Hmm. That’s… not exactly what I was expecting, actually.
I’m… a little bit enchanted, a little bit horrified. Yeah, kind of both. I think I may like it, but it’s going to take some getting used to. I wasn’t quite ready for something so… unclean-looking? I may try another where I just mix the volcanic ash with hide glue instead of beeswax–a distemper in place of the encaustic–I think that would look more like what I had in mind (more ashy, less… fleshy), but I don’t know. The encaustic mixture is really bodily and scary and kind of gross, and I’m starting to think maybe that’s a good thing? or could be? I’m going to have to sit with this one for awhile.
Encaustic is… kind of a trip to work with. I think the recipe I had (which, admittedly, I didn’t follow precisely, since I was working in really small batches, not knowing how much of it I would actually need) could have used more stand oil and varnish to keep it pliable for longer. I’m also sure it’s much easier to manage if you work on a flat surface and… work with pigments that actually suspend, rather than sinking to the bottom. But it was fun. Bizarre, to be certain, but fun.
Oh, and for the record, if you’re painting in encaustic on a 3D surface and you don’t have a heat gun and you want to burn in, you probably don’t want to just stick it in the oven at 250 degrees and walk away. Not so much. I couldn’t help but laugh when I opened the door and found that 3/4 of the wax had just run off onto the baking sheet. I don’t know what I was expecting it to do, mind you, but it wasn’t that.
