A Piece of Me #08, india ink underdrawing over collage,

A Piece of Me #08, encaustic over collage on panel.21 x 13.3 cm or 8 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.

I approached this panel yesterday in the afternoon. The subject matter was an architectural background but it contained a lot more detail than the previous pieces had. There were a number of planes of light and shadow and even two of the insets contained decorative filigree. So this presented a challenge. The panel had already been prepared with a collage to emphasize the layout. I expected it to help me along the way but wasn’t exactly sure how. The india ink underdrawing, too, indicated the planes and their shadows, plus some of the filigree work. So I turned on my electric pallet and set to it.

I ended up using a yellowish tint for the large foreground planes in contrast to a slightly warmer tint for some planes further back. The two created a nice, gentle contrast to one another. Those two elements along with the planes of gray for the shadows sealed the deal. I let the india ink sneak through to sketchily spell out the filigree. After about two hours I was done. I’m really pleased.

It’s very Tonalist – and very touchy-feely, too.

Description of the whole project here. Technical write up of using encaustic for an indirect painting technique here.