Encaustic painting

For the last couple of days I've been trying to figure out what I wanted to work on this year.  Bookbinding is on the top of my list, but I can only make so many books for myself, so I had to think about what else I wanted to try working on. 

 

I've always have liked the organic feel of encaustic paintings.  Encaustic painting is the process of applying hot wax to the surface of a canvas or paper.   Last year I had bought a R & F encaustic start up set and put off using it, or I should say I was intimidated with working with hot wax. 

 

To work through my fear factor of the hot wax, I thought I'd start off small.  I made a drawing journal just for this purpose.  To explore and mess up paper without worrying about ruining good paper or canvas.

 

My first attempt was to draw Sophie with Crayola crayons. 

After drawing Sophie I got my heat gun and moved it over the drawing so the crayons would melt into the paper.  At first I didn't think anything happened, but upon feeling the surface, I could tell that the crayon had melted.  I really don't like all the noise that is generated by using the heat gun, so I did some research and thought I'd like a encaustic iron to apply the hot melted crayon.  After watching a couple of You tube demo's, I decided that the iron wasn't something I wanted to work with. 

 

Then today as I was walking around Joann's I came across Purple Cows Melt hot tool.  It was 50% off so I bought it to see what this small flat iron tip could do.  Here's a link:

 

http://shop.purplecows.net/c/sizzle-melt-accessories?pkey=153de62965c1051a404fbb6b7d1596fc&ckey=1037394.0.0.0.0

 

With the Melt hot tool I was able to apply the crayon to the flat iron and then move the flat iron over my drawing of Sophie.  It took a couple of applications to get the crayon spread over the drawing.  I know with a little practice I'll get the results I'm looking for, but for a first try--it's not too bad.