wax for filling with colored paint or add materials to create a collage. Encaustic medium can also make a photo, the paper it’s printed on, translucent. And if you sandwich two identical photos treated with medium, the combination can have added depth, density and luminosity—it pops. This combination is then back rather than front lit.
The photos in this gallery are such sandwiched images. In contrast, the photos in the next gallery are glued to a board to be painted/saturated with wax and subsequently manipulated. You can also use other techniques to transfer a photo to a medium.
An excellent resource for materials, including safety information, is R&F Paints at http://www.rfpaints.com.
This is a sandwich of two photos—a B&W photo in the front and an identical photo, in color, in the back. Without backlight, it looks like a B&W photo (image left). But when you add the light, the color shows through (image right). When placed in a location with changing light, the image will transform from B&W- to color-back to B&W as the light fades out.