New and Improved En-Caustic Art

This week at my art class we started to use different tools to create our pictures. We used the hot plate last week.

When I use the hot plate I put the color that I want down. Typically I would do the main color that I want. With one picture, I put down mostly red, a little orange and some yellow- for the sky. When I wipe it on my paper, I can never seem to get the back and foreground right, so it looks like a sunset. I would try to wipe it again and end up with a mixture of color that isnt close to what I wanted.

This week we started to play around with and iron, yes the type you iron your clothes with. My teacher had a super old school one that didnt have any of the steam holes in it. Another student brought in an iron that had the holes, and we wrapped tin foil over it. In using these irons, I was able to manipulate the wax to do more of what I wanted.

Here are some of the pictures that I have made so far.

First is a landscape scene:

















Next is my fortress of solitude:

















When I use the iron, I color on the hot iron, and the wax melts. Then I lower my iron like I am going to iron my shirt. In doing this, I am able to see what direction I am moving, and how it looks. I am also able to go over the wax again with the iron and move the wax from one spot to another if I dont like what I have. It mostly gives me the ability to do fore and backgrounds.