Working Larger

My first challenge of 2012 was to paint larger using the encaustic medium, and this piece is my newest addition to the Water Life series.

"Turbulent Seas", 30" x 60" diptych, encaustic on panel

Note to self: if I am going to work larger painting with wax then I need to have much larger quantities of encaustic medium.

I had ordered additional medium for this project because I knew coating both of the 30" x 30" panels with 3 layers prior to adding pigment would require plenty of wax but I used up the entire 333 ml block before I even added any pigmented wax. Fortunately I had back up quantities but I never expected to use so much so quickly into the painting process. The other note to self was that I was grateful I had my torch for fusing because the heat gun covers a much smaller area and it took a long time to fuse the entire surface of both panels.

I used painters tape to protect the edges, I wanted to keep it clean looking because I do not plan on adding a frame, the cradled panel will frame itself.

After applying 3 layers of clear wax medium I am finally ready to add color.

Every addition of colored wax is combined with a layer of clear medium that is then fused with heat.
It's a building process and everything took much longer because of the size involved.

Now that I have completed this project, I am ready to start the next one with the same motivation to continue working larger, this next project will be a watercolor.