Foothills in Wax

I wanted to talk a bit more about my wax collages. I am in the experimenting stage, but finished this 5x7" wax collage on clayboard. I like clayboard as it is well suited to all different types of media. I'd read it accepts wax very well, so wanted to try it. I like mixing the acrylics with the collage as they are permanent so when you add another layer of wax it doesn't move it...thus far in my experimenting that is...:) So on Foothills in Wax I decided to paint the sky with acrylics. It acts like watercolor on Bristol board when you use a lot of water. FUN! I applied paper to the middle ground foothills and then used a bit of oil pastel for the light areas on those hills...then came back later with acrylic and put in the few trees. I then fused that layer. Fusing is where you brush on more hot wax and then hit it with the heat gun until it is shiny. It sort of smooths out the surface. I mostly use refined beeswax as it doesn't yellow, but like both refined and natural. I've started using a bit of damar resin mixed with the wax. I'm not sure how I like it yet. I suppose it cements the surface a bit more, but I've learned that it makes application of acrylic a bit more difficult. It wants to bead up a bit. I tore some darker papers for the foreground trees and then applied a bit of acrylic for highlights. I didn't want to put too much there as it would take away from that middle ground I like. So, the top is the finished version, the bottom is before I added the acrylic to foreground trees...hmmm...the jury is still out on this one...but I learned a lot, so it was valuable for that anyway. The photos don't show the texture that you get with this medium, but you can imagine as you are all brilliant at visual imagery!

I encourage you to click on the photo to really see it close-up, you get a better idea of what it looks like.

Welcome to my newest follower...we are ever closer to our next drawing!

Next week I will be visiting my mother in Oklahoma to check on her and my dad and see how they are, and I've decided to do something a bit different. I'll be talking about it in the coming days...I think it will be fun!