A Piece of Me #38, encaustic over pastiglia on panel. 21 x 13.3 cm or 5 1/4 x 8 1/4 in.

A Piece of Me #38 underdrawing in pen and ink.

Compositionally, this panel had some interesting elements: a long off-white slash on the left side, some highly contrasted graphical elements at the top and earth toned trapezoids to the right. This could get interesting. The panel was prepared with a layer of pastiglia sculpting, so the shapes were already lightly formed. In addition, of course, the india ink underdrawing was available to do its magic.

I began first with the off-white section. It developed quickly using the iron/cheesecloth method to lay in and melt off a woven texture. I really like how the verticality of the strokes came to accentuate the linen weave. Then I began to depict the strong contrasts above, middle. I started using a small bristle brush but then brought out the electrical encaustic pen nib to draw in the fine lines. Finally, the gray and brown tiles for the background areas on the right. There, a judicious application of paint and iron/cheesecloth brought out a variegated mottled pattern which also allowed for the underdrawing to show through in places.

Nice. A few hours work and I’m satisfied. It will be interesting to see how it integrates into the final assemblage. Technical write up of using encaustic for an indirect painting technique here.