Encaustic Painting demo with John Vandebrooke at the Seattle DANIEL SMITH Store
Last Sunday’s FREE Art demo at the DANIEL SMITH Seattle Store was How To Paint in Encaustic with John Vandebrooke. It was fascinating to see how wide a creative net John casts when incorporating materials and methods for his Encaustic Paintings.
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John works in the European way working with hot tools rather than the older method of using a brush dipped into melted wax. John first introduced us to some of the art supplies that he uses: a special low heat iron and a stylus (200 degrees) which he uses for melting his large collection of
Colored Encaustic Waxes, thick pile of kleenex for “burping” his iron of the excess wax that collects, the “tractor edge” computer paper he uses beneath the paper he is working on to keep a constantly clean surface to work on, he tears off used sheets to expose a fresh, clean sheet to work on.
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With the iron hot, John “wipes” or draws the wax directly onto the iron, then “irons” the melted wax onto the paper he is “painting” on. He can wipe or “paint” a single wax color onto the iron, or 2nd and 3rd wax colors to sort of mix or blend the wax colors on to the iron, then iron the wax onto his paper. Moving the iron in different patterns on the paper allows John to manipulate how the wax deposits onto the paper. As an example, John showed us how moving the iron in a figure eight pattern makes hills, and a sharp upward movement with the edge of the iron makes a vertical mark that may become the trunk of a tree. Later in the demo John showed us how to make “rocks in a stream” by wiping a few wax colors onto the iron, then using the tip of the iron, and a piece of scrap cardstock masking part of his paper (this makes the straight edge of where the water meets the bottom of the rock) he makes a windshield wiper blade motion to deposit the wax to create a rounded rock shape. Then, while the wax is still warm, removes the scrap of cardstock, then takes his finger and wipes it along the straight bottom edge, smearing it, to give the impression of water flowing by the rock.Â
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John works in the spirit of playfulness when creating his paintings and is willing to integrate almost any materials he comes across such as:
Japanese papers,
decorative papers, tissue paper, watercolor paper (with watercolor painted on it too) doilies, inkjet images of photos, coffee filters, old discarded court papers, rubber stamped images ones he either buys or
carves from
Safety Kut and whatever else catches his eye. Since the many of the waxes are translucent (the darks are less) images are visible. Kleenex is his all time favorite material to incorporate (he told us he “loves painting with kleenex”) and it was interesting to learn how flexible an Art material it can be. Here is a list of different art supplies that he uses in different ways for different pieces:
R&F Encaustics,
Gold Gesso,
Iridescent Watercolors, Copy Paper,
Golden Digital/Transfer Gels,
Hand-made papers,
Oil Paints,
Ampersand Cradle Bords,Â
Canvas Board,
Iron Oxide paint, Glue Gun, Gloss Card Stock, Alcohol Inks, Mica Paints,
DS Beeswax Pastilles,
DS Damar CrystalsÂ
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Some of Johns creative tips for making images are:
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Mixing kleenex into the wax, what is not absorbed is rubbed off.
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Collaging different papers into the wax.
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Dipping the entire paper into hot wax to coat.
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Make “hot paper” by laying the paper onto electric griddle, then directly apply your wax to the hot paper and “draw” with the wax for dramatic lines (similar to using the
DANIEL SMITH Watercolor Sticks onto wet WC paper).
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Old, “chewed up” wine corks make wonderful stamps.
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He “embosses” an image on thin copper plates, then shapes that plate to fit over his iron and applies the wax and the relief makes interesting images he can manipulate.
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Encaustic wax on copper plate for a different surface to paint on.
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Angelina (thin, translucent, iridescent packing material) can be incorporated into the wax and can also melt into it for interesting effects.
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Crumple typing paper, flatten it out again, gently iron on the wax which will adhere to the raise parts, then apply watercolor paint which will settle into the valleys making interesting designs that can be collaged with.
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Cut up old dvd’s, heat them up and manipulate then incorporate into the encaustic painting.
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For fine details, freehand draw wax with the hot stylus or for those who don’t like drawing, “color” with the stylus onto an inkjet image.
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Using a hot air gun (for stripping paint) you can focus hot air on the wax and manipulate the wax.
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John is able to almost Sumi Paint with the wax using the hot iron in similar gestural motions like a sumi painter would with a brush.
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Buff out the wax when cool to give the piece some shine on it.
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Do a wax abstract background, then apply kleenex to the warm wax, then paint parts of the kleenex with watercolor or acrylic paint which sticks to the absorbent kleenex.
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Makes a kind of “mono-print” by waxing up shiny cardstock with an image, then takes another pieces of shiny cardstock and places it shiny side to the waxed up image on the other paper, then irons the back and the first image will transfer (at least partially) onto the blank paper, and then you can work over two images.
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Towards the end of the
FREE Art demo, John shared with us his “Idea Box” which is filled with lots of ideas, many I listed above. It was fun to watch, listen and learn. John manipulates the images in anyway he can imagine, using whatever materials that piques his interest and has fun with the process!
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Thank you John!
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Every Day,  Express Yourself with ART….
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~Deborah Burns
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