Demo Video: Encaustic Medium
R&F Encaustic Medium is composed of 100% USP beeswax and damar resin. It is available in 1 lb., 2 lb., 5 lb., and 10 lb. bags, as well as 333 ml cakes.
Encaustic medium is an essential component to encaustic painting. It can be used underneath a painting to build up the surface of your substrate, added to paint to extend it or create a glaze, or cast and sculpted in any number of ways. In our latest demo video we highlight basic application, as well as a technique using tape and medium to create a clean edge on the surface of your encaustic painting.
Materials used in this demo video include: R&F heat gun; R&F 16" x 16" heated palette; R&F hake brushes; R&F encaustic paint in the following colors - King's Blue and Phthalo Turquoise; R&F encaustic medium; painter's tape; and Ampersand Encausticbord.
To begin working with encaustic medium, melt some using a palette cup or sprinkle it directly on your heated palette. Before applying a layer of medium, warm your panel or painting so that your wax flows smoothly across the surface.
R&F encaustic paint is highly pigmented. Encaustic medium can be added to either opaque or transparent colors to create beautiful glazes and extend colors. If your paint feels thick, try adding some medium. Adding medium to paint helps encaustic paint to flow more smoothly. The more medium you add, the more see through your paint will become.
R&F encaustic paint is highly pigmented. Encaustic medium can be added to either opaque or transparent colors to create beautiful glazes and extend colors. If your paint feels thick, try adding some medium.
Encaustic medium can be used to create clear layers between sections of your painting, preserving marks, drawings, and other imagery below. Because encaustic is not clear, but has a natural opacity to it, how you use it will affect the appearance of your work. For greater clarity and less opacity, apply thin layers. To make marks recede, creating a sense of optical depth, apply thicker layers.
There are many uses for encaustic medium. Encaustic medium can be used to help seal the edges of tape before applying encaustic paint to create a clean line or edge. This is best done as a surface technique because you cannot maintain that clean edge if you apply heat or additional layers of medium to it.
Here are the steps:
Lightly warm the surface of your painting.
Apply blue painter’s tape (or other easily removable low tack tape).
Brush a layer or two of encaustic medium across the section where you will be painting. Be sure the medium covers the lip of tape completely. If you apply more than one layer, fuse carefully to be sure you have bonded both layers to the layer below. (If you fuse too much, the tape might lift from the surface and allow medium to travel underneath.)
Apply one or two layers of encaustic paint and fuse lightly.
Allow the paint to cool slightly before removing the tape. If you remove the tape while the painting is still very hot, some of the paint underneath sections of tape may come up as well. Allowing the painting to cool down for 10 to 20 minutes will enable you to remove the tape easily. (Don’t leave the tape on overnight or your paint might chip and crack when you remove it.)
We hope you are enjoying these demo videos. If you have ideas about what you’d like to see, give us a shout at office@rfpaints.com.
Enjoy and keep painting.